Little Bear (Native American leader)

Little Bear (born Ayimâsis or Macquettoquet) was a Cree leader who lived in the Alberta, Idaho, Montana, and Saskatchewan regions of Canada and the United States, in the 19th and early 20th centuries. He is known for his participation in the 1885 North-West Rebellion, which was fought in Alberta and Saskatchewan.

Son of tribal leader Big Bear, his exact date of birth is unknown, but some assume it to be in the mid-1800s. One account has him being 43 years old in 1897, while another said Little Bear was already in his 70s in 1915. He may have been born in the early or mid-1840s. He was probably living in the Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming region in the 1850s.

Little Bear said in Butte, Montana in either 1912 or 1913, that his father lived along the Snake River in Idaho but relocated to the Butte, Montana region to hunt for buffalo and other wild game.

Little Bear was said to have participated in the Great Sioux War of 1876 or Black Hills War. However, nearly all the battles of that war were fought in Montana and northeastern Wyoming. After the War, many Cree fled north to Canada and west into British Columbia, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington, but Little Bear and his family continued to live in extreme northern Montana.

Apparently, a different native of the name Little Bear was at the 1805 signing of the Treaty of Fort Industry, but this could not have been the Little Bear discussed here as he was not born yet at that time. In July 4, 1805 Little Bear along with leaders from Wyandot, Ottawa, Chipawa, Munsee and Delaware, Shawanee, and Pottawatima nations signed the Treaty of Fort Industry with the United States government at Fort Industry in Ohio. This treaty ceded their lands to the US government but allowed for the tribes to continue to hunt and fish in the lands that they formerly owned.

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