Lucky Man Cree Nation

The Lucky Man Cree Nation is a Cree First Nation^[2] in Saskatchewan, Canada. After spending more than a hundred years amalgamated into the Little Pine First Nation, the band was awarded the Lucky Man Reserve, on the eastern border of the RM of Meeting Lake. The re-established nation has the smallest membership in Treaty 6.

History[]

The nation is named for Chief Papaway, papewe meaning "lucky man", headman for Little Pine when that group signed Treaty 6 at Fort Walsh in 1879. Settling near Battleford in 1883, he requested a reserve adjacent to Poundmaker, Little Pine, and Big Bear the following year. The government refused, on the grounds that the groups were too closely associated.^[3]

By 1919, the Lucky Man band had dwindled to a population of nine, living on the Little Pine reserve.^[3] In the 1970s, modern research by the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations discovered that Lucky Man had signed Treaty 6 without receiving any land. This allowed the band's descendants to reorganize, in 1976, and file for .^[4]

Newly elected Chief Rod King petitioned all levels of government for a suitable reserve site, and in 1989 - more than 100 years after Lucky Man signed Treaty 6 - the band was awarded the Mayfair provincial pasture, consisting of 12 sections in the .^[4] Although few members reside there, numerous business ventures have been investigated for the land.^[3]

References[]