At the mouth of the river.
In Anishinaabemowin, that is what Sagkeeng means. It is what the people of Sagkeeng First Nation have called their homeland, located on the lush banks of the powerful Winnipeg River, since time immemorial.
The Canadian government would rename that land the Fort Alexander Indian Reserve, as federal agents carved new territorial boundaries out of the countryside in the aftermath of the signing of Treaty 1.
But in the language of the people who call it home, it has always been Sagkeeng.
JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Winnipeg River in Powerview and Sagkeeng.
Ever since Sagkeeng Chief Kakakepenaise signed Treaty 1 at Lower Fort Garry in 1871, band members have gathered for an annual celebration known as Treaty Days during the last week of July.
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On Wednesday morning workers with Toronto-based AltoMaxx began their second day of searching for unmarked graves in the area near the former Fort Alexander residential school on the Sagkeeng First Nation, an Anishinaabe community about 120 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg, that sits just next to the town of Powerview-Pine Falls.
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And while high-tech ground-penetrating drones flew over the site, community members and elders kept watch over a sacred fire that will stay lit day and night as long as the searchers continue their work and on the same spot where the work is being done.