imasees (Little Bear)
son of Cree chief Big Bear
participant at the Frog Lake massacre, where
He was lucky not to be hanged when the perpetrators of the incidnet were prosecuted.
it seems that there were two Little Bears at Frog Lake that day in 1885 when things went so terribly wrong.
Little Bear/Imasees might have been a terror that day but it seems the other Little Bear took the punishment for him.
A few months later, Apaschiskoos was hanged on that gruesome day of Nov. 27, 1885 alongside seven others. This is said to be the largest mass hanging in Canadian history.
Sometimes it is said that the hanged men were Cree chiefs and they were hanged as an example to other Natives.
The make-an-example part may be true but it seems it was not as clear as that - most of the eight were not chiefs and even though Apaschiskoos is said to be a chief, that statement might arise from confusion with Imasees, a son of chief Big Bear, who was there at Frog Lake that day and in the normal course of events would likely have ascended to the post of chief of the band same as his father.
Intended to be an example or not, the punishment was not unusually harsh for the time (although hanging eight at once was indeed unusual) - hanging was common punishment for murderers, and the eight had been found guilty of murdering outside the rebellion - they had killed civilians.
So perhaps the wrong Little Bear was hanged.
But it seems the surviving Little Bear - Imasees - went on to accomplish much in his life.
Little Bear went on to be a leader of his people, founding a reserve in Montana and then, upon returning to Canada, founding the Montana Reserve at Muskwacis in late 1890s.
(see "Little Bear", Edmonton Bulletin, March 15, 1897, p. 2)
The Edmonton Bulletin (April 27, 1907) reported:
"Big Bear went to Stony Mountain, Manitoba [prison] for two years. Shortly after his release in 1887, he died at Battleford.
His youngest son, long grown up, now lives on one of the reserves in that vicinity.
Another son, Imasees, the real instigator of the Frog Lake massacre, now popularly known as Little Bear, is roaming about in Montana with a remnant of the old following of his father.
Nayokeealkopeniss, Four-Sky Thunder, is the only red man prominent in the tragic affair who still makes the Saskatchewan [Sask. River district] his home. He served several years in the Manitoba penitentiary and now lives on a reserve near Battleford. He was a prominent councillor of Big Bear.
Wandering Spirit ... was one of the number who died on the scaffold...."
Other newspaper reports on the Rebellion include:
W.J. Carter recalls the battles -- Edmonton Bulletin, March 26, 1914, p. 2
Reminiscences of participants - Edmonton Capital, January 27, 1910, p. 6
"The Alberta Scouts - A Detailed Account of their Campaign" Calgary Herald, July 22, 1885, p. 3 ( in which it is reported that scout John Whitford identified a Native shot and killed three miles below Fort Pitt on May 27th as "Me-qua-nook, "chief of and instigator of the Frog Lake massacre". This name is not mentioned in Myrna Kostash's in-depth book, The Frog Lake Reader.)
seems to also describe Battle of Frenchman's Butte (which he knew as "Standoff"), which was got around on June 1 to find the Natives already gone,
and Battle of Loon Lake (June 3), where Fury and West were shot. After Loon Lake with no promised reinforcements appearing, the force, carrying its wounded with them, retreated 120 kms in 24 hours. Major Steele, officer in command of the Alberta scouts, asked Middleton for permission to have his scouts pursue and bring in Big Bear. But the general instead ordered a general retreat, thus denying the Alberta scouts the honour that was their due for "their efficiency and brave conduct in the field."
======
Notes on the rebellion
Myrna Kostash (p. 114) says Frenchman's Butte is south of the site of the battle of that name.
Mulvaney's book (I think it is that book) makes reference to a soldier there wondering how the trees on the hill had grown up so tall in the few years since he was last on Frenchman's Butte.
======================
Big Bear said to have surrendered at Carlton because Srgt. Smart, a friend of his, was stationed there.
and other source says he was hiding on an island near the Carlton ferry and eh loca HBC man told Srgt. Smart of this, and he went with 11 men and Big Bear easily gave up upon their arrival. (Ill. War News, July 25, 1885)
(Perhaps that makes sense - Big Bear did not want to just walk into the post not knowing who would be there at that moment.)
I found some reference in the Edm. Bulletin that Big Bear had a friend at Carlton but can't find it now.)
=============
コメント