Mistawasis (Big Child)

Mistawasis (Big Child) was born around 1813 and was a life long friend of Ahtahkahkoop (Star Blanket). Mistawasis was one of the chiefs of the Fort People, a group of Cree that lived around Fort Carlton and his people eventually settled at Snake Plain.

In his early years, Mistawasis supplied the Hudson Bay Company traders with buffalo for pemmican. Mistawasis was also a strong opponent of the alcohol that was being traded amongst the Cree in the 1860s and 1870s. Mistawasis' son was stabbed during a drinking binge and as a result, he sent a letter to the federal government asking them to ban the sale of alcohol in the North-West Territories. Mistawasis' petition, along with many others the government received from the North-West, convinced the federal government to create the North West Mounted Police and send them west to eradicate the whisky trade.

In the summer of 1875, Mistawasis and Ahtahkahkoop sent a group of telegraphers back east stating that they needed permission to be on Cree land. As a result of this incident, the government decided to negotiate Treaty 6 with the Cree of modern day central Saskatchewan.

Mistawasis was one of the most influential Cree chiefs in the Fort Carlton area and he used his position to speak out in favor of negotiating Treaty 6 when the Treaty Commissioner arrived in 1876. Mistawasis believed that the Queen would protect his people, so he agreed to Treaty 6 on August 23, 1876. Even though Mistawasis believed in the Treaty, he still participated in a Cree council that was held at Duck Lake in 1884 to draw up a petition of Cree grievances in relation to the Treaty.

In 1886, Mistawasis, along with Ahtahkahkoop, was invited to Ottawa in order to meet Prime Minister John A. Macdonald, as well as to participate in the unveiling of a monument that honored the great Mohawk chief Joseph Brant. Mistawasis died in August of 1896.

Sources - Deanna Christensen. Ahtahkahkoop: The Epic Account of a Plains Cree Head Chief, His People and Their Struggle for Survival, 1816-1896. Shell Lake: Ahtahkahkoop Publishing, 2000.