Foremost Man, and His Band

Excerpt from Author, Pages 100-101:

Thirty years elapsed between the time that the buffalo disappeared and the year that Foremost Man’s band took a reserve. One generation of these treaty Indians of the plains never experienced the close attention or paternalism of the Department of Indian Affairs. Unlike Indians on reserves, they travelled widely on the plains; they enjoyed considerable independence and were free to make their own decisions. Nevertheless, they strove to obtain a reserve where, as they were well aware, their lives would be restricted by government supervision. It is possible that they felt that two greater ends were to be gained by obtaining a reserve. Granted by the government, a reserve would give them a secure right to live indefinitely in the Cypress Hills to which they had become strongly attached (they would accept a reserve nowhere else). In addition, a reserve would give them a secure right to live together on their own, communally-held land.

This latter sentiment indicates that the individualistic wage employment and entrepreneurship of the white society in which they had worked for thirty years had not diminished the communal, sharing ethic of their Cree heritage. Indeed, Foremost Man’s people do not seem to have been acculturated to any notable extent.

Perhaps the difficulties which they encountered in white society reinforced the validity of, and need for, maintaining their traditions. To meet their difficulties they continued to trust in familiar Indian practices rather than ask assistance of a government which they feared would force them to leave the Cypress Hills. For example, they rarely sought justice in Canadian courts, and never sent their children to public schools, or solicited welfare or medical care in times of want. They relied, instead, on traditional Cree mechanisms to resolve internal differences, instruct the young, provide for the needy and care for the sick." (pp. 100-101).