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Peter Erasmus
Erasmus' Buffalo Days and Nights contains one of the few documentations of Treaty negotiations with his reminiscences of Treaty Six. Erasmus highlighted the authority of Mistawasis and Atahkakoop as Treaty Six Chiefs, and the resistance to treaty by Poundmaker and The Badger. Erasmus also revealed that he was in favor of treaty and the transition to farming, and was very critical of the Hudson's Bay Company. Source: Buffalo Days and Nights, Peter Erasmus Edited by Irene Spry |
Peter Erasmus was a Metis traveller, guide, buffalo hunter, translator, farmer, Indian Agent, and mission worker. He was born in 1833, and died in 1931. Erasmus was instrumental as the translator at the Treaty Six negotiations, and witnessed the change from buffalo hunting, to settlements and Reserves. At the age of 87, Erasmus told his life story to Henry Thompson (also a Metis person, and a journalist at the time) who wrote it down. The manuscript found its way to the Glenbow Museum and Archives and was published as Buffalo Days and Nights in 1976.