A prominent Indigenous leader who was an advocate for sports and recreation and who founded the Saskatchewan First Nations Summer Games has died.
Antoine Cote — the great-grandson of Chief Gabriel Cote, a key spokesman for Saulteaux communities during the signing of Treaty 4 — died Wednesday at the age of 84.
Known to many as Tony Cote, the residential school survivor served in the Korean War and would go on to become chief of the Yorkton Tribal Council on two occasions — from 1973 to 1976 and from 1995 to 2000.
The Kamsack resident was also chief of the Cote First Nation from 1970 to 1978 and was awarded the Tom Longboat Medal in 1974 for being an outstanding sportsman, the same year he started the First Nations games.
He received the Saskatchewan Order of Merit in 2008 and was inducted into the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame in 2011.
Outside of sports, Cote was executive director of the Saskatchewan Indian Housing Commission from 1990 to 1995 and headed a number of economic initiatives for his community.