Community hunt on Little Bone helps feed over 200 people

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Through an annual community hunt initiative, Little Bone First Nation provided food packages to elders and families in the community, along with their urban members within the southeast region.

“The economy is in a pretty rough spot, us as First Nation hunters, we have the ability to care for our people with this way,” voiced Cameron Peepeetch, head of Little Bone Hunting Council.

“In a sense we would like to help everyone, but we can’t. But within our inheritance rights, we are able to help people in our community and put our community first. I think we did a good job this year.”

Through hours and days of preparation, the nation’s hunting council was able to gather approximately 2,500 pounds of elk and moose meat. In addition, food items such as bread, eggs, potatoes, and beef were also supplied through local businesses.

“We have a couple pounds of ground beef. We purchased it from a farmer local to our community. We were able to link up with Sask. Acre Farms, another farm business local to us, we were able to purchase 80 or 90 dozen eggs as part of our handout,” explained Peepeetch.

"As well, we were able to link up with the Prairie Dome who is local to our community and we bought a couple pounds of potatoes as well. We reached out to Nellie's Bakery in Melville where we got 125 loaves of bread."

Aside from bringing the community together, the hunt also helps to address the food insecurity happening in the area, a representative from Zagime Anishabek Child & Family Wellness stated.

"It's not just in our community it's widespread,” First Nation representative Misty Smoker said.

“The cost of living has become incredibly high, incredibly difficult for our families to make ends meet. What Cameron and his hunting council have done this year, has helped our department help our nation feed our people and we're just so incredibly grateful."

Smoker emphasized that teaching youth about traditional hunting practices is another major benefit to come from Little Bone Hunting Council.

"As a band member, I was born and raised on Little Bone myself, watching Cameron and his team it means a great deal to us because I know that they are doing it in our traditional ways,” she expressed.

“For someone that works in the helping field I am really grateful for that because we do need to get back to those traditional ways. They’ve done incredibly well.”

Peepeetch adds that the group is mindful about the environment during hunting season.

"Over the last year or two, our council has obtained permission to roughly 50,000 to 60,000 acres of farmland,” he explained.

“We’re able to be really responsible about how many animals we take out of certain areas and what kind of animals we're taking out of those areas. In the long-run, animal management is a good thing to be responsible about because you're not taking everything out of one area and there's nothing there for next year."

This year, Peepeetch said the nation was able to feed over 200 people.

With the initiative continuing to grow larger every year, he expressed his personal connection to the annual hunt.

"As a young guy I noticed my dad would shoot a few deer, but only take half home. I noticed and started asking, he would give some away to my aunties, give some to his cousins. He taught me how to share," Peepeetch shared.

"My dad has five sons, so we took that, and the idea of other nations, and we formed a hunting council among ourselves. Instead of just taking care of our family and families close to us, we decided we can take care of our whole community. It gives us a sense of pride and responsibility taking care of our whole community."