Wandering Spirit


Wandering Spirit
Interview: pp. 100-105 The Riel Rebellion: A Biographical Approach by Charles and Cynthia Hou Indian Name: Kapapamahchakwew Wandering Spirit was the war chief of Big Bear's band of Plains Cree. Here is an excerpt from William Cameron’s book, "Blood Red the Sun", where he describes Wandering Spirit. " I'm glad Wandering Spirit seems friendly," remarked Quinn. "He has a great reputation as a warrior among the tribes and as war chief is most to be feared. So long as he stays quiet we have nothing to worry about." Perhaps it was because I came to know him so well and witnessed the ferocity of his wild, complex nature when roused, that Wandering Spirit has always filled the first place in my memory among the many Indian chiefs I have met. Tall, lithe, active, perhaps forty years of age, of a quick, nervous temperament which transformed him at a stroke in moments of excitement into a mortal fiend, he was a copper Jekyll and Hyde-a savage no more to be trusted than a snake. An odd thing about him was his hair. Whereas the hair of the ordinary Indian is as straight as falling water, the plaits of the war chief, while long and black like any other Indian's, stood out about his head in thick curls, forming a sombre background for his dark, piercing eyes. And those eyes! Shall I ever forget them? I can see them yet, in all their burning intensity, flashing here and there, seeing everything, as though it were yesterday. His nose was long and straight, his mouth wide and lips thin and cruel. He had a prominent chin, deep sunken cheeks and features darkly bronzed and seamed about the eyes and mouth with sharply-cut lines. His voice was usually soft and intriguing; when he spoke in council it rose gradually until it rang through the camp. It had a smooth, velvet quality that reminded me always, somehow, of the panther he so much resembled in other ways, and of its soft, caressing paw-with the claws of steel beneath the velvet. " He was never much to steal horses," Four-Sky Thunder said to me one day later in the camp, when he called with a present of tobacco and we sat smoking in the lodge. "His greatest pleasure was in fighting, and he has killed more Blackfeet than any warrior among us, not excepting Big Bear." First councillor, head soldier, war chief, cruel as the grave, a hunter of men, as proud of his record as any gold-laced general of his decorations - Kahpaypamahchakwayo, the Wandering Spirit. Here is a short biography of Wandering Spirit http://www.historytelevision.ca/chiefs/htmlen/cree/sp_wandering.asp

Interview: pp. 100-105 The Riel Rebellion: A Biographical Approach by Charles and Cynthia Hou

Indian Name: Kapapamahchakwew

Wandering Spirit was the war chief of Big Bear's band of Plains Cree. Here is an excerpt from William Cameron’s book, "Blood Red the Sun", where he describes Wandering Spirit.

" I'm glad Wandering Spirit seems friendly," remarked Quinn. "He has a great reputation as a warrior among the tribes and as war chief is most to be feared. So long as he stays quiet we have nothing to worry about."

Perhaps it was because I came to know him so well and witnessed the ferocity of his wild, complex nature when roused, that Wandering Spirit has always filled the first place in my memory among the many Indian chiefs I have met. Tall, lithe, active, perhaps forty years of age, of a quick, nervous temperament which transformed him at a stroke in moments of excitement into a mortal fiend, he was a copper Jekyll and Hyde-a savage no more to be trusted than a snake. An odd thing about him was his hair. Whereas the hair of the ordinary Indian is as straight as falling water, the plaits of the war chief, while long and black like any other Indian's, stood out about his head in thick curls, forming a sombre background for his dark, piercing eyes. And those eyes! Shall I ever forget them? I can see them yet, in all their burning intensity, flashing here and there, seeing everything, as though it were yesterday. His nose was long and straight, his mouth wide and lips thin and cruel. He had a prominent chin, deep sunken cheeks and features darkly bronzed and seamed about the eyes and mouth with sharply-cut lines. His voice was usually soft and intriguing; when he spoke in council it rose gradually until it rang through the camp. It had a smooth, velvet quality that reminded me always, somehow, of the panther he so much resembled in other ways, and of its soft, caressing paw-with the claws of steel beneath the velvet.

" He was never much to steal horses," Four-Sky Thunder said to me one day later in the camp, when he called with a present of tobacco and we sat smoking in the lodge. "His greatest pleasure was in fighting, and he has killed more Blackfeet than any warrior among us, not excepting Big Bear." First councillor, head soldier, war chief, cruel as the grave, a hunter of men, as proud of his record as any gold-laced general of his decorations - Kahpaypamahchakwayo, the Wandering Spirit.

Here is a short biography of Wandering Spirit http://www.historytelevision.ca/chiefs/htmlen/cree/sp_wandering.asp