THE LIFE AND DEATH OF A WANDERING SPIRIT
Jul 06, 2021
4 minutes
BY GARRY RADISON
On Nov. 27, 1885, at Fort Battleford, on the North Saskatchewan River, Canadian authorities hanged Plains Cree war chief Wandering Spirit, who had ostensibly declared war against the government that April 2 by killing Indian Agent Tom Quinn upriver at the Frog Lake settlement (see related feature, P. 70). Though vilified by historians, Wandering Spirit maintains a measure of regard among the Crees for having defended his people when soldiers came west to enforce Canadian law over the objections of rebelling Métis and disaffected First Nations tribes.
In his memoir Saskatchewan pioneer William Bleasdell Cameron, who clerked for the Hudson’s Bay Co. at Frog Lake, described
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