Big Bear
Glenbow Archives (NA-1270-1)
CHAPTER
2
Big Bear was a small man with a big heart. Through his mystic visions, he developed a deep fear for the survival of the Plains Cree. He steadfastly stood up for the rights of his people at tremendous personal cost.
Mistahimusqua—Big Bear—was born about 1825 into a band of Plains Cree who lived in the area of Jackfish Lake, north of today’s city of North Battleford, Saskatchewan. He was the son of Black Powder, a Cree chief. His mother may have been from the Ojibwa nation.
Black Powder’s band lived on the northern edge of the buffalo range, partly on the plains, partly in the woods. In the summer, the band ventured onto the open prairie to hunt buffalo. In winter, they hunted deer, moose and even beaver in the woodlands and lakes to the north. The closest HBC outposts were Fort Carlton and Fort Pitt, each about 130 kilometres away, one to the east, the other west.
In 1837, when Big Bear was 12 years old, he caught smallpox but survived. Though his face was deeply scarred by the disease, his countenance was wise and open. He loved to laugh and tell stories. He was also a private person, meditative and spiritual in nature.
Big Bear spent his youth in the free-roaming days, when horse-stealing raids and war parties against enemy tribes were opportunities for a young man to prove himself. As son of a chief, Big Bear was expected to be even more bold and fearless than his companions. He certainly revealed these traits, but the Cree also respected Big Bear for another reason: his amazing visions.
Big Bear’s Visions
Throughout his life, Big Bear used his dreams and visions to guide his decisions and actions. Three of his visions had special significance.
The first of these came to him while he was recovering from smallpox. In this disturbing vision, Big Bear foresaw the coming of European settlers, the mass suffering of his people and the surrender of Native lands. Merely a boy at the time, Big Bear could hardly give credit to this vision. After all, buffalo were plentiful, the Cree ruled a large territory, tormented their Blackfoot enemies and there were only a handful of traders, trappers and other Europeans throughout the North-West. How could such a thing as settlers overrunning Cree lands come to pass?
In the second vision, a spirit offered Big Bear the opportunity for great wealth as the owner of many horses, but first he would have to succeed in a test. The spirit took Big Bear to a cave filled with fine horses and instructed him to walk through the milling herd to capture the single horse he would find in the centre. In his dream, Big Bear boldly strode into the herd until he encountered a stallion that reared up, flailing his front hooves. The young chief moved to protect himself. Instantly, the cave was empty, except for the spirit who told Big Bear that because of his foolish action, he would never be wealthy in horses. Big Bear interpreted this dream to mean that even when he was successful in horse-stealing raids, he should keep only one or two and give the other horses away—which he always did. Throughout his life, Big Bear was known for his generosity.
As a young man seeking guidance through a vision, Big Bear went alone to a sacred place on the Red Deer River to fast and meditate. During his vision quest, Big Bear had the most powerful of his three famous visions, which in turn led to an incident that has become a legend among the Cree.
A bear spirit appeared and offered lifelong protection if Big Bear would go back to his camp and prepare a medicine bundle according to the bear spirit’s direction. Thereafter, the Plains Cree people held Big Bear in great reverence because it was rare and exceptional for a bear spirit to honour a young person in this way.
Some time afterward, Black Powder’s band was camped far to the southwest of their usual home territory. Black Powder took several hunters in search of buffalo, leaving young men, including Big Bear, in charge of the camp. In the afternoon, Big Bear left the camp and ventured out to look for buffalo himself. He rode a long way and was alone on the prairie.
As he rode up a ridge, he heard horses behind him. Turning, to his horror, he saw Blackfoot warriors galloping after him. He knew that if the fighters caught him, they would kill him, then go looking for the rest of his band and family. Big Bear rode over the ridge and into a coulee choked with willow brush. He jumped from his horse’s back and rolled under some bushes to hide. The Blackfoot men came into the coulee and thoroughly searched for their Cree quarry. Incredibly, they failed to find him. Big Bear waited a long time, finally daring to emerge and walk back to camp. When he told his story, the band was awestruck. Clearly, Big Bear had the power to become invisible to his enemies, a direct benefit of his bear-spirit protector.
In his 20s, Big Bear married an Ojibwa woman, with whom he had several children. In later years, one of his sons, Imasees (Bad Child), would cause much trouble and heartache to Big Bear.
Black Powder died in the 1860s when Big Bear was about 40 years old, well advanced in years and wisdom. Having proved himself in battle and having a reputation as a mystic, due to his many visions and his powerful bear-spirit protector, Big Bear took over his father’s position as chief. At the time, his band consisted of about 100 people, but he would become a leader and spokesman for the entire Cree nation.
Treaty Six: Seeking a Better Deal
In the fall of 1875, the Reverend George McDougall came to Big Bear’s camp with gifts of tobacco and a message: the Dominion government wanted to gather all the Cree peoples and make a treaty with them. There would be two treaty meetings, one at Fort Carlton (near the confluence of the North and South Saskatchewan rivers, in the vicinity of the present-day city of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan), the other at Fort Pitt (east of Edmonton).
Because Big Bear and his band still lived on the northern edge of the plains near Jackfish Lake, McDougall said the Cree leader should go to the Fort Pitt meeting. Big Bear was not impressed. “We want none of the Queen’s presents,” he told McDougall. Distrustful and cautious, he saw the gifts as bait for a trap the government was preparing for the Cree.
As arranged, government representatives and their interpreters came to Fort Carlton on August 18, 1876. Alexander Morris, the lieutenant-governor of the North-West, spent a day explaining the terms of the treaty and assuring the assembled Cree that the Great Mother—Queen Victoria—thought of the plains peoples as her children. If they signed the treaty, she would give her Native children reserve lands, money and gifts. She would send government men to help them settle and teach them how to raise potatoes and wheat. In return, she expected the Cree to respect the laws of the land. Though there was some dissent, the assembled chiefs signed the treaty, and Morris carried on to repeat the process at Fort Pitt.
Morris came to Fort Pitt armed not just with his treaty proposal, but with some strong opinions about the Cree leaders he was about to meet. George McDougall had told Morris that Big Bear was “an outsider, a troublesome fellow” who had no political power but great spiritual power, which he used to intimidate the other Cree chiefs. Because of McDougall’s unfavourable opinion, Big Bear gained an undeserved reputation as a mischief-maker. Other Cree chiefs, notably Sweet Grass, had more favourable standing with McDougall, even though Big Bear was a more senior and powerful leader than Sweet Grass.
When Morris arrived, he learned that many chiefs and their bands—including Big Bear—were on the plains hunting buffalo. There were more than 100 Cree lodges camped at Fort Pitt, but the vast majority belonged to Woods Cree, who seldom ventured onto the plains to hunt. The concerns of the Woods and Plains Cree bands were very different, but Morris had no way of knowing that. He only knew that Chief Sweet Grass was likely to sign the treaty and could sway the opinions of the other chiefs who were present. Morris decided to proceed.
A council was swiftly called among all the chiefs. Some of the council—Métis interpreter Peter Erasmus, for one—had been at Fort Carlton and could tell the others about what had happened there. Having acted as interpreter at Fort Carlton, Peter was in favour of the treaty and urged the chiefs to sign. They were inclined to agree. Without waiting for Big Bear, one by one, the Woods Cree chiefs put their marks on the document.
When Big Bear finally arrived at Fort Pitt, he was too late. The negotiations were over, though there was still time for him to sign the treaty before Morris departed. Big Bear tried to explain to Morris that the chiefs who had signed the treaty did not speak for the entire Cree nation. Big Bear told the governor that he would not sign the treaty until he had conferred with the Plains Cree not represented at Fort Pitt. The Woods Cree chiefs pressured him to give up his objections and sign. To this, Big Bear replied, “Stop, stop my friends. I have never seen the governor before. I will make a request that he will save me from what I most dread, the rope about my neck. It was not given to us by the Great Spirit that the red man or white man should shed each other’s blood.”
As was the custom of Aboriginal peoples, Big Bear was speaking symbolically. He was afraid to lose his freedom and didn’t want to be caught and tamed like a wild horse. He feared the ways of his people would be changed forever. But Peter Erasmus, an excellent translator, had already left Fort Pitt, and the person responsible for translating Cree into English made a complete hash of Big Bear’s words. The interpreter told Morris that Big Bear wanted assurance that no Native person would ever be hanged for the murder of a white person. Morris was outraged and proceeded to reprimand Big Bear, who must have wondered what on earth the governor was talking about.
Big Bear adamantly refused to sign until he had conferred with other Plains Cree chiefs and with members of his own band. He clearly understood that the buffalo were disappearing, that his people were suffering from disease, starvation and the effects of whisky—all the disasters foretold by the disappearance of the Iron Stone and in his own long-ago vision. He knew something had to be done, but what? He was opposed to taking a reserve and settling down. Instead, he wanted to find a way to protect the buffalo and to preserve Cree traditions and freedoms. He was determined to find a solution, but could not see what that solution might be. Meanwhile, he refused to sign the treaty. It would prove to be the costliest decision of his life.
For the next six years, Big Bear continued to hold out against Treaty Six. He continued to believe that signing the treaty would be the death of his people, that they would be forced onto a reserve, abandoned and forgotten. He was also convinced that unless all Native peoples of the plains stood together in solidarity and demanded better treatment, their cause would fail. For his courageous stand, his reputation as a troublemaker continued to grow, and the government would not negotiate with him. He waited in vain to get a better deal for his people.
Meanwhile, his people descended into poverty and starvation. Although other Cree bands weren’t much better off, at least those who signed the treaty and took reserve lands were entitled to food rations and treaty payments. Not so Big Bear and his followers. They were left without assistance. The pressure on Big Bear to affix his name to the treaty was intense. His people were destitute and he could save them, if only he would sign!
Like other bands of the Blackfoot and Cree, Big Bear led his band south of the Canada-US border in search of buffalo. They stayed in Montana for a time, but in April 1882, he brought his people back to camp near Fort Walsh in the Cypress Hills, in southwestern Saskatchewan. Big Bear had still not signed Treaty Six, so he and his band were not entitled to the daily rations that the NWMP were handing out to the others camped at Fort Walsh.
The Cree were starving, but Big Bear’s family and followers were the most destitute of all. His band had nothing to eat. They huddled in ripped tipis that let in the wind and rain and wore the barest of shreds and rags. Big Bear hung on, despite the pleas of his family to sign the treaty so they could have whatever meagre rations the government was handing out.
He would not sign.
Things went from bad to worse. Finally, a woman of his band had enough. Her children were crying from hunger and she couldn’t stand it any more. This woman—Big Bear’s own daughter—went behind her chief’s back and signed the treaty. Many of the band members followed her lead, including another of Big Bear’s daughters and two of his sons, Twin Wolverine and Imasees.
Then on December 8, 1882, it seemed that the old chief’s iron will had broken. Big Bear walked into the Indian agent’s office at Fort Walsh, in the company of those brave and determined Cree who continued to stand with him. Wrapped in a torn blanket, he stood in silence. Then he began to speak. He explained—once again—his position: that the Cree, so accustomed to roving the plains in search of the buffalo, so used to the wind, sun and snow, could not simply forget their old ways and become farmers overnight. They would need assistance and patience. They were weak and hungry. They were like lost children. But the government ignored them and treated them like criminals when all they wanted was food.
Big Bear’s speech continued for four hours. At last, he could talk no more. His heart was empty. Big Bear signed the treaty.
Trouble Brewing
The following June, Big Bear and several other Cree leaders folded what little remained of their camp and left Fort Walsh. Accompanied by Indian agent Thomas Quinn and a detachment of mounted police, some 500 Cree began a three-week walk to their new reserve lands on the North Saskatchewan River.
But Big Bear was angry. As he walked, he stomped his fury into the hard ground. He had signed the treaty just six months earlier, but already the government had lied. According to the treaty terms, Big Bear was supposed to choose his reserve lands. But the government arbitrarily decided he should settle at Frog Lake, near Fort Pitt. When his band reached the Poundmaker reserve near Battleford, Big Bear halted and refused to proceed to Frog Lake. He and his band remained on the Poundmaker reserve until the spring of 1884. Because of his defiant action, the government refused to hand over the rations to which Big Bear and his band were entitled—another broken promise!
For those Cree leaders who had signed Treaty Six, conditions were almost as bad. The Canadian economy was in a tailspin and the government could not honour the treaty commitments. To save money, rations were reduced and many of the Indian agents and farm instructors lost their jobs. Big Bear’s fears were coming true: the plains people were being abandoned at the very moment when they most needed help.
All that winter, while he stayed on Poundmaker’s reserve, Big Bear’s discontent festered and grew into a rage that he could barely contain. He wanted so badly to unite the entire Cree nation, to speak out with one clear, loud voice that the government could not ignore.
Big Bear decided to hold a Thirst Dance to call together as many Cree as possible. They would sing and dance; they would pray and chant. They would speak together in councils. They would unite. They would cry out in a mighty yell together. This was his dream.
Big Bear sent messengers far and wide over the plains, with tobacco and an invitation to come to Poundmaker’s reserve. Discontented and hungry, many Cree and even Blackfoot answered the call. By June 1884, about 2,000 plains people had travelled to the reserve to join the Thirst Dance. Big Bear walked among them. He may have smiled to see his people laughing, to see children playing, to see women sharing what little food they had for their families. But what he really wanted was for the men to talk, not of war or rebellion, but of how they would beat the Canadian government at its own game, the game of politics.
Big Bear did not want bloodshed or violence. Around the Thirst Dance’s night fires, the dissatisfaction and anger, the distrust and hard feelings rose among the young Cree warriors. The burrs of lies, meagre rations and lost buffalo got under the skins of the young men and they began to speak of war. During the Thirst Dance, some young men went to get their daily rations, but the Indian agent refused them. One of the young Cree hit the agent with an axe handle. The fearful agent immediately reported the incident to the mounted police detachment in nearby Battleford. Two officers were dispatched to find the offending young men and bring them in to the jailhouse.
The officers rode out to the reserve to make their arrest. The Thirst Dance was in progress. All around, the police saw a whirl of painted faces and angry eyes. The agent could not recognize the young man who hit him. A bristling, ferocious crowd pressed around the agent and the two officers. The tension was thick as smoke when Big Bear calmly told the officers he would find the young men and bring them to Battleford after the dance was over. The police did not like this proposal but had no choice. They quickly left the dance and headed to the agent’s ration house. They sent a messenger to Battleford asking for help; reinforcements arrived overnight.
The next day, Big Bear and another Cree leader, Poundmaker, offered themselves for arrest in place of the hotheaded young warriors, but the police refused. A crowd had assembled a short distance away, and the officers were certain they could find the suspects. Foolishly, they rode into the crowd. One man came forward to explain the events that led to the assault, but instead of listening to him, the officers began hauling him back to their cabin. That lit the fuse.
The assembled Cree, with an angry scream born of starvation, fear and anger, charged forward. They knocked the officers from their horses and grabbed their weapons. The situation was set to explode, but in the midst of the mêlée, a strong voice rose. It was Big Bear urging his Cree warriors to calm down, to think. It was a message of peace.
The police made it to the safety of the ration house. Barricaded inside, the commanding officer suddenly thought of a way to end the hostilities: offer food. As the message spread that the police were handing out rations, the heat of the moment cooled.
Trouble Boils Over
Eventually, after enduring a bitter winter on the Poundmaker reserve, Big Bear and his band wearily drifted north to Frog Lake. They camped on another Cree reserve in March of 1885. By now, Big Bear wanted to be left alone to follow the old ways as best he could. Though the old chief seemed content to spend his days hunting, the young men of his band remained restless and angry. They did not want to lay down their ambitions for war. One man in particular spoke out hotly about rebellion and revenge. It was the band’s war chief, Wandering Spirit, and he had the ear of the young warriors of Big Bear’s camp.
In late March, while Big Bear went into the bush to trap, his son Imasees took over as chief. Relations between Imasees and Big Bear had been strained ever since Imasees signed Treaty Six behind his father’s back. Imasees, now chief of the band in all but name, was among the young men who heeded the defiant words of Wandering Spirit. Big Bear returned from his hunt and learned that Louis Riel and the Métis nation were in open revolt against the government. A local Indian agent, Thomas Quinn, asked Big Bear to make sure the restless young men of his band did not use the Métis rebellion as an opportunity to take up arms themselves. Big Bear replied, “My word as chief does not carry the weight it once did, but I will do what I can.”
The young men started a war dance, and Wandering Spirit incited them to attack the nearby settlement of Frog Lake. He said, “Tomorrow I will eat two-legged meat [kill a man]. If you don’t want to join me, go home and put on your wives’ dresses.” Following his lead, the warriors stopped their dancing and singing. In the dark, they crept through the woodlands to the tiny settlement, where they arrived in the early hours of Sunday, April 2, 1885. While some of the warriors forced their way into the settlers’ homes, others went to the HBC store and grabbed whatever goods they wanted. Big Bear was among them, telling them to stop, but the warriors ignored him.
Meanwhile, the settlers were herded into the village’s church where, incredibly, the two Roman Catholic priests were allowed to conduct a brief Mass. Big Bear stood at the back, hoping his presence would calm the situation. Wandering Spirit was also there with a rifle in his hands. The atmosphere inside the tiny log building was electric with tension. The settlers, not knowing what would happen next, shook with fear as they prayed.
Finally, the sermon ended. Wandering Spirit ordered the settlers back to the Cree camp as prisoners. The women and some of the men did as they were told and began walking out of the village, but Thomas Quinn refused to obey. Nose to nose, the two men argued. Suddenly, in a single, fluid movement, Wandering Spirit stepped back, raised his gun and shot Quinn in the head. The Frog Lake Massacre had begun.
On hearing shots in the village behind them, the other settlers screamed and began to run. The Cree warriors followed them into the bush and killed them. Big Bear ran after his young men, crying out for them to stop the killing, but the situation was out of his control. The war chief, Wandering Spirit, was in command now. Big Bear could only shout helplessly, his voice lost in the crack of rifle fire and the screams of the victims.
Two of the men were shot at close range as their terrified wives looked on. John Gowanlock died in his wife’s arms, but the Cree fighters forced her to abandon his body. One of the priests knelt over the body of another man. Wandering Spirit shot and wounded the priest, then another Cree warrior killed the clergyman with a second shot. In all, nine men, including the two Roman Catholic fathers, were gunned down. The remaining settlers became prisoners of Wandering Spirit, except for a young man who escaped and dashed to Fort Pitt, where he informed the NWMP detachment that Big Bear’s band of Cree had joined the Riel Rebellion.
Wandering Spirit now led his followers eastward to Fort Pitt to confront the police. He planned for the Cree to get food and ammunition, then carry on to the Battleford district, where more Cree would join them. With their prisoners in tow, it took many days to reach Fort Pitt. They arrived on April 14, by which time a HBC trader estimated there were 250 warriors. They surrounded the flimsy fort and demanded that the mounted police abandon it and leave the settlers as hostages.
The NWMP officer in charge at Fort Pitt was Frances Dickens, son of the famous author Charles Dickens. Though there was some shooting—two police constables were killed—Big Bear managed to negotiate a ceasefire long enough for the police to escape. Dickens and his men piled onto crude rafts and scurried down the North Saskatchewan River to Battleford, leaving some 40 defenceless villagers behind. The settlers were taken prisoner and the warriors looted their homes as well as the HBC storehouse. They then burned Fort Pitt to the ground and headed back to their camp at Frog Lake, prisoners in tow.
The Pursuit of Big Bear
Because he was known to the public as the troublesome leader of the Cree, Big Bear was blamed for the Frog Lake Massacre, the sacking and two murders at Fort Pitt, plus the long chase and two fierce bush battles that followed. Yet with the war council of Wandering Spirit in control of the band, the weary old chief was no more than a follower, powerless and without influence. The man who wanted only peace and a better life for his people was hunted mercilessly through the dense, boggy woodlands. Some 25 kilometres north of Fort Pitt, the Cree and their hostages made camp near a prominent hill known as Frenchman’s Butte. The warriors danced and sang victory songs, although they knew that soldiers were following them.
All the way from Calgary, under the command of General Thomas Strange, a combined force of mounted police, professional soldiers and barely trained militia headed north to put down the Cree rebellion. The Canadian army, led by General Frederick Middleton, was busy dealing with Riel so it fell to Strange and his troops to bring the Cree to surrender and free their prisoners. The man Strange most wanted to capture was Big Bear.
The troops caught up with the Cree at Frenchman’s Butte. Wandering Spirit had his warriors dig trenches in the hillside. From this vantage point, the Cree fighters could fire down on the advancing soldiers. Although the Cree had a tremendous tactical advantage, their weapons were old. The soldiers had cannons, which they trained on the hillside and fired. Outgunned, the Cree warriors abandoned their rifle pits and fled over the hilltop. Instead of pressing after them, Strange was short of ammunition and also withdrew.
In the Cree camp, it was pandemonium. The fighters came flying over the hill, crying that the soldiers were coming. Women and children, the elderly and sick, the hostages and others—including Big Bear—were tensely waiting. They fled into the bush. Wandering Spirit led them northward. He advised the band to use many different trails to confuse the pursuing soldiers, and he set fires and pushed over trees to create barriers and distractions. The band travelled swiftly and finally reached the shores of Loon Lake, 60 kilometres away.
Strange followed doggedly, but the going was slow. He sent the militia on ahead, under the command of NWMP inspector Sam Steele. Clad in his red police tunic and leading a motley crew of cowboys who became known as Steele’s Scouts, Steele caught up with the Cree at a spot where Loon Lake narrows to a marshy strait of water backed by dense pine forest. Again, the Cree fought, but exhaustion and panic overcame them and they began to run across the narrow neck of water and into the woods. The soldiers did not pursue them.
In the confusion that followed, the Cree split up. Wandering Spirit abandoned the main band and turned west. Big Bear’s son Imasees gained control of the remaining Cree and their hostages. He led them, at first, to the northeast. But when Imasees and his warriors decided to make a run for the US border, Big Bear dug in his heels, refusing to follow his son. Gradually, small groups of Cree defected from Big Bear’s group, but the old chief, fearing for his life, kept going. In the end, his only companions were his son Horse Child and a faithful friend named Two and Two. Together, the three fugitives wandered in the northern woods, frightened, tired and destitute. This brave old man, who once spoke for an entire nation, was now virtually alone in the wilderness—and, with Louis Riel already behind bars, public attention focused with intensity on Big Bear.
On July 4, 1885, his face deeply lined with worry and struggle, Big Bear walked out of the bush and surrendered at Fort Carlton.
“The Rope Around my Neck”
If the pursuit of Big Bear had been relentless, his trial was equally so. The public wanted justice and Big Bear’s name was well known. Even though Big Bear was not the war chief and was not in control of the decisions made at Frog Lake, Fort Pitt, Frenchman’s Butte or Loon Lake, he was public enemy number one. He had once spoken about his fear of “the rope around my neck,” referring to the loss of his freedom. Now, standing trial for his part in the Cree uprising, it seemed inevitable that he would soon feel a real rope around his neck.
Upon his surrender, Big Bear was transported to Regina to stand trial, which was set for September 11, 1885. Big Bear was charged with felony treason. He was not, however, charged with any of the murders at Frog Lake or Fort Pitt. A man named Beverley Robertson defended him, and David Scott was the Crown’s prosecutor. Hugh Richardson was the judge. Six men sat in the jury box hearing evidence.
Robertson did his best to discredit the Crown’s case against Big Bear. He tried to show that Big Bear was not in control of the band, that Imasees and Wandering Spirit were the real culprits. Despite testimony that supported Robertson’s case, the public image of Big Bear as a cruel and calculating leader was too strong in the jury’s minds. They convicted Big Bear, and he was sentenced to three years in prison in Winnipeg.
On hearing the verdict, Big Bear spoke—but his voice was raised not on his own behalf. Instead he pleaded for the welfare of his people. “I always thought it paid to do all the good I could. Now my heart is on the ground. I am dead to my people. Many of my band are hiding in the woods, paralysed with terror. Cannot this court send them a pardon? My own children, perhaps they are starving and outcast, afraid to appear in the light of day. If the government does not come to them with help before the winter sets in, my band will surely perish.”
Big Bear was a quiet prisoner. He spent as much time as he could tending the prison’s farm animals. After a year, many of the other Cree, who had been convicted of various crimes during the 1885 rebellion, had been released, but the government—and the public—were disinclined to let Big Bear go before his sentence was served. He stayed behind while Poundmaker and others went home. By the end of 1886, Big Bear, now in his 60s, fell ill. Finally, the prison doctors pressured the government to let him go. On January 27, 1887, Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald officially pardoned Big Bear.
But going back to his band was almost as bad as being in prison. His family was gone. His son Imasees had fled to Montana. His wife had left him. His people shunned him. Once a proud and caring man, Big Bear spent most of his remaining days in gloomy silence. He lived the last year of his life in lonely retreat in the lodge of his daughter, Earth Woman, on the Poundmaker reserve.
Weary, broken-hearted, painfully aware that the terrible vision of his youth had come true, Big Bear died in his sleep on January 17, 1888.
Big Bear
Glenbow Archives (NA-1270-1)