Maskipeton

Maskipeton. Alberta's History. , Who was Maskipeton? He was a Cree, born around 1807. He became chief and led a Cree band that hunted south of today's Edmonton, but that also ranged into Saskatchewan and Montana. He traded into the Missouri River area. He was a warrior, respected by his people and feared by his enemies. , He may have been a traveler. A man called Maskipeton, or Broken Arm, accepted an invitation to go to Washington in 1831 to meet President Andrew Jackson. He had his portrait painted on the way in St. Louis. , He was a guide, taking parties of white settlers through the mountains in 1841, 1851, and 1854. He guided and counseled Captain John Palliser from near Fort Qu'Appelle to the elbow of the South Saskatchewan River in 1857. Maskipeton told the party to cut wood in the river valleys and haul it with them on their carts. There would be no wood on the prairie. , He was a thinker and a statesman. A friend to the missionaries, he shared letters and hospitality with Robert Terrill Rundle. He noted the differences in Christian teachings, and the strength of native spiritual beliefs. He received travelers eagerly, spreading fine buffalo robes and food before artist Paul Kane and talking late into the night. He represented the Cree people in 1855, signing Lame Bull's Treaty between the Blackfoot Confederacy and the United States government. , He was a peacemaker who forgave his father's killer, and tried to end hostilities between the Cree and the Blackfoot, Blood, and Peigan tribes. He was said to walk unarmed and alone into Blackfoot camps as a sign of peace. Or were these actions a sign of a great warrior who did not fear his enemies? He died in 1869 at the hands of Big Swan, a Blackfoot.