It was a day filled with fun, games, fellowship, and honor as board members and families from the Weyburn Lacrosse Association met with the Standing Buffalo Dakota First Nation for a unique Indigenous Peoples Day experience.

"We just want to extend a heartfelt thank you to the Dakota Lacrosse Association, their athletes, and the families for welcoming our teams, coaches, and families into their home to celebrate National Indigenous Peoples Day," expressed Randy Labrecque, Registrar for the Weyburn Lacrosse Association. "Your welcoming and caring friendship is something that we look forward to strengthening year over year."

Throughout the day on June 21st there were a number of lacrosse games that were played between the two organizations in the 10U, 12U, 14U, 16U, and three on three categories.

"It was a celebration of Indigenous Peoples where we were able to experience a bit of their culture, we had a prayer from one of the elders, we had a message from Chief Roberta, and we had a traditional drum and song group there as well," Labrecque shared. "But more importantly we had a moment of silence for the 215 residential school children that never made it home. So that was a very important aspect of our event. After that, we were able to play a little bit of lacrosse in memory of those children and then shared in some fellowship afterward. So it was a really powerful event for us."

The event was facilitated by Jeff Shattler, a star in the National Lacrosse League who has an Inuit and Ojibwe heritage. Shattler is a transition player for the Saskatchewan Rush who was also playing in the exhibition games between Weyburn and Standing Buffalo using his first-ever traditional wooden lacrosse stick.

Aside from the events with Weyburn Lacrosse the Standing Buffalo Dakota Nation also held talent shows, various other sports activities, and they watched a documentary about the Iroquois Nationals lacrosse team titled Spirit Game: Pride of a Nation.

The Standing Buffalo's Fighting Sioux Lacrosse program began in 2008 and quickly became a powerhouse program-winning League, Provincial and National Championships.

This prestigious location for this lacrosse program is located in the beautiful Qu'Appelle Valley roughly 50 minutes from Regina.

The Chief and the Tribal Council supports the Lacrosse program because of the strong dividends it provides back to the members of the community and because they strive to preserve the Indigenous Peoples' heritage.

"It was a great first experience for us as we never get to have these two organizations meet like this and we plan to continue this relationship with them in the years to come," exclaimed Labrecque. "We look forward to hosting them in our community next year."

He added that this event was important as a first step to bringing communities together and told that they plan to continue connecting with more organizations in the future.

He also said that this was a great example for the children to accept different cultures and to learn about their different heritages and history.

During the event on Monday, Weyburn Lacrosse presented the Standing Buffalo with a custom-made and painted wooden plaque with their Fighting Sioux logo.

In return, the Standing Buffalo presented the Weyburn club with a Thrashers pendant as a gift.

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Below we have a video from the day that features a traditional song that was sung in remembrance and celebration for National Indigenous Peoples Day by the Standing Buffalo Dakota First Nation. (Video courtesy of the Weyburn Lacrosse Association)