Canada's Sports Hall of Fame Inductee: Chief Dr. Wilton Littlechild

Chief Dr. Wilton Littlechild is a powerful example of how sport can shape a life. Born on the Ermineskin Cree Nation Reserve in Alberta in 1944, Wilton was taken from his family at age six and forced into the residential school system for 14 years. He drew strength and resilience from playing ice hockey, football, baseball, and swimming to help endure the institutional abuse. Many nights I would go for a run just to run away from the abuse. But I started feeling good about running, you know, it was a positive experience. And because I started enjoying the exercise by running away from abuse, And running instead to sport, it literally saved my life. In 1964, Wilton attended the University of Alberta and competed as a member of the ice hockey and diving teams. He's a two-time recipient of the Tom Longboat Award, recognizing the most outstanding Indigenous athletes in Canada. Wilton has also been a central figure in advancing Indigenous sport, helping to create both the North American Indigenous Games and the World Indigenous Games. What gives me hope is to visualize a 10-year-old child, boy or girl. What do they look like? Are they happy? And if they're smiling, what's helping them to smile? Every child has a right to play, but more importantly, every child has a right to be happy. And our work should be, the mission of that should be, to make children happy. And that's the hope and dream I have going forward. Chief Dr. Wilton Littlechild was inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame in the Builder category in 2018, making him among the few to now receive Canada's highest sporting honour twice.