Little Bear (Cree) facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Little Bear
âyimisîs ᐋᔨᒥᓰᐢ
Little Bear in 1895
Cree leader
Personal details
Died	1921
Children	Four Souls
Parent	Big Bear
Nickname	Macquettoquet

Little Bear (also known as âyimisîs or Macquettoquet) was an important Cree leader. He lived in parts of what are now Canada and the United States during the late 1800s and early 1900s. He is remembered for his role in the 1885 North-West Rebellion in Canada.

Little Bear's Early Life

Little Bear was the son of a well-known tribal leader named Big Bear. We don't know his exact birth date, but he was likely born in the mid-1800s. He probably spent his childhood in areas that are now Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming.

Little Bear once shared that his father lived near the Snake River in Idaho. Later, his family moved to the Butte, Montana area to hunt for buffalo and other animals.

Joining the Black Hills War

Little Bear is believed to have taken part in the Great Sioux War of 1876, also called the Black Hills War. Most of the fighting in this war happened in Montana and northeastern Wyoming. After the war, many Cree people moved north into Canada or west. However, Little Bear and his family stayed in northern Montana.

The North-West Rebellion

In early 1885, the Cree people living in what is now Saskatchewan fought against the Canadian government in the North-West Rebellion. The Cree lost this conflict.

During the rebellion, a Cree leader named Wandering Spirit led a group of fighters, including Little Bear. They attacked a settlement called Frog Lake. Nine people were killed in this event, which became known as the Frog Lake Massacre.

Returning to the United States

After the rebellion ended, Little Bear and another leader named Lucky Man escaped from Canadian authorities. They gathered their people and traveled back to Montana. They managed to cross the border near Babb, Montana in 1885. They found a hiding place on the Blackfeet reservation in the U.S.

Little Bear and his group were later arrested at Fort Assinniboine in December 1885. But they were soon released by orders from Washington, D.C.. For the next two years, Little Bear's group stayed near Fort Assinniboine. Sometimes, the fort's officers hired the Cree people to cut wood.

Little Bear was seen as a leader for the Ojibwa people in the Basin, Montana area. His people also visited the Flathead Reservation. This made the agent for the Flathead Indians, Peter Ronan, unhappy.

Little Bear and his group tried to get a permanent home on either the Blackfeet or Flathead reservations, but they were not successful. Many people in Montana, both Native and non-Native, did not want Little Bear's group to stay. They argued that Little Bear was not born in the United States. They wanted him and his Ojibwa followers to be sent back to Canada.

In 1888, the United States made the Blackfeet reservation smaller. It was divided into three smaller reservations: the Blackfeet, Fort Belknap, and Fort Peck reservations. Life became very hard for Little Bear and his people, and they often faced hunger.

In 1895, Little Bear and his group joined the Montana Wildest West Show as performers. This was a risky move. Little Bear wanted to make sure the show would travel to Washington, D.C. He hoped to meet President Grover Cleveland there and ask for a reservation for his people. He was worried that his group might get stuck far from home.

After thinking it over, Little Bear signed a six-month contract. The Cree people toured with the show for six weeks, visiting twenty-three cities. The tour ended in Bellevue, Kentucky. Just as Little Bear feared, the show went bankrupt, and the Cree were stranded.

Unable to travel to Washington D.C., Little Bear met with Secretary of War Daniel S. Lamont at Fort Thomas, Kentucky. On their way to the fort, the Cree camped by the Ohio River. A crowd of local citizens, led by the mayor, threatened them with jail if they didn't leave the state. The sheriff took them to the fort. At first, the commanding officer wouldn't let them camp. Finally, Little Bear got permission to camp for one night. The next morning, he spoke to Secretary Lamont through an interpreter. Lamont refused to help, saying the war department had nothing to do with their situation.

Little Bear and his people went back to Cincinnati. There, they signed a contract with the Cincinnati Zoological Gardens. The zoo paid them to camp on its grounds as an exhibit. Little Bear turned down an offer for his people to stay at the zoo permanently. By mid-July, the Cree had earned enough money to travel by train back to Montana.

Deportation to Canada

In 1896, the United States sent Little Bear, Lucky Man, and hundreds of other landless Cree and Ojibwa people from Montana back to Canada. Little Bear and Lucky Man were worried they might face the death penalty for their part in the attacks at Frog Lake. When they arrived in Canada, they were arrested.

One story says they were put on trial for the massacre and found not guilty. Another story says no charges were brought against Little Bear because the evidence was not strong enough.

Little Bear settled in Canada, possibly at Onion Lake. In 1898, he traveled with John McDougall to Ottawa. He went to complain about how the government was treating his people.

He soon returned to Montana.

Working for a Reservation

Little Bear knew he had to work with the Chippewa leader Rocky Boy if the Native groups in Montana who had no land were to get reservations. In 1902, Rocky Boy and Little Bear tried to get a reservation or official tribal recognition on the Flathead reservation. However, a bill to create a reservation for other landless tribes on Flathead land failed in 1904.

From 1905 to 1911, Little Bear contacted Canadian leaders several times. He asked for land for some of the Cree people in Montana. At least five First Nations reserves were set aside for the Chippewa of Montana. These include the Onion Lake, Samson, Ermineskin, Louis Bull, and Montana First Nations. In 1910, Little Bear and his tribe joined the Rocky Boy Reservation.

The Babb Chippewa Reservation

In 1909, the United States created a new Chippewa reservation within the Blackfeet reservation in Montana. It was located between Saint Mary Lake, Babb, and the Canada–US border. Chief Rocky Boy was the first to settle there, followed by Little Bear and his people. About 200 Chippewa and Cree people settled in this area.

The Rocky Boy Reservation

Hundreds of Chippewa and Cree people still did not have land. So, Rocky Boy and Little Bear worked even harder to get another reservation in Montana. Rocky Boy's brother, Pennahto, told Little Bear to ask for the old Fort Assinniboine Military Reservation to be set aside as a new reservation. Neither Pennahto nor Rocky Boy lived to see the Rocky Boy Reservation created.

After the Rocky Boy Reservation was officially established in 1916, Little Bear became its first chairman. He was an old man by this time. Little Bear passed away in 1921, at around eighty years old.