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Piapot (Payipwat)
When the Buffalo started to decline Piapot's band moved to the Cypress Hills, where he was hunting in 1874 during Treaty Four negotiations. He met William Joseph Christie in 1875 and signed an adhesion to Treaty Four on the condition changes be made and an economic base provided for the Cree peoples. These requests were never fulfilled, and Piapot spent the rest of his life resisting government policies and protecting his traditions. Piapot died in 1902, just before the Department of Indian Affairs managed to depose him as Chief. Sources: Dictionary of Canadian Biography, Volume XIII, pp. 815-818. |
Piapot was a Cree/Assiniboine Chief, born around 1816 probably around present day eastern Saskatchewan. He was leader of the Young Dog band who in the eyes of the Canadian government were notorious raiders and horse thieves. Piapot's band hunted the Buffalo and they resented the incursion of the HBC and Canadian government upon their resource.