Indigenous teen sings O Canada in Cree at Toronto Blue Jays game

Thirteen-year-old Kiya Bruno performed on her biggest stage ever on Saturday afternoon, June 29, 2019. Bruno, from the Samson Cree Nation in Alberta, sang O Canada in Cree and English in front of thousands of baseball fans at the Rogers Centre in Toronto.

"I'm so excited. I'm so excited for our young people to really get out and sing in their language. And to have all of our people celebrate this day with us, it's priceless," Lorraine Cobiness, chief of Niisaachewan Anishinaabe First Nation in Northern Ontario told CBC News.

The teenager was selected from among dozens of hopefuls for the performance.

"For me personally, because I'm such a baseball lover ... for the Jays themselves, for the city to acknowledge that they're here with our people and to have our young people come in and help celebrate ... It's so meaningful," Cobiness said.

Bruno's performance was not the first time the national anthem has been sung at a Jays game in an Indigenous language. It has been done at least once before - Natashia Moodie and her sister sang the national anthem in Cree at a Jays game in 1999.

Bruno's performance was among a slew of activities to honor National Indigenous Peoples Day before the Jays took on the Kansas City Royals.

Mentors from the James Bay Girls At Bat, a sports program for girls in Northern Ontario, were honored at the game.

Olivia Tookate, a 16-year-old from Attawapiskat First Nation in Northern Ontario, threw the first pitch.

On the field, a two-run homer from catcher Danny Jansen and rookie Cavan Biggio's first career grand slam pushed the Blue Jays to a 7-5 victory against the Kansas City Royals.

In a earlier historic moment in sports, the NHL Carolina Hurricanes played in Montreal to take on the Canadiens on March 24, 2019. Fans enjoyed the broadcast in a different way: it was the first time in NHL history that a game was televised in Plains Cree language.

APTN studio host Earl Wood, along with Jason Chamakeese, broadcast the game from APTN's headquarters in Winnipeg. Saskatchewan broadcaster Clarence Iron did the play-by-play. The event became APTN's most-watched broadcast ever – with nearly half a million viewers. Indigenous peoples shared their excitement on social media, and by the end of the first period, "Cree" was trending on Twitter.