Big Bear by Rudy Wiebe

Author:Rudy Wiebe [Wiebe, Rudy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Canada, General
ISBN: 0670067865
Google: QRnTSJwvntkC
Amazon: B009TMUOTC
Publisher: Viking
Published: 2008-12-01T16:00:00+00:00

Year One: August (Buffalo Breeding Moon) 1878 to August 1879

When Little Pine and Lucky Man Signed

Saskatchewan Herald, November 16: Government surveyors staking land near the Bow and Oldman rivers are confronted by Assiniboine, who tell them they “know of no one in Canada who has a right to take away their land.” Big Bear is sent for, and a parley results in deadlock. When Police Commissioner Irvine arrives from Fort Walsh with twenty-six police, he finds three hundred Assiniboine, Blackfoot, Cree, and Sioux warriors waiting. Big Bear and Irvine agree that the surveyors will stop their work and the Indians and police will “leave the dispute to be settled between the Governor and Big Bear when the leaves come out.” There is no mention of Big Bear wearing his war Bear paw.

Few fall buffalo and early snow with weakened horses make hunting barely possible. The Eagle Hills People are so near starvation that they petition officials to give them next summer’s treaty payments in January. They receive nothing.

Father Lestanc with the Métis at The Forks writes to the Herald on March 24: “Very severe winter. All the tribes—the Sioux, Blackfoot, Bloods, Sarcees, Assiniboines, Stoneys, Cree and Saulteaux—now form but one party, having the same mind. Big Bear up to this time cannot be accused of uttering a single objectionable word, but the fact of his being the head and soul of all our Canadian plain Indians leaves room for conjecture. They also seem desirous of securing Sitting Bull’s assistance to obtain another, and better, treaty.” But on May 5, the Herald reports: “The great confederacy of which Big Bear was to be the chief has come to nothing. The Blackfoot declined to give him their allegiance, actuated perhaps by a lingering remembrance of past enmity. The large party that wintered at The Forks has now dispersed.”

Prime Minister Macdonald appoints his friend Edgar Dewdney as the new Indian Commissioner. Arriving at Fort Walsh via Montana, Dewdney notes:

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