I love our big tepee. I didn’t always. I didn’t know what to make of it when I first moved here in 2012. After all what does it say about my new home that its most famous landmark is a 20-storey tepee? But the more I see it and the more I learn about it the fonder I become of the Saamis Tepee.
Let’s go back 562 years to Italy in 1454 with the birth of Amerigo Vespucci. This Italian explorer first demonstrated that the New World was not a part of Asia and was rewarded by history by the naming of the Americas after him. Some 500 years later Amerigo Filanti was born in Italy. Named after the intrepid explorer his mother feared his name would incline him to leave Italy. Her fears were warranted because in 1949, at the age of 21, Filanti immigrated to Canada eventually changing his name to Rick.
Amerigo the former heralded an onslaught of European immigration that forever changed this continent and displaced the native peoples living here. Amerigo the latter settled in various small towns in Alberta still inhabited by First Nation communities before settling in Medicine Hat in 1974. Filanti worked hard, made the most of his opportunities and gave back much to this City. But he dreamed of creating a monument to the native people of the plains to recognize the cultural heritage of this area and as a thank-you to this country.
In 1979 he settled on the idea of a tepee monument, that iconic symbol of the North American Plains. But it would be twelve years before the Calgary Olympics finally gave Filanti his chance. A giant tepee had been constructed for the opening ceremony. Now that the Games were over it was looking for a home. In this tepee he saw the fulfillment of his dream and pounced. He began building community support for this monument. The Olympic tepee was created as a temporary structure. In order to have the strength of a permanent monument an additional 200 tons of steel were added and the design was reinforced to last 500 years. The remaining original elements from the Olympic tepee include the two masts (rabbit ears) and represent less than 10 percent of the tepee you see now.
Connected with 960 bolts, the new steel beams fabricated by Hardy Hilgendorf and Kurt’s Iron Works with a foundation by Gary Denke of Amron Construction and the blessing of the Blood tribe (600 First Nations people signed a letter supporting this project) the first four poles of the Saamis Tepee were raised on Oct 21, 1991. That’s 25 years ago next month.
Filanti campaigned and fundraised tirelessly for the Saamis Tepee. Filanti, through the Sammis Tepee Association, secured private and government money to fund the project, including about $600,000 from the City. But federal grants Filanti was counting on did not materialize and by the mid-nineties the Association was struggling to pay off the loan. It was renegotiated to be paid off over 25 years, but still in 1998 the City took possession of the Tepee along with the collateral Filanti had put up against the loan. The collateral was his cherished private art collection of five works including a sketch by Pablo Picasso along with works from Signorini, and Group of Seven artist, Arthur Lismer. But all’s well that ends well and in 1999 Filanti presented a cheque to the City for the full amount and the artworks were returned to him.
I often walk at night along the SE Hill. I can see the Saamis Tepee glowing bluish white above the dark coulee. An icon for this city created in combination with our rich history and the hard work of an immigrant.
People forget that most Parisians were ambivalent about the Eiffel Tower in the beginning. But I would bet that in 500 years the Saamis Tepee will be an Eiffel Tower of the Prairies – an object so iconic it will define this city. It will be its beloved heart and a beacon to its residents. Amerigo Rick Filanti died in 2013, but he has left a civic legacy for the ages.
Thanks to Kim Unrau at the Archives for her help with this story.
Medicine Hat News. September 27, 2016.