Chief Kinistin was a councilor (headman) of chief Yellow Quill. He was either native to Manitoba or northwestern Ontario. Chief Kinistin possibly participated in the 1869-1870 Red River Rebellion. During the treaty 1 negotiations, chief Yellow Quill and Chief Kinistin agreed to the treaty terms but a dispute arose among the Plains Ojibway of southern Manitoba which led chief Yellow Quill and other Ojibway chiefs including Kinistin, to commence an exodus into Saskatchewan in the 1870s. They settled down in the Qu' Appelle Valley of Saskatchewan. An adhesion to treaty 4 was signed which established the Fishing Lake and Nut Lake First Nations. During the 1880s, unrest among the Plains Ojibway led to Chief Kinistin commencing yet another Ojibway exodus to the north, into the caribou country of the Dene. They settled down well north of what is now Prince Albert, Saskatchewan and Flin Flin, Manitoba. The Ojibway descendants of Chief Kinistin's subjects live on the Hatchet Lake First Nation, Lac La Ronge First Nation, and the Peter Ballantyne First Nation of Manitoba and the Barren Lands First Nation, Mathias Colomb First Nation, Marcel Colomb First Nation, and the Northlands First Nation of Manitoba. In 1890, chief Kinistin returned south with some of his followers and were set aside the present Kinistin First Nation of Saskatchewan in 1900.