# Carry the Kettle Nakoda Nation

Carry the Kettle Nakoda Nation (Assiniboine: Ceġa'kin Nakoda Oyadebi [Chay-gah-keen oya-day], "Carries the kettle", also known as Assiniboine First Nation or Assiniboine 76) is a Nakota (Assiniboine) First Nation in Canada located about 80 km (50 mi) east of Regina, Saskatchewan, and 13 km (8.1 mi) south of Sintaluta. The reservation is in Treaty 4 territory.
The Cypress Hills, known as traditional Nakoda/Assiniboine territory are within the boundaries of Treaty 4. Bands signed treaty and were also given Reservations within their traditional territories.
Other previous names of the Carry the Kettle Nakoda/Assiniboine band have been:
* Chief Man Who Takes the Coat Reserve #76
* Chief Long Lodge Reserve #77
* Hurricane Hills reserve #76
* Jack's Reserve #76
* Indian Head reserve #76
* Assiniboine Reserve #76
* Carry the Kettle First Nation #76
* Assiniboine #76

## History

In the 17th century, the Assiniboine along with the Plains Cree and other ethnic groups formed the Nehiyew Pwat (Cree Assiniboine) or Iron Confederacy. The Iron Alliance was a political and military alliance. This confederacy included various individual bands that allied together against common enemies. They were and are traditional enemies of the Lakota and Dakota nation.
The band are modern-day descendants of the victims of the Cypress Hills Massacre that happened on June 1, 1873 near Battle Creek, Cypress Hills, NWT. The massacre emerged over a dispute about around 40 horses allegedly stolen by the Assiniboine from wolf hunters staying at Moses Solomon's trading post and Moses Solomon himself. The conflict resultet in the death of 20 tribal members. It was one of the final events that prompted the Canadian Federal government to create the NWMP (short for the North West Mounted Police, which is today replaced by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police). The 'F' division of the newly created NWMP arrived to the massacre site two years later in spring 1875 and investigated the Massacre. They were unable to bring the American and Canadian side to justice. Carry the Kettle elders and survivors accounts say that 300 of their ancestors died on the day of the massacre. The NWMP referred to the band as the ‘Cypress Mountain Assiniboine’. Cypress Mountain being located today at Elk Water, Alberta.
The massacre's site was designated national historic site of Canada in 1964
Fort Walsh was established in June 1875, 2 km south of the Massacre site.
In 1859, John Palliser's expedition identified the Cypress Hills as "Assiniboine country/territory" after meeting Blackfoot guides near present-day Medicine Hat, Alberta. When Palliser asked the Blackfeet to join them on the trek into the Cypress Hills, they instantly refused. The Blackfeet guides told Palliser that those were their enemies and the hills were Assiniboine country.
1879. Dewdney makes reference to the ‘Assiniboine Reserve’ at the head of the mountain as well as the ‘government farm’. Beef rations and other treaty known provisions were being dispersed in July and October 1879 at the Head of the Mountain.
In 1879, the Buffalo went extinct on the great prairies.
Spring 1880, Father Lacombe was headed to the Cypress Hills to start a school.
In 1880, DLS surveyor Allan Ponytz Patrick conducted a DLS survey for the Carry the Kettle Nakoda Nation's land. The size of the reserve was 340 square miles.
Spring 1880. The band plants its first successful crop at Head of the Mountain on the Maple Creek.
May 1881. Canada decides to reroute Canadian Pacific railway south.
May 1881. The Nakoda bands plant their second successful crop at the head of the mountain reserve.
Summer 1881. Reports of starvation among the first nations in the cypress hills. Many go far to hunt. Many are absent for treaty payments in the hills. Reports of successful farming via the home farm policy start to be reported as failure in the Cypress Hills.
April 1882. After five failed attempts of obtaining a valid land surrender as per Indian act, chiefs man who takes the coat and long lodge are removed from their reserve in the cypress hills in what was described as a military escort to new reserves near Indian Head.
June 11, 1882. The band arrives at present day Indian head.
November 1882. The construction of the Canadian pacific railway stops and newly created swift current for the winter.
August 1882. The Nakoda chiefs Man Who Takes the Coat and Long Lodge return to their cypress hills reserve.
April - May 1883. Construction of the railroad continues. Pierces the eastern boundary of the original Assiniboine Reserve at present day Walsh, Alberta.
May 1883. The Assiniboine band are loaded up on flat deck rail cart at Maple Creek station. Destined for back east to Indian Head reserve.
1885- The hanging of 11 Indians at Fort Battleford was marked by a very interesting comment by a Nakoda sentenced to hang. Words of Wawanetch, member of Lean Mans Assiniboine band, formerly of Assiniboine tribe of Treaty 4 in cypress hills. Words to Middleton: “the creator sees all, you stole our land and our children”. Lean Man signed adhesion to Treaty 4 along with Man Who Takes the Coat and Long Lodge. He later joined Mosquito and Grizzly Bears head in treaty 6 in 1882.

## Treaty 4 adhesion

The ancestors of the nation signed adhesion to Treaty 4 at Fort Walsh on September 25, 1877. The three Assiniboine chiefs who signed the treaty were Man Who Takes The Coat (Cuwiknaga Je Eyaku, in the Assiniboine/Nakoda language), Long Lodge (Teepee Hanska), and Lean Man (Wica Hostaka). After signing the treaty, the federal government began creating three separate reserves in the fall of 1879 in the Cypress Hills for these 3 Assiniboine, Treaty 4 signatory chiefs. as Edgar Dewdney made his way into the Cypress Hills as the new Indian Commissioner and exercised the "duty to consult" in Treaties 4, 6, and 7 in 1879.

## Reserve creation

The Nakoda elders refer to their ancestral home in the Cypress Hills as Wazihe (the mountain by itself). Elders also speak of Hay-Ipa (literally in Nakoda language: Head of a Mountain, a spiritual place for the Nakoda). The original Assiniboine Reservation at the Head of the Mountain covered 340 square miles (880 km$^2$).

## Present day

In 2000, the Indian Claims Commission ruled that Canada had no lawful obligation to Cega’kin (Carry the Kettle) and that no reservation was legally established at Cypress Hills for Assiniboine descendants from 1879 to 1882. In 2014, the land claim was in federal court.
The Indian Claims Commission relied heavily on a report done for the department of Indian Affairs by James (Jim) Gallo.
Gallo states in the document that the Assiniboine reserve could not have been established and recognized because there was no reserve creation activity in the Cypress Hills because the nearest Indian Affairs office was at Swan River, MB. However the Fort Walsh Town Site had an Indian Affairs Office established in the Cypress Hills in 1879. Edwin Allen was the first Indian Agent there.
Carry the Kettle sued the federal and Saskatchewan governments in December 2017 to halt development which would infringe on its members' rights to hunt and gather. In January 2020, it was announced that the nation would join Indigenous Bloom in a cannabis facility on reserve land.
Other previous names of the band have been:
Chief Man Who Takes the Coat Reserve #76 Chief Long Lodge Reserve #77 Hurricane Hills reserve #76 Jack's Reserve #76 Indian Head reserve #76 Assiniboine Reserve #76 Carry the Kettle First Nation #76 Assiniboine #76

## Literature

Tanner, Jim; Miller, David R.; McGuire, Peggy Martin (2022). Owóknage: The Story of Carry the Kettle Nakoda First Nation. University of Regina Press. ISBN 978-0889778146.