Description
The Chief: Mistahimaskwa (Big Bear) is one book in the Tales from Big Spirit series by David Alexander Robertson from Highwater Press. Tales from Big Spirit is a unique seven-book graphic novel series that delves into the stories of seven great Indigenous heroes from Canadian history—some already well known and others who deserve to be. Designed to correspond to grades 4–6 social studies curriculums across Canada, these full colour graphic novels could be used in literature circles, novel studies, and book clubs to facilitate discussion of social studies topics. The story opens with a contemporary First Nation student Sarah on her way to school one day, Sarah is relieved to find the book she’d dropped the day before – shortly after an encounter with a bear. But when she opens it, the story within, about the Cree chief Mistahimaskwa, comes alive. It takes Sarah back to the Saskatchewan Plains of 1832, where the young boy who would become the great chief first learns the ways of his people, to the final days of his life. Big Bear was a Plains Cree chief born about 1825, probably near Fort Carlton (Sask.); and died 17 Jan. 1888 on the Poundmaker Reserve (Sask.). Big Bear endeavoured to keep his people free from reserve confinement and maintain their buffalo hunting economic activities. When the Canadian government forced a treaty on the Plains Cree, Big Bear fought to maintain Cree rights and traditions.