Little Bear (Native American leader)

Native American Cree leader Little Bear cabinet portrait from 1906

Little Bear (born Ayimâsis or Macquettoquet) was a Cree leader who lived in the Alberta, Idaho, Montana, and Saskatchewan regions of Canada and the United States, in the 19th and early 20th centuries. He is known for his participation in the 1885 North-West Rebellion, which was fought in Alberta and Saskatchewan.

Early life

Son of tribal leader Big Bear, his exact date of birth is unknown, but some assume it to be in the mid-1800s. One account has him being 43 years old in 1897,^[1] while another said Little Bear was already in his 70s in 1915.^[2] He may have been born in the early or mid-1840s. He was probably living in the Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming region in the 1850s.

Little Bear said in Butte, Montana in either 1912 or 1913, that his father lived along the Snake River in Idaho but relocated to the Butte, Montana region to hunt for buffalo and other wild game.

The Black Hills War

Little Bear was said to have participated in the Great Sioux War of 1876 or Black Hills War. However, nearly all the battles of that war were fought in Montana and northeastern Wyoming. After the War, many Cree fled north to Canada and west into British Columbia, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington, but Little Bear and his family continued to live in extreme northern Montana.

Treaty of Fort Industry

Apparently, a different native of the name Little Bear was at the 1805 signing of the Treaty of Fort Industry, but this could not have been the Little Bear discussed here as he was not born yet at that time. In July 4, 1805 Little Bear along with leaders from Wyandot, Ottawa, Chipawa, Munsee and Delaware, Shawanee, and Pottawatima nations signed the Treaty of Fort Industry with the United States government at Fort Industry in Ohio. This treaty ceded their lands to the US government but allowed for the tribes to continue to hunt and fish in the lands that they formerly owned.^[3][4]

The North-West Rebellion and aftermath

In early 1885, the Cree living in central Alberta and central Saskatchewan fought and lost in the North-West Rebellion against Canada.

Frog Lake Massacre

During the Rebellion, Wandering Spirit led a group of soldiers—including Little Bear—into attacking the tiny settlement of Frog Lake, Alberta. They killed nine Whites in what became known as the Frog Lake Massacre.

Return to Montana

After the Rebellion ended, Little Bear and Lucky Man, knowing the Canadian Whites were after them, fled. The two gathered many of their people and journeyed back to Montana. They slipped through the Babb, Montana region in 1885 and hid out in that region, and then roamed about their original Montana homeland. They frequented the land on and around the Flathead Reservation which the Flathead Indians' agent did not like. Little Bear was considered the leader of the Ojibwas of the Basin, Montana region (southwest Montana).

Deportation

Montana native and non-native peoples did not want Little Bear and his group in the territory and claimed he was not native to the United States.^[5] They demanded that Little Bear and the Ojibwas he led be deported to Canada. For the first couple of years after returning to their original Montana homeland, many of Little Bear's people roamed throughout the vast Blackfeet reservation. In 1888, the United States reduced the size of the Blackfeet reservation, leaving them with three much smaller reservations. They are the Blackfeet reservation, Fort Belknap reservation, and the Fort Peck reservation. Life got harder for Little Bear and his people, and they often went hungry. In 1895, the United States forced hundreds of landless Cree and Ojibwas of Montana to move to Canada, including Chiefs Little Bear and Lucky Man. They feared the death penalty for their roles in the Frog Lake Massacre. After Little Bear and Lucky Man reached Canada, they were apprehended and one account said they stood trial for their part in the Massacre and were acquitted of the charges, while another said no charges were laid against Little Bear as the magistrate said the evidence did not deem charges. (it is noticeable that Little Bear is listed among the eight Native chiefs hanged on Nov. 27, 1885, so perhaps the government did not want the confusion, or mistaken identity to come out in public.) Little Bear settled in Canada perhaps at Onion Lake^[6] and in 1898 travelled, with Rev. John McDougall, to Ottawa to complain of the treatment of his people by the government.^[7] He later returned to Montana.

Efforts to gain a reservation

Little Bear knew he had to follow the Chippewa leader Rocky Boy if the landless nations of Montana were to gain reservations. In 1902, Rocky Boy and Little Bear attempted to gain either a reservation or tribal recognition on the Flathead reservation. The bill to make the Flathead reservation for other landless tribes failed in 1904. In 1905, 1906, 1908, and around 1911 Little Bear contacted Canadian leaders to request land for some of the Cree of Montana. At least five First Nations were set aside for the Chippewa of Montana. They are the Onion Lake, Samson, Ermineskin, Louis Bull, and Montana First Nations. In 1910 Little Bear and his tribe joined the Rocky Boy Reservation.^[8]

The Babb Chippewa reservation

In 1909, the United States set aside a new Chippewa reservation within the Blackfeet reservation, in Montana, between Saint Mary Lake, Babb, and the Canadian border. Chief Rocky Boy was the first to settle there, followed by Little Bear and the people he led. In all, around 200 Chippewa and Cree people settled there.

Rocky Boy reservation

Since hundreds of Chippewas and Cree continued to remain landless, Rocky Boy and Little Bear stepped up their efforts to get another reservation set aside in Montana. Rocky Boy's brother, Pennahto, told Little Bear to request the old Fort Assiniboine Military Reservation be set aside as a new reservation. Neither Pennahto nor Rocky Boy lived to see the establishment of Rocky Boy Reservation. After Rocky Boy Reservation was officially established in 1916, Little Bear became its first Chairman. He was already an old man at the time. Little Bear died in 1921, at or nearly eighty years of age.

References

External links

• Chief Little Bear Information
• History of Rocky Boy Reservation