Fearless Chief Piapot brought peace to his land and people

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Back in 1816, a part of Plains Cree was camped near what is now the border between Canada and the United States. One very sulty day, when storm clouds had gathered low overhead, rumbling with the breath of the Thunder Bird, a son was born to a young Cree couple.

It was a custom of the Cree to name a child for whatever object or incident was first observed when the baby's cry indicated a new life had begun. As this little Cree child began to cry there was a great flash of lightning leaping across the sky. So the newcomer was named Kisikawasan Awasis (Flash in the Sky Boy).

He had a grandmother in the camp and this wise old women felt that the child would someday be a great leader of the Cree; a medicine man, perhaps a chief. So she took over the care of the infant while the young parents resumed hunting and preparing food for the band.

Not long after his birth, some of the hunters, far out on the prairie, came upon a lonely whiteman who had been left behind by a party of explorers because he was sick. The hunters took the man back to camp and gave him shelter, food and tried to nurse him back to health. They did not know that the man had smallpox.

Smallpox was the terror of all Indians since the first terrible epidemic had spread like fire among them a generation before this time, killing thousands. The one instinct of the Indians was flight. So when they realized what had happened, they rode off in all directions, abandoning all those who were unable to follow them. Survival of the few depended on their ruthlessness, for there was nothing they could do to combat the horrible disease.

Presently there was no one left in the camp except the grandmother and her helpless grandson. Neither of them were infected with the smallpox but the future looked grim because there was no one to hunt for them and no other food within the reach of the old woman. With the determination of the Indian she began setting up a shelter for herself and the child from the bits and pieces the others had left behind them and built a little teepee form pieces of buffalo hides. She kept the child alive by going about gathering old buffalo bones and boiling them in a kind of bag made of buffalo hides hung on stakes, dropping hot stones into the water to make soup.

Autumn was approaching and the grandmother had no means of coping with the winter weather that was not far off. But she went bravely on, buoyed up by her secret belief that this was a child destined for greatness. Some dogs had also been abandoned and one day as she was sitting with the child on her knees, she noticed that the dogs were uneasy and restless and sometimes howled. She became alert because it seemed to indicate that someone or something was not far off. It was not long before a part of Sioux (Dakota), a hunting party from the south, came to the campsite. She was terrified of the traditional enemy of her people and had hidden in her shelter. The Sioux, when they saw human bodies lying around turned to ride away. But one of them saw a movement under the shelter and they rode over to the pile of skins. When they found the old woman with a fine baby boy in her arms, they took them both prisoners and rode off with them toward Dakota territory.

In the Sioux country the woman and the boy were well cared for. The boy grew up speaking Sioux and was taught all the skills of a Sioux hunter and warrior. When he was about fourteen years of age, a Cree was party attacked the Sioux camp. The grandmother, seeing the attackers and hearing their family language cried out that she was a Cree and pointed to Kisikawasan Awasis, telling them who he was. She convinced them and the victorious Cree rode away to the north taking the boy and the grandmother with them back to their favorite country, the headwaters of the Qu'Appelle River. The year was around 1830.

IN the camp of his own people, Flash In The Sky Boy had to learn to speak his own language and to pick up the habits and customs of he band. He was an object of great interest, for he could now tell them a great deal about the Sioux that they had not known before. The Cree laughingly called him Nehiyowapwat (The Sioux Cree). This came to be accepted as the name of the band, for now they had acquired the skills of the two cultures, their own and that of the Sioux. To this day the Cree name for this band is Nehiyowapwat.

A brother of Flash In The Sky Boy gave him a nickname, "Piapot," which means 'a hole in the Sioux', meaning probably that he had made a breach in the secret life of their enemies, the Sioux, and brought them intimate knowledge of the Sioux way of life. The nickname stuck to the boy and he became known in history as Piapot.

As he grew to manhood he proved to be remarkable in many ways. He was a famous warrior and had a reputation as an outstanding fighter among the tribes in the West.

There was a story told of a fight that took place between the Blackfoot and the Cree. During the battle, Piapot ran to the place where the enemy had dug rifle pits, grabbed a Blackfoot warrior by the hair, dragged him out of the trench to the Cree lines and scalped him there. Later on, when his young wife gave birth to a baby boy, Piapot named his infant son 'Dragging Him' after the incident.

No one knew when Piapot became chief but undoubtedly it was when he was a mature man, at the height of his skill as a hunter and warrior, which may have been in the 1840s.

Chief Piapot wanted to make peace with the enemy tribes. He sent a messenger into Blackfoot country with an invitation to attend a peace council. The Blackfoot responded by sending a large war party, not in peace as he had requested, but painted for war. They came galloping toward the Cree camp, chanting their warcry.

The Cree warriors came out of their lodges and stood behind Chief Piapot. They were armed and ready for action. Their warcry split the air. It was echoed by the women far back in the camp. The chant of the Blackfoot deepene and rose to a shrill cry. Piapot lifted his hand and waved his own warriors back. He walked forward, stood alone, and faced the Blackfoot chief.

Piapot said his people were tired of war. They had conquered all invading tribes until their territory covered the prairies from the Red River to the Rocky Mountains, and from the Saskatchewan River to the Missouri. Piapot said that he wanted peace but if the Blackfoot had come for a battle then the first one to come forward would have to fight him in hand-to-hand combat.

Piapot jerked his knife out of its sheath and shouted at the Blackfoot, challenging anyone of them to come forward and to test his skill in a single fight. There was moment of uneasy silence. Piapot stood there, waiting, knife poised in his hand, his dark eyes flashing but none of the Blackfoot came forward to meet his challenge.

Finally, Piapot lowered his knife and said that if none of the Blackfoot chose to fight then they must remain in their own territory.

This incident was a factor in bringing peace between the two enemy nations and thereafter the name of Piapot was spoken with great respect around the campfires of the Cree.

In 1883, Piapot agreed to go to a reserve south of Sintaluta. The Cree had always been a proud and free people and the long journey across the plains to a restricted way of life was new experience for them was not any better than the Indians expected. It was worse. The winter was extremely cold. The food rations provided by the government were sickening and disease took its toll. Of the 350 Cree who followed Piapot to the reserve, more than one-quarter died before spring.

After consulting his people, he decided to move to a better location, to the Qu'Appelle Valley, where he had wanted to go in the first place. He wanted to return to the valley, where he had hunted the buffalo and deer and where life was pleasant. Even the most arrogant whiteman would not be able to stop him from trying to save his people from starvation.His order to prepare to move was welcomed by his followers and in late 1884, the Cree were moving again.

His decision to move was in direct defiance of government orders which made it very clear that the Indians were to remain on the reserve. Piapot knew the regulations but he also knew that his people were dying and that his decision to leave was right. If a fight became necessary he had something to fight for.

The Mounties were notified of the Indian departures from the reserve and somewhere along the way, the police officers intercepted the Indians and served notice upon the chief to halt and return to his reserve. Piapot told the Mounties in simple but firm words that he and his followers were going forward and that not a single one would be turning back. They were going to Qu'Appelle, where they should have been granted a reserve in the first place. And the police, seeing the determination in the chief's face and seeing his logic as well, stepped aside and the Indians continued on their way.

The Qu'Appelle never looked better to Piapot. He and his followers made camp beside the Fishing Lakes. They built cabins from logs, and the Government of Canada wisely carved out a new reserve and Piapot and his people settled down on a permanent reserved named after him.