Indigenous hockey players from across province meet in Edmonton for Native Hockey championship
Native Hockey Alberta wrapped this weekend what may have been its largest ever championships.
Two hundred sixty-five teams participated in the tournament that used all of Edmonton's available rinks from Thursday to Sunday.
"When I was younger, it didn't seem like such a big thing. But as I grew up and started noticing more… everybody comes from everywhere," O'Chiese First Nation player Kenyin Bigchild told CTV News Edmonton on Sunday.
"It's definitely made me see how committed we are as Indigenous people," added player Roddy Whitequills from Kainai Nation.
According to Native Hockey Alberta's president, Clyde Goodswimmer, about 5,000 players and coaches were involved in the weekend.
Teams come every year from all corners of the province, from Little Red River Cree Nation in the north to the Blood Tribe in the south.
"What they do just to get here, what they do to fundraise and how they get here, it's just phenomenal," Goodswimmer, who's been involved in the league since its inception in 1993, said.
Now, his grandchildren play in the tournament.
He told CTV News Edmonton he has friends he only sees once a year at the tournament – which is part of what makes it special.
"It's just a great feeling where we all come together. We play against each other, but we all come together after the game and make new friends."
Jehren Thomas, a player from O'Chiese First Nation, said, "Looking out there and seeing my family and stuff that I don't usually never get to see, it's just a different feeling."
Whitequills added, "I just love playing for my reserve."
With files from CTV News Edmonton's Marek Tkach
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Liberal MP says she's leaving politics over disrespectful dialogue, threats, misogyny
Liberal MP Pam Damoff says she won't run again in the next federal election, saying she has experienced misogyny, disrespectful dialogue in politics and threats to her life.
Concerns about plexiglass prompt inspections at some Loblaws locations in Ottawa
Inspections are underway at more than one Loblaws location in Ottawa after complaints were filed about tall plexiglass barriers.
Federal employees will be required to spend 3 days a week in the office
Starting in September, public servants in the core public administration will be required to work in the office a minimum of three days a week. The Treasury Board Secretariat says executives will need to be in the office four days per week.
OPP officer said 'someone's going to get hurt' before wrong-way Hwy. 401 crash
As multiple Durham police cruisers were chasing a robbery suspect on the wrong side of Highway 401 Monday night, an Ontario Provincial Police officer shared his concerns, telling a dispatcher, "Someone's going to get hurt."
Five human skeletons, missing hands and feet, found outside house of Nazi leader Hermann Göring
Archeologists have unearthed the skeletons of five people, missing their hands and feet, at a former Nazi military base in Poland.
Poilievre returns to House unrepentant for calling Trudeau 'wacko,' Speaker not resigning
An unrepentant Pierre Poilievre returned to the House of Commons on Wednesday to pepper the prime minister about his drug decriminalization policies after being booted the day prior for refusing to take back calling Justin Trudeau 'wacko' over his approach to the issue.
Toddler of Phoenix first responder dies after bounce house goes airborne
A two-year-old child died after a strong gust of wind sent the bounce house he was in airborne and into a neighbouring lot in central Arizona, the Pinal County Sheriff's Office said.
Canada's most wanted fugitive arrested in P.E.I. in connection with Toronto homicide
A suspect in a fatal shooting in Toronto’s east end last summer has been arrested in Charlottetown, just one week after he topped a list of Canada’s most wanted fugitives.
Plane overshoots runway at airport in St. John's, N.L., no injuries reported
Investigators from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada were in St. John's, N.L., Wednesday after a plane overshot the main runway at the city's airport.