User:MikeKelly/sandbox

Peer Review, Vscartapenna - "Hayter Reed"

Interesting topic! The lead section is off to a good start. I would arrange some of the sentences differently but that may just be personal preference; for example, I prefer “Mistawasis (insert birth and death date, if possible) was the (insert rank, i.e., eleventh) Cree Chief of North America (insert the specified period to indicate when he was most active).” Also, there are a lot of key words in your lead that you can link to other Wikipedia articles once its complete. Additionally, I would try to refrain from using words such as “motivated” and “believed” in this section, and just stick to concise event details.

Your outline is also off to a good start, offering a clear structure and balanced content. I look forward to reviewing your progress. Good luck!

Article Evaluation Red River Colony

-good structure

-adequately covers the history of the colony itself, does not allow the history of the colony to be overshadowed by the rebellion which occurred there

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Mistawasis Article Outline: Lead Section

Mistawasis was a Cree Chief, notable for his role in the signing of Treaty 6. He was born to a French father and a Native mother near Slave Lake in what is now the province of Saskatchewan. Due to the dwindling buffalo population caused by the excessive hunting by colonial authorities, he was forced to look for new strategies to ensure the survival of his people and their culture. This was what motivated him to believe that his people would need to ally themselves with the Canadian government in order to guarantee their survival. He held great influence over his people and it was due to this influence that he was able to argue successfully for the adoption of Treaty 6 between his people and the Canadian Government.

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Article Structure Outline:

Early Life

- Circumstances of birth and life before rise to prominance

Buffalo Crisis

- Impact of loss of buffalo on Cree people

- Loss of valuable food stuff

Rise to prominence

- Rise to power and influence among the Cree

Treaty 6

- Actions which directly lead to his signing

- How he convinced those around him to also sign

Ally of the Crown

- Time after signing where he worked with the Canadian Government

Later Life

- Journey to Eastern Canada

Legacy

- First Nations community named in his honour

Mistawasis (Big Child) was a Chief of the Sak-kaw-wen-o-wak Plains Cree, notable for his role as the leader of his people during the signing of Treaty 6 in 1876. He was born to a French father and a Native mother near Slave Lake in what is now the province of Saskatchewan. Due to the dwindling buffalo population caused by the excessive hunting by, he was forced to look for new strategies to ensure the survival of his people and their culture. The loss of the buffalo threatened his people and he believed that the only way to save his people would be to negotiate with the Canadian Government. He held great influence over his people and it was due to this influence that he, and his close ally Ahtahkakoop, were able to argue successfully for the adoption of Treaty 6 by his fellow Cree. Of which he was the first signatory. After the treaty was signed he remained an ally of the Canadian government until his death.

Early Life

The exact date of Mistawasis’ birth is disputed. Estimations indicate that may have been born sometime between 1796 and 1813. The location of his birth was in the area of Slave Lake, Saskatchewan. He was born to a French father by the name of Bernard Berlanger and a woman of Assiniboine decent. His birth name was Pierre Berlanger, though it was rarely used in his adulthood. He had siblings, though the exact number is unknown, one of them went by the same name as their father, Bernard Berlanger. The Hudson’s Bay Company would utilize his prowess as a provider, commonly trading for buffalo meat in exchange for other goods. He was also known to some as Piwapiskomostos, a name meaning Iron Buffalo. He received this name after a hunting accident where he was tossed from horseback onto one of the buffalo he was hunting. Despite this he sustained no injuries from the encounter, earning him the moniker of Piwapiskomostos. The famous Cree Chief Pitokwahanapiwiyin (Poundmaker) is his maternal nephew.

Disappearance of the Buffalo

The American buffalo’s habitat once ranged in the general area from the American east coast, south west to near Mexico, and northwards to Great Slave Lake in the Northwest Territories. They are the largest land mammals found on the continent of North America. The Buffalo’s first contact with Europeans most likely occurred in the 1500s with Spanish conquistadors. Estimates suggest that at this time there was roughly 25-30 million wild buffalo living in North America. This number would dwindle severely to less than 100 in the American Great Plains states, with between 10-15 million dying over a ten year period. In Canada the buffalo were most commonly hunted for the purpose of acquiring their skins or for preserving the animals meat for later ingestion in the form of pemmican. The fur trade was especially detrimental to populations as the hunters would more often then not prioritize acquiring the furs of the females over that of the males. The was due to their relative lightness as well as the ability to tan the furs at a quicker rate then the males. The majority of hunts were carried out in the winter, due to the buffalo’s hair growing thicker in this time of the year. Winter happened to coincide with the buffalo’s breeding season, meaning that many of the buffalo killed had a high possibility of being in some stage of pregnancy at the time. Being that buffalo only have one calf per year, the removal of large numbers of pregnant buffalo significantly weakened the animal’s ability to naturally replenish its population.

Significance of Buffalo to Cree

One of the most important features of the Cree’s way of life was the buffalo. It was a resource which was used extensively by the Cree for many different purposes. Its meat was used as food for personal sustenance as well as for trade with the Hudson’s Bay Company. Its skin was used in the construction of living residences. It was also used by the various indigenous groups of the region to make clothing, amounting to roughly two buffalo skins per person per year to be dedicated to the production of new clothing. The animal’s bones were often used to create most of the tools used by the Cree people. Buffalo were important for trade with the Hudson’s Bay Company as this trade was the only possible way for the Cree to acquire such useful goods as guns, as well as the ammunition needed to use the weapons. The Cree would hunt buffalo often without horses, to over come this they would often herd the animals into corrals so they could then kill them in a more manageable way.

Buffalo Wars

The sudden decrease in buffalo further destabilized the region by causing the Cree to trespass into Blackfoot territory in search of buffalos. This trespassing would often lead to skirmishes between the two groups which could often in in loss of life on both sides. This included a battle which resulted in the deaths of 60 Cree warriors. The Cree and Blackfoot would see peace in 1857, though it was short lived and war was restarted in 1860. The Cree would continue to use the war as a means to venture west, in search of the buffalos which no longer existed in their homelands. The war would then continue in a sporadic and destructive nature until a permanent peace was finally signed in 1871. The war had caused extensive loss of life for the Cree and failed to result in the expansion of their territory to the buffalo rich areas of the west.

Treaty 6

The sudden loss of an abundance of buffalo caused fear to spread through out native communities in the 1870s. It was from this fear, and a hope for the future, that Mistawasis began to think about what he wanted his people’s future to look like. It was from this perspective that Mistawasis and other leaders of the Cree communities began to believe that negotiation with the Canadian Crown Authorities would be their best course of action. One of the items Mistawasis hoped to acquire for his people was access to education. He perceived a European education as important to the future survival of his people and attempted to gain access to this through the Canadian government. He wanted to ensure that his people would be provided not only with school houses but also the teachers to operate and instruct in them. It was due to this belief that his peoples way of life was disappearing along with his hope of an improved future that caused him to attend the negotiations at Fort Carlton in late August of 1876. The British crown was represented by several men with British Treaty Commissioner Alexander Morris taking the leading role. Mistawasis argued for the treaty as a necessity for acquiring food by claiming that “Our way of living is gone, there are no more buffalo, we have to find a new way to feed our people.”  During much of the treaty negotiation process, Mistawasis point of views were shared by his friend and ally Ahtahkakoop. Ahtahkakoop, like Mistawasis, was also concerned about the decrease in available buffalo. Ahtahkakoop was also quite concerned with obtaining an education for his people, as well as help in gaining a better understanding of agriculture to fill the void in food left by the disappearance of the buffalo. Mistawasis and Ahtahkakoop were met with resistance by other Chiefs of the Cree nation. The main leaders of the dissenting viewpoints were Chiefs Poundmaker, Young Chipewyan, and the Badger. Poundmaker’s main argument against the signing of the treaty was his belief that the Canadian government would only adhere to the Cree demands in exchange for hegemony over all of the Cree’s lands, a price he did not want to pay. Mistawasis countered the argument of the chiefs who shared Poundmaker’s outlook by challenging them to provide a better solution that what the Canadians could. Mistawasis further argued “…that the Great White Queen Mother has offered us a way of life when the buffalo are no more. Gone they will be before many snows have come to cover our heads or graves if such should be.”  He further argued that the queen would “stop the senseless wars among our people, against the Blackfoot, Peigans, and Bloods.”  He also believed that by allying himself with the queen that he could restrict the sale of alcohol to his people, a goal that he was personally passionate about. On top of all this he argued that none of them could hope to survive in the face of the increasing flow of immigrants from the east on their own. Mistawasis ended his argument by declaring “I for one will take the hand that is offered.”  Ahtahkakoop shared the same sentiments as Mistawasis. After presenting his points to the other Chiefs, Mistawasis became the first of the men gathered to sign Treaty 6. The other Cree Chiefs were swayed by the word of Mistawasis and Ahtahkakoop and agreed to sign the treaty, which would from then on be known as Treaty 6. Treaty 6 would later be added onto by other members of the Cree nation at Fort Pitt in September of 1876.

The provisions of Treaty 6

When the initial stage of Treaty 6 was complete it contained many provisions which were favorable to the Cree people. It contained all rights and protections previously awarded in Treaties One through Five, and it also contained some additional decrees. In response to the dwindling buffalo populations, the Cree were promised protection if they were to suffer from famine during their conversion to agriculture, in other words the Canadian Government agreed to send food relief in times of need. The other major provision added to Treaty 6 was that each Indian agent would maintain a fully stocked medicine chest to be utilized by the Cree in the event of any disease outbreaks.

Life After Treaty 6

After the signing of Treaty 6, Mistawasis maintained a close relationship to the crown authorities. He used his power to attempt to stop the flow of alcohol into his people’s territory, his work in doing so was one of the reasons the Canadian Government created the Northwest Mounted Police, to help in this venture. He is also responsible for the establishment of Mistawasis First Nation, which was named after him. Mistawasis would later allow a Presbyterian Mission to be established on his reserve. Mistawasis maintained a positive relationship with the Canadian Government during the 1885 Riel Rebellion, when he offered to defend the city of Prince Albert from any incursion by Riel. Mistawasis was in attendance at the unveiling of the Joseph Brant Memorial in 1886. During this visit to Ontario he met Prime Minister John A. MacDonald, and became enamored with the culture and technology of Canada.

Death

Like his birth date, the exact date of Mistawasis’ death is also not known. Dates of 1886, 1896 , and 1903  have all been given as the true date. After his death he was succeeded as chief by his grandson George Dreaver, who remained Chief until he passed away in 1938.