Fifty seven years ago, on the night of 27 February 1954 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, Fred Sasakamoose became the first full-blooded treaty Indian to play in the NHL, at barely 20 years of age. Just off the train from Moose Jaw where his junior team, the Canucks, had been knocked out of the playoffs, he joined the Chicago Blackhawks and wore their logo – an Indian wearing an Indian.
“ That game was the greatest moment of my life,” Sasakamoose would say later. “People in the balconies, cheering – where did they come from? My reserve had only 200 people and there were only a few thousand in Moose Jaw. It was wonderful but I was scared.”
He would also remember that while warming up for his first game he was told to go to the penalty box for a phone call.
“How the hell do you pronounce your name?” boomed the familiar voice of Foster Hewitt.
“Saskatchewan Moose?” ( For the record, Toronto beat Chicago 4-2 that night.)
On his first game in Chicago, the organist played Indian Love Call.
The Indian kid had made it.
The NHL season ended and Sasakamoose went home to the Sandy Lake ( SK) Reserve, which is where he wanted to be but which had been denied him. First, the government took him away at seven, yes, seven years of age, to spend the next nine years at the Indian Residential School at Duck Lake SK . Then hockey took him even further away.
He played eleven games in the NHL that first year but never made it back, which was not unusual in the six team league where hundreds of top-notch players were left endlessly in the minors.
He did play hockey for many more years before coming home to Sandy Lake, where he continues to live. He served as band chief from 1980 to 1984 and has played a strong role in helping and encouraging youngsters on the reserve.
There are three connections in this story with Eston, SK, where I live. I played against Fred when he was with the Moose Jaw Canucks and I was with the U of S Huskies. A fracas occurred and I paired up with Fred, not realizing that he had a plaster cast from knuckles to elbow, with which he bopped me on the head. Game over.
Fred’s first junior team was the Bellevue Miners in the Crows Nest Pass area of Alberta. Vying with him for a spot on the team was Herb Stevenson from Eston but when Herb broke his foot he went home and Fred stayed, moving on to Moose Jaw the next year. Fred, in both Moose Jaw and Chicago, played with Fred Hucul, probably the best hockey player ever developed in Eston.
Well done, Fred Sasakamoose. I hope the hockey world will remember.
Note: For anyone interested in First Nations players I can recommend First Nations Hockey Players by Will Cardinal published by Lone Pine Publishing, Edmonton
Loading...
