Wandering Spirit

The title of this article is ambiguous. Wandering Spirit is also a solo album by Mick Jagger .

Wandering Spirit (* around 1845; † November 27, 1885 in Battleford in Saskatchewan ; also Kapapamahchakwew , Papamahchakwayo , Esprit Errant ) was a chief of the Cree . He was the massacre at Frog Lake (Frog Lake Massacre), which during the Northwest Rebellion known took place. Under his leadership, young warriors of the Cree attacked the small town on April 2, 1885 and killed ten men.

War chief

Wandering Spirit is considered a typical war chief of the Cree, who had gained personal prestige through acts of war. He is said to have killed 11 or 13 Blackfoot Indians, who were considered arch enemies in the eyes of these warriors. He liked to wear a full lynx skin . As a war chief, he was responsible for the actual conduct of the war, as well as special guard duties, but also tasks at festivals and when hunting buffalo . Hence, the slaughter of the buffalo by white hunters was a source of great bitterness.

Frog Lake Massacre

Poundmaker, Big Bear, his son, Father Andre, Father Conchin, Chief Stewart, Captain Deane, Mr. Robertson and an interpreter, photo v. OB Buell 1885

The same thing happened to the tribe of Chief Big Bear , but hunger forced him to sign Contract 6 of the Numbered Treaties . In the winter of 1884 to 1885, Big Bears camped out near Frog Lake, where a Catholic mission and a representative of the Department of Indian Affairs was located. There, the Indian agent Thomas Trueman Quinn excelled when it came to enforcing the principle of no work, no ration (no work, no food).

A few years earlier the tribe had met Louis Riel , one of the most important leaders of the Métis, on the hunt for the few remaining buffalo . After the Métis defeated the North-West Mounted Police in the Battle of Duck Lake and saw their independence within their grasp, Wandering Spirit saw an opportunity to start a successful uprising. So he and his warriors attacked the small town of Frog Lake.

Wandering Spirit and his men forced the twelve settlers in the area to gather in a church. The Indian agent Thomas Quinn strictly refused to allow himself to be carried as a prisoner and was killed after a heated argument. The Cree then shot at the settlers, killing nine of them. Three more, two women and the Hudson's Bay Company representative , were spared and captured.

Riot attempt, divisions, victory at Frenchman Butte

Wandering Spirit hoped for a general rebellion of the non-whites and to drive them out of the country. When he noticed that the whites at Fort Pitt were trying to split the tribes of the Plains Cree and the less militant Wood Cree , only the intervention of Chief Big Bear could prevent a second massacre from occurring. When his tribe moved on to Poundmaker [Pðtikwahanapiwðyin] at Battleford , Wandering Spirit held a thirst dance to resolve the dispute.

When Major-General Thomas Bland Strange's troops approached, he broke off his ceremony and tried to offer them open resistance. On May 28, he and his warriors succeeded in repelling the troops at Frenchman Butte .

Trial and Execution

Wandering Spirit was now seeking refuge with the Wood Cree who had left Big Bear. Apparently his conscience plagued him so badly that his hair turned gray. He even tried to kill himself, but was carried to court on a stretcher.

Charles-Borromée Rouleau, who was not trained for this, became his judge. Wandering Spirit confessed to the Indian agent's murder but refused to explain his reasons. He was sentenced to death on November 22, 1885 and executed five days later in Battleford, Saskatchewan . Seven other Indians died next to him. The day before his execution, he regretted having believed that he could drive the whites out and restore traditional life.

When he stood on the scaffold , he is said not to have uttered curses or war cries like the others, but to have quietly sung a love song to his wife.

literature

• Stuart Hughes (Ed.): The Frog Lake “massacre”. personal perspectives on ethnic conflict. Toronto 1976

Web links

• Kapapamahchakwew . In: Dictionary of Canadian Biography . 24 volumes, 1966–2018. University of Toronto Press, Toronto ( English , French ).