Chief Big Bear

Chief Big Bear
O.B. Buell · Public domain · source
Name	Big Bear
Native name	Mistahimaskwa
Born	c. 1825
Died	1888
Nationality	Plains Cree
Known for	Leadership during Treaty 6 era, resistance to land surrender
Children	multiple

Chief Big Bear was a prominent Plains Cree leader in the late 19th century who became a central figure during the treaty era and the North-West Rebellion period. He is remembered for advocating for Indigenous rights, negotiating with Canadian officials, and resisting policies of land surrender and settlement. Big Bear's leadership intersected with figures and events across the Canadian West, including interactions with Métis leaders, Hudson's Bay Company agents, and federal negotiators.

Early life and background

Big Bear was born around 1825 among the Plains Cree near the region later known as the Saskatchewan River and the Cypress Hills, a landscape tied to the fur trade and buffalo hunting that connected Hudson's Bay Company posts, Fort Pitt, and the migratory routes used by Plains peoples. He came of age during the height of the North American fur trade and during increased pressure from settler colonial expansion associated with the Dominion of Canada and the construction ambitions that culminated in the Canadian Pacific Railway. As a young man he witnessed the effects of declining bison herds, outbreaks of disease linked to contact with traders at posts such as Fort Edmonton and Fort Carlton, and the gradual incursion of missionaries like those from the Church Missionary Society and the Roman Catholic Church.

Rise to leadership

Big Bear rose to prominence as a headman and negotiator within Cree society, gaining respect through abilities in diplomacy, oratory, and traditional leadership roles recognized among Plains Cree communities. He formed alliances and rivalries with contemporaries including Poundmaker, Chief Poundmaker, Little Pine, and leaders among the Assiniboine and Stoney who were navigating shifting power dynamics. His leadership credentials were further reinforced through interactions with representatives of the Department of Indian Affairs and Indian Agents such as W.G. McKay and Edmund Walker Head-era officials, as treaties and reserve policy became central to Indigenous-settler relations.

Relations with other Indigenous groups

Big Bear maintained complex relations with neighboring Indigenous nations, engaging in diplomatic marriages, kinship ties, and political alliances with Cree bands, the Métis leadership under Louis Riel, and southern Plains groups including the Blackfoot Confederacy and Saulteaux. He negotiated seasonal access to hunting grounds with groups connected to the Red River Colony and participated in intertribal councils that discussed responses to encroachment by settlers and the influence of figures like Donald Smith and C. S. T. Haultain. These relations shaped regional strategies during crises such as famine, with cross-community coordination around relief efforts involving institutions like the Roman Catholic Church missions and relief agents appointed by Ottawa.

Conflict and resistance

As famine and dispossession intensified in the 1870s and 1880s, Big Bear emerged as a critic of surrendering traditional lands and a proponent of collective Indigenous autonomy. He opposed the terms of treaty annuities and the reserve system promoted by the Treaty Commissioners, which were influenced by policymakers in Ottawa and by settler pressure from areas including Regina and Edmonton. Tensions escalated regionally with uprisings such as the North-West Rebellion of 1885, in which contemporaries like Gabriel Dumont and Louis Riel played central roles. Though Big Bear advocated non-violent resistance, his camps were surveilled by militia forces and Indian Agents, and he faced confrontations involving units tied to the North-West Mounted Police and militia leaders like Frederick Middleton.

Treaty negotiations and diplomacy

Big Bear participated in negotiations related to what Canadians numbered as Treaty 6, engaging with commissioners such as those representing the Government of Canada to discuss annuities, reserve allotments, and provisions for famine relief. He critiqued the treaty language and the capacity of negotiators to guarantee traditional land rights, pressing for better terms and clearer commitments on rations, medical relief, and hunting rights. His diplomatic efforts intersected with advocacy from Indigenous intermediaries and allies, and with public debates in Ottawa and the House of Commons (Canada) over Indigenous policy, influenced by colonial administrators like John A. Macdonald and civil servants in the Department of Indian Affairs.

Exile and later life

Following the suppression of the 1885 unrest and shifting federal policy under leaders in Ottawa, Big Bear and his followers faced punitive measures including imprisonment and restrictions on movement imposed by Indian Agents and Northwest police authorities. He experienced forced confinement and was relocated under surveillance, suffering personal hardship exacerbated by the collapse of buffalo economies and limited governmental relief. In his later years he lived under constrained conditions on reserve lands as commissioner directives and settler settlement reshaped the landscape around Saskatchewan and Alberta. Big Bear died in 1888 after years of contestation over Indigenous rights and survival.

Legacy and commemoration

Big Bear's legacy endures in historical memory, Indigenous scholarship, and public commemoration across sites associated with Treaty 6 and the 1885 events, including museums, cultural centers, and memorials in places like Battleford and Fort Carlton National Historic Site. Historians, Indigenous scholars, and institutions such as Library and Archives Canada and provincial archives have documented his speeches, petitions, and leadership as pivotal to narratives of resistance and negotiation. Contemporary Indigenous political movements and legal claims concerning treaty interpretation and land rights cite precedents from leaders like Big Bear when engaging with courts such as the Supreme Court of Canada and when participating in processes with bodies like the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. His life is remembered through education programs, commemorative plaques, and in community oral histories preserved by Cree nations and organizations including the Assembly of First Nations.

Category:Plains Cree leaders Category:19th-century Indigenous leaders of North America