Tributes poured in this week as St. Albert residents learned of the passing of one of their most tireless Métis advocates.
Métis elder Thomas Dale Lloyd Ghostkeeper died in his Woodlands-area home May 14 from end-stage kidney failure. He was 67.
Residents might know Ghostkeeper as the host of St. Albert’s National Indigenous Peoples Day celebrations since its inception nine years ago. They might also have seen him raising the Métis Flag at St. Albert Place during Métis Week, cutting the ribbon to open the Healing Garden in 2017, or advising city officials on Indigenous cultural matters.
Ghostkeeper was a co-host at the inaugural National Gathering of Elders in 2017, which saw some 5,000 Indigenous elders gather in Edmonton to share traditions. He was also a member of the provincial Elders Wisdom Circle that helped create Alberta’s Indigenous Cultural Understanding Framework.
Ghostkeeper was involved in pretty much every Indigenous-related event in this region for decades, having most recently served as an elder/adviser to the Cultivating Reconciliation course held at the St. Albert Public Library, said family friend Sharon Morin.
“When you went out in the community to do things, he was one of those fixtures you always saw.”
Mayor Cathy Heron and city council posted a tribute to Ghostkeeper on the city’s official Facebook page Tuesday.
“Tom has contributed in so many ways to our community that his voice, humour and knowledge will be greatly missed,” the post said.
Musician, family man, Métis
Ghostkeeper was the youngest of 15 kids born to Adolphus and Elsie in the Paddle Prairie Métis Settlement, which is 45 miles south of High Level, said Martha Marie, his wife.
“It’s a very small, close-knit community,” Martha Marie said, with no fences or streetlights and just one store. His family home didn’t get indoor plumbing until the 1980s.
“It was very rustic, put it that way.”
Ghostkeeper first came to St. Albert around 1961 when he was put into foster care in relation to pneumonia, which cost him part of a lung. He returned home a year and a half later and finished high school in Grande Prairie, where he met Martha Marie.
“I’d broken up with my boyfriend and I saw this gorgeous Aboriginal guy!” said Martha Marie, who laughed as she recalled her first meeting with Ghostkeeper.
“It was probably love at first sight. He asked me to marry him three weeks after.”
The two of them had three daughters and moved around the province, settling in St. Albert in 1986.
Ghostkeeper spent 32 years working for the provincial government, much of which involved advising Aboriginal Affairs ministers during the constitutional talks of the 1980s and early 1990s, Martha Marie said. Ghostkeeper’s depth of knowledge with Indigenous issues and role as a cultural advocate earned him the respect of many.
“It didn’t matter that he was Métis. The First Nations people respected him and so did the Inuit people.”
Family friend Gwen Crouse said Ghostkeeper was a passionate advocate for Métis culture who helped found National Indigenous Peoples Day in St. Albert and was often called upon to act as host for Métis events across the region.
“He just loved culture,” she said, and had deep knowledge of Indigenous history and traditions.
“I don’t think people knew how much knowledge he had to share.”
Crouse said Ghostkeeper co-founded the St. Albert-Sturgeon County chapter of the Métis Nation of Alberta with her in 2016 and for many years sat with her on the board for Apeetogosan Development (which gives loans to Métis entrepreneurs).
Ghostkeeper was an avid outdoorsman and musician who gave all his kids and grandkids pocket knives and guitars, Martha Marie said. He also owned a vast array of hats and pins, some of which would be on display at his service later this month.
“The grandchildren we have love him to death,” Martha Marie said.
Martha Marie said she would remember Ghostkeeper as the love of her life.
“I think we were soul mates.”
Ghostkeeper is survived by his wife, Martha Marie, daughters Marla, Shannon and Desiree, four brothers, three sisters, 13 grandkids, three great-grandkids, and many in-laws.
A celebration of Ghostkeeper's life will be held at 1 p.m. May 30 at the North Pointe Community Church in Edmonton (corner of 167 Ave. and 142 St.). Donations in his name can be made to the Kidney Foundation of Canada.
