In Memory of Sybille Manneschmidt

Sybille Manneschmidt (1952-2025), came to Canada as a young woman. She explored much of the country but it was the foothills and grasslands of the southern Alberta Rockies that captured her heart. She eventually bought property and built a house on a hill outside of Pincher Creek, where she raised several horses and cows. She when on to train as a psychologist-anthropologist and then spent her career working in a range of national and international contexts on issues related to humanitarian crises and healing. At home, she became a close friend of the Pikani, Siksika, and Kainai, co-authoring, with Reg Crowshoe, Akak’stiman: A Blackfoot Framework for Decision-Making and Mediation Processes (University of Calgary Press, 2002), working with Sandra Grier on Pikani family and child services, and teaching occasionally at RedCrow College. She was adopted into Joe and Josephine Crowshoe’s family, who gave her the Blackfoot name Miistaksaaki, which translates as Mountain Woman.

Sybille will be remembered for her commitment to social justice; her love of nature and the environment; her dedication to making practical, positive change in the world; her generosity; her endless curiosity; and her good humor. She is sorely missed.