Pratt, Charles (Askenootow)

Charles Pratt, or Askenootow (Worker of the Earth) was a catechist for the Church of England, a Hudson's Bay Company boatman, a school teacher and an interpreter at the Treaty 4 negotiations at Fort Qu'Appelle. Askenootow was born in 1816 into a Cree-Assiniboine tribe, the Young Dogs, between Mission and Echo Lakes in the Qu'Appelle Valley. At the age of 6, Askenootow was sent to the Red River settlement with the Anglican Missionary John West to learn to read and write. In 1823, Askenootow was baptized into the Church of England and given the name Charles Pratt.

In the early 1850's, Pratt became a Church Missionary Society (CMS) catechist and lay preacher to the Cree and Assiniboine in the Fort Pelly - Touchwood Hills - Qu'Appelle River area. During his time as a catechist, Pratt established 5 missions, even though he was paid less than European catechists and was forced to deal with the racist attitudes of his CMS superiors. Pratt, who continued to hunt buffalo, fish and trap, was well known for trying to help his people through times of starvation. Pratt would sometimes go through all his supplies given to him by the CMS and share them with his people in order to ease their suffering, thus leaving himself destitute.

Pratt acted as an interpreter at the Treaty 4 negotiations at Fort Qu'Appelle in 1874 and again in 1875, when both White Bear and Payepot adhered to Treaty 4. Pratt retired to the Gordon Indian Reserve in 1876, where he lived out his days as a school teacher and catechist. Pratt died in 1888.

Sources - Dictionary of Canadian Biography, Volume XI, pp. 711-712.