Post by grahamew on Oct 21, 2008 13:21:15 GMT -5
Piapot (Payipwat)
Piapot; photographed by J. Brock in Regina, ca. 1886
One of the major Cree leaders of the second half of the nineteenth century, Piapot was born around 1816 and was originally called Flash in the Sky (Kisikawasan). He was captured with his grandmother by the Sioux when he was a child but both were recaptured by the Cree after 14 years in the 1830s. During his captivity, he had learnt much about Sioux ‘medicine’, which the Cree thought was powerful, so he was given the name Payipwat or One Who Knows the Secrets of the Sioux. By 1860, he was a highly regarded spiritual leader and the head of the Young Dogs band of Cree, a group closely associated with the Assiniboin.
Piapot’s band was considered aloof by the Hudson’s Bay Company with whom they seldom traded and they had a reputation as good warriors and skilful horse thieves. In the 1850s, when the Métis and HBC moved into the Qu’Appelle River District, Piapot’s Cree rightly saw them as a threat to the buffalo supply and opposed them. Later, he advocated moving into the Cypress Hills, one of the last refuges of the buffalo and most of the Plains Cree followed him.
Detail from photo reproduced below - Piapot, 1885; photographed by Buell
He refused to participate in the fight with the Bloods at Belly River in 1870, believing he had received a message in dream warning him against it. A large party of Cree attacked a Blackfoot village but were repulsed and lost possibly as many as 300 men. However, the Cree continued to range in that area and down into northern Montana, thus missing the negotiations in the Qu’Appelle area for Treaty No. 4.
The next year, he met with William Joseph Christie, the treaty commissioner at Qu’Appelle Lakes and told him he considered Treaty No. 4 as only a preliminary arrangement and made demands for food, medical aid, mills, forges and proper agricultural provisions and instruction. When he was assured these stipulations would be met, he signed the 1874 treaty.
However, although some of those demands were met under Treaty No. 4 and Treaty No. 5, others weren’t and Piapot continued to refer to the government’s failure to fulfil its treaty obligations until the end of his life.
Believing that it would give his people a certain amount of independence and autonomy, Piapot took Big Bear and Little Pine’s call for a single Cree homeland to the southern Cree. Ottawa was reluctant and Piapot and fellow Cree leaders Little Child (minus the followers of Louis O’Soup, who, in a bid to be recognised as chief by the government, took his Cree-Saulteaux to Crooked Lake, where a reserve was surveyed for all the band), Lucky Man, Little Pine and Foremost Man and the whole Assiniboin nation demanded reserves adjoining each other in the Cypress Hill region.
Louis O'Soup and Le Joueur
Louis O'Soup's shirt, currently in the British Museum, where, if I remember correctly, there's also a photo of him wearing it.
The land was actually surveyed, but Indian Commissioner Edgar Dewdney was aware that this congregation of Indians had the potential to become an autonomous political entity and when warriors from the Young Dogs band raided the Crow in Montana and killed some cattle on their way, he used this action as an excuse to stop the issue of rations until the Cree and Assiniboin gave up their demand for reserves in the Cypress Hills region.
Piapot and the Young Dogs agreed to go to Qu’Appelle in 1882 but soon returned to the Cypress Hills to camp with Big Bear and Little Pine within a year because of government failure to honour its treaty obligations. Although Dewdney had recommended the closure of Fort Walsh, NWMP Commissioner Irvine ignored him and fed the Cree for fear they would block the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway, but in 1883, the fort was closed and Piapot and his band, who were desperate for food, moved to Indian Head, next to the Assiniboin reserve.
This seems to be the root of an enduring myth about Piapot and the NWMP. Called in by the CPR, they allegedly lost patience with Piapot's refusal to move out of the railroad's way and dismantled his tipi. Piapot, embarrassed in front of his own people, immediately left the area. In the more extreme version of the tale, the officers kicked the tipi down! However, there seems to be no factual basis for Piapot actually blocking the CPR or for the NWMP having to escort him away from its path.
The disappearance of the buffalo and the lack of fresh food amongst the rations had a devastating effect on Piapot’s band: it dwindled from more than 700 people in 1877 to 450 by 1884. However, he did not give up on the idea of a Cree homeland and started to move his band near to Pasquah’s Cree and Saulteaux at Qu’Appelle where he planned to hold a Thirst Dance and invite other Indian leaders from the Treaty No. 4 region to a council.
A Cree Thirst Dance, Edmonton, 1883 or 84 maybe...
Pasquah, ca. 1884
Although Piapot also invited Dewdney, he refused go attend and, fearing that the desired outcome was an Indian homeland, he sent in the NWMP Commissioner Irvine with 56 men and a seven- pounder gun to escort Piapot back to Indian Head. Irvine caught up with Piapot before he reached Pasquah, but found himself outnumbered and surrounded when he tried to arrest him. During the negotiations that followed, Piapot was allowed to move near Pasquah – by now, Dewdney’s greater fear was that if he was denied this, he would move near Battleford, where he would be with Little Pine and then the other Cree would follow.
Piapot (second from right), his headmen and the Montreal Garrison at Regina, 1885
Piapot (fourth from right) with his headmen and men from the Montreal Garrison; Commissioner Dewdney is in the centre of the second row
Both photos by Otto Buell.
One of Piapot's men, Buffalo Bull, sketched by the Reverend Edward Francis during the meeting between Piapot and the Montreal Garrison, 1885
While Piapot agitated for a revision to Treaty No. 4 for the Cree and Assiniboin and Saulteaux, Big Bear and Poundmaker were doing the same for the Cree who had signed Treaty No. 6. Rather than the Riel Rebellion being responsible for this almost united Indian front, as it were, it actually led to its downfall. The government took advantage of Big Bear and Poundmaker’s somewhat tenuous roles in the affair and imprisoned them; by contrast, the Dakota White Cap, who had, admittedly under coercion, been a member of Riel’s council, was acquitted. Little Pine died in 1885 and the health of Poundmaker and Big Bear deteriorated; the former dying soon after his early release from prison in 1886 and the latter, two years later.
The government established a military base near Piapot’s reserve and it continued to be suspicious of him. He was a traditionalist and a spiritual leader who promoted native culture and he was feared because of his former contact with the Sioux – to the extent that the government thought he would sway the Cree to participate in the Ghost Dance. Although the Thirst Dance was officially banned in 1892, it continued to be practised by Piapot’s people.
In 1895, he spoke out against the unfulfilled promises made by the government: “In order to become sole masters of our land they relegated us on small reservations as big as my hand and made us long promises, as long as my arm. But the next year the promises were shorter, and get shorter every year until now they are about the length of my finger, and they keep only half of that.”
He stopped the government allotting each member a 40 acre parcel of land by refusing permission for the reserve to be surveyed, thereby keeping the village - the traditional form of social organisation – intact. In fact, his constant demands to the government led to another seven square miles being added to the reserve, although it remained considerably smaller than the 110 square miles that had been allocated by treaty.
The government continued to attempt to wear down Piapot and whittle way at his control over the affairs of his people. William Morris Graham was appointed agent in 1900 and wanted him ‘deposed’ on grounds of incompetence; he actually had him arrested when he obstructed a policeman who was after a suspect on the reserve. Indian Commissioner David Laird, who had known Piapot for several years, refused Graham’s request fort he removal of the old chief, so the agent had him arrested for holding a Thirst Dance and he was finally deposed by the government on 15 April 1902.
Piapot in old age
Piapot died in late April, 1908, aged 92, but even in death, he clashed with the government. He did not want to be buried in the earth, preferring the tree burial, but the government had banned this. In the event, a coffin was made from the wood of a wagon box, two feet high so he could be placed with his legs drawn up, in the traditional manner. This was buried in a shallow grave at the top of a hill near where he had lived, then stones were piled over it and more stones were used to mark out a circle beyond it.
Much of the above was liberally adapted from John L. Tobias' excellent entry for Piapot in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online. Tobias is also he author of an excellent article, "Canada's Subjugation of the Plains Cree, 1879-1885", in Canadian Historical Review, 64, 4, December 1983, pp519-548.
Piapot; photographed by J. Brock in Regina, ca. 1886
One of the major Cree leaders of the second half of the nineteenth century, Piapot was born around 1816 and was originally called Flash in the Sky (Kisikawasan). He was captured with his grandmother by the Sioux when he was a child but both were recaptured by the Cree after 14 years in the 1830s. During his captivity, he had learnt much about Sioux ‘medicine’, which the Cree thought was powerful, so he was given the name Payipwat or One Who Knows the Secrets of the Sioux. By 1860, he was a highly regarded spiritual leader and the head of the Young Dogs band of Cree, a group closely associated with the Assiniboin.
Piapot’s band was considered aloof by the Hudson’s Bay Company with whom they seldom traded and they had a reputation as good warriors and skilful horse thieves. In the 1850s, when the Métis and HBC moved into the Qu’Appelle River District, Piapot’s Cree rightly saw them as a threat to the buffalo supply and opposed them. Later, he advocated moving into the Cypress Hills, one of the last refuges of the buffalo and most of the Plains Cree followed him.
Detail from photo reproduced below - Piapot, 1885; photographed by Buell
He refused to participate in the fight with the Bloods at Belly River in 1870, believing he had received a message in dream warning him against it. A large party of Cree attacked a Blackfoot village but were repulsed and lost possibly as many as 300 men. However, the Cree continued to range in that area and down into northern Montana, thus missing the negotiations in the Qu’Appelle area for Treaty No. 4.
The next year, he met with William Joseph Christie, the treaty commissioner at Qu’Appelle Lakes and told him he considered Treaty No. 4 as only a preliminary arrangement and made demands for food, medical aid, mills, forges and proper agricultural provisions and instruction. When he was assured these stipulations would be met, he signed the 1874 treaty.
However, although some of those demands were met under Treaty No. 4 and Treaty No. 5, others weren’t and Piapot continued to refer to the government’s failure to fulfil its treaty obligations until the end of his life.
Believing that it would give his people a certain amount of independence and autonomy, Piapot took Big Bear and Little Pine’s call for a single Cree homeland to the southern Cree. Ottawa was reluctant and Piapot and fellow Cree leaders Little Child (minus the followers of Louis O’Soup, who, in a bid to be recognised as chief by the government, took his Cree-Saulteaux to Crooked Lake, where a reserve was surveyed for all the band), Lucky Man, Little Pine and Foremost Man and the whole Assiniboin nation demanded reserves adjoining each other in the Cypress Hill region.
Louis O'Soup and Le Joueur
Louis O'Soup's shirt, currently in the British Museum, where, if I remember correctly, there's also a photo of him wearing it.
The land was actually surveyed, but Indian Commissioner Edgar Dewdney was aware that this congregation of Indians had the potential to become an autonomous political entity and when warriors from the Young Dogs band raided the Crow in Montana and killed some cattle on their way, he used this action as an excuse to stop the issue of rations until the Cree and Assiniboin gave up their demand for reserves in the Cypress Hills region.
Piapot and the Young Dogs agreed to go to Qu’Appelle in 1882 but soon returned to the Cypress Hills to camp with Big Bear and Little Pine within a year because of government failure to honour its treaty obligations. Although Dewdney had recommended the closure of Fort Walsh, NWMP Commissioner Irvine ignored him and fed the Cree for fear they would block the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway, but in 1883, the fort was closed and Piapot and his band, who were desperate for food, moved to Indian Head, next to the Assiniboin reserve.
This seems to be the root of an enduring myth about Piapot and the NWMP. Called in by the CPR, they allegedly lost patience with Piapot's refusal to move out of the railroad's way and dismantled his tipi. Piapot, embarrassed in front of his own people, immediately left the area. In the more extreme version of the tale, the officers kicked the tipi down! However, there seems to be no factual basis for Piapot actually blocking the CPR or for the NWMP having to escort him away from its path.
The disappearance of the buffalo and the lack of fresh food amongst the rations had a devastating effect on Piapot’s band: it dwindled from more than 700 people in 1877 to 450 by 1884. However, he did not give up on the idea of a Cree homeland and started to move his band near to Pasquah’s Cree and Saulteaux at Qu’Appelle where he planned to hold a Thirst Dance and invite other Indian leaders from the Treaty No. 4 region to a council.
A Cree Thirst Dance, Edmonton, 1883 or 84 maybe...
Pasquah, ca. 1884
Although Piapot also invited Dewdney, he refused go attend and, fearing that the desired outcome was an Indian homeland, he sent in the NWMP Commissioner Irvine with 56 men and a seven- pounder gun to escort Piapot back to Indian Head. Irvine caught up with Piapot before he reached Pasquah, but found himself outnumbered and surrounded when he tried to arrest him. During the negotiations that followed, Piapot was allowed to move near Pasquah – by now, Dewdney’s greater fear was that if he was denied this, he would move near Battleford, where he would be with Little Pine and then the other Cree would follow.
Piapot (second from right), his headmen and the Montreal Garrison at Regina, 1885
Piapot (fourth from right) with his headmen and men from the Montreal Garrison; Commissioner Dewdney is in the centre of the second row
Both photos by Otto Buell.
One of Piapot's men, Buffalo Bull, sketched by the Reverend Edward Francis during the meeting between Piapot and the Montreal Garrison, 1885
While Piapot agitated for a revision to Treaty No. 4 for the Cree and Assiniboin and Saulteaux, Big Bear and Poundmaker were doing the same for the Cree who had signed Treaty No. 6. Rather than the Riel Rebellion being responsible for this almost united Indian front, as it were, it actually led to its downfall. The government took advantage of Big Bear and Poundmaker’s somewhat tenuous roles in the affair and imprisoned them; by contrast, the Dakota White Cap, who had, admittedly under coercion, been a member of Riel’s council, was acquitted. Little Pine died in 1885 and the health of Poundmaker and Big Bear deteriorated; the former dying soon after his early release from prison in 1886 and the latter, two years later.
The government established a military base near Piapot’s reserve and it continued to be suspicious of him. He was a traditionalist and a spiritual leader who promoted native culture and he was feared because of his former contact with the Sioux – to the extent that the government thought he would sway the Cree to participate in the Ghost Dance. Although the Thirst Dance was officially banned in 1892, it continued to be practised by Piapot’s people.
In 1895, he spoke out against the unfulfilled promises made by the government: “In order to become sole masters of our land they relegated us on small reservations as big as my hand and made us long promises, as long as my arm. But the next year the promises were shorter, and get shorter every year until now they are about the length of my finger, and they keep only half of that.”
He stopped the government allotting each member a 40 acre parcel of land by refusing permission for the reserve to be surveyed, thereby keeping the village - the traditional form of social organisation – intact. In fact, his constant demands to the government led to another seven square miles being added to the reserve, although it remained considerably smaller than the 110 square miles that had been allocated by treaty.
The government continued to attempt to wear down Piapot and whittle way at his control over the affairs of his people. William Morris Graham was appointed agent in 1900 and wanted him ‘deposed’ on grounds of incompetence; he actually had him arrested when he obstructed a policeman who was after a suspect on the reserve. Indian Commissioner David Laird, who had known Piapot for several years, refused Graham’s request fort he removal of the old chief, so the agent had him arrested for holding a Thirst Dance and he was finally deposed by the government on 15 April 1902.
Piapot in old age
Piapot died in late April, 1908, aged 92, but even in death, he clashed with the government. He did not want to be buried in the earth, preferring the tree burial, but the government had banned this. In the event, a coffin was made from the wood of a wagon box, two feet high so he could be placed with his legs drawn up, in the traditional manner. This was buried in a shallow grave at the top of a hill near where he had lived, then stones were piled over it and more stones were used to mark out a circle beyond it.
Much of the above was liberally adapted from John L. Tobias' excellent entry for Piapot in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online. Tobias is also he author of an excellent article, "Canada's Subjugation of the Plains Cree, 1879-1885", in Canadian Historical Review, 64, 4, December 1983, pp519-548.