Neekaneet (Foremost Man) National Historic Person
Maple Creek, Saskatchewan
Plain Indians
(© Expired; United States Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs / ID cph.3a51399)
Address :
Maple Creek, Saskatchewan
Recognition Statute:
Historic Sites and Monuments Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. H-4)
Designation Date:
1981-11-13
Life Date:
1874 to 1897
Other Name(s):
-
Neekaneet (Foremost Man)
(Designation Name)
Research Report Number:
1981-048
Importance:
Plains Cree chief, followers settled in Cypress Hills in 1880s
Plaque(s)
Existing plaque: Maple Creek, Saskatchewan
This Cree chief was the leader of the last band of Plains Indians to settle on a reserve in Canada. In the 1880s, while all other Plains Indians were induced to settle on reserves farther north, a small group who wanted to live in the Cypress Hills banded together under Neekaneet's leadership. Refused a reserve in the area and deprived of government treaty benefits, he and his followers remained there, though they suffered many hardships. Neekaneet died in the Cypress Hills on 16 May 1897, but his band endured and was granted a reserve here in 1913.