Bryan Trottier among Indigenous sports icons featured on new Canadian stamps

By Ian MacKay

Bryan Trottier from Val Marie, who won four consecutive Stanley Cups centring the New York Islanders, now graces a Canadian stamp.

Trottier, Chief Wilton Littlechild and Edward Lennie "championed Indigenous sports, leaving legacies that extend far beyond the winners' podium," a Canada Post statement said. The stamp set, the fifth annual in a series, went on sale on June 19 to honour National Indigenous Peoples Day on June 21.

Trottier, of Cree, Métis, Chippewa and Irish descent, won six Stanley Cups altogether plus the National Hockey League's scoring title and most valuable player awards in 1979. He added the Conn Smythe Award as playoff MVP in 1980 when the Islanders won their first Stanley Cup.

Six Saskatchewan-born players skated with the Islanders among 13 from the Prairies that year. Trottier, Kindersley's Dave Lewis and Bob Bourne, Clark Gillies and Chico Resch of Moose Jaw, and Melfort's Lorne Henning played with the Islanders that year and afterward.

Alberta's Brent and Duane Sutter, from Viking, Grande Centre's Garry Howatt and Bob Nystrom, who was born in Stockholm, Sweden but played minor hockey in Hinton, were also on that team. Brandon contributed Butch Goring and Gord Lane.

Trottier collected 47 goals and 134 points to lead the NHL in 1978-79. He'd won the Calder Award as top rookie after scoring 32 goals and 95 points in 1975-76.

The Islanders drafted him in the second round, 22nd overall, of the 1974 draft. He managed 524 goals and 901 assists for 1,425 points and 912 penalty minutes over 1,279 regular-season NHL games, usually finishing second to Michel (Mike) Bossy in Islanders' scoring. He also performed in 221 playoff games, scoring 71 times and adding 113 assists for 184 points.

Littlechild, from Maskwacis, Alta., previously known as Hobbema, was a member of Parliament and commissioner of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. He helped secure Indigenous rights, including treaty rights, in Canada's constitution.

He also helped draft the United Nations and American Declarations on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and worked to establish the National Indian Athletic Association and the North American and World Indigenous Games.

Charles Edward Inglangasak Lennie (1934-2020) helped found the Northern Games and urged the inclusion of Arctic sports in the first Arctic Winter Games. Lennie also coached eight traditional events, such as the kneel jump, two-foot high kick and arm pull.