Chief Pheasant’s Rump signed an adhesion to Treaty 4 at Qu’Appelle Lakes on September 9, 1875 which granted his band of Assiniboine Indians reserve lands on the western end of the Moose Mountain geographical range. Surveyed in July 1881 and later confirmed by Order-in-Council on May 17, 1889, the soil of the selected land proved to be excellent for the growth of grains. The early years on the reserve saw the Assiniboine people quickly adapt to a sedimentary lifestyle, breaking ground and planting crops and gardens, as well as raising livestock. Through the decades of the 1880’s and 1890’s the Pheasant’s Rump people excelled at farming and won awards for their produce at the non-native’s various area fairs.
Chief and Counsel
Chief: Ira McArthur
tba....
Misty McArthur
I have a diploma in Business Administration from SIIT. I have one child, Calista, and she is attending university. My Parents are L. Wayne McArthur & Joanne Sheepskin, and my grandmother is May Knebush.
Patricia McArthur-Fleming
TBC....
Juanita McArthur-BigEagle
Juanita McArthur-BigEagle is serving her first term as an elected official for the First Nation. A mother of 3 children and grandmother of one.
Julie Kakakaway
TBC...
Departments
Housing
Health
A Community Health Representative is provided to help the medical and dental staff while at the Band Office.
The Community Health Nurse will provide basic medical check ups.
Aboriginal Diabetes Initiative
National Native Alcohol and Drug Addictions Program
Brighter Futures (youth and culture)
Education
Administration
Economic Development
New opportunities are being sought out.
Oil and Gas
Real Property Taxation
Land Management
Band History
Chief Pheasant’s Rump signed an adhesion to Treaty 4 at Qu’Appelle Lakes on September 9, 1875 which granted his band of Assiniboine Indians reserve lands on the western end of the Moose Mountain geographical range. Surveyed in July 1881 and later confirmed by Order-in-Council on May 17, 1889, the soil of the selected land proved to be excellent for the growth of grains. The early years on the reserve saw the Assiniboine people quickly adapt to a sedimentary lifestyle, breaking ground and planting crops and gardens, as well as raising livestock. Through the decades of the 1880’s and 1890’s the Pheasant’s Rump people excelled at farming and won awards for their produce at the non-native’s various area fairs. (47°.76 N, 102°.70 W)
Drawing by John A. Eddy, from Solstice-Aligned Boulder Configurations in Saskatchewan, by Alice B. Kehoe and Thomas F. Kehoe, National Museum of Man Mercury Series, Canadian Ethnology Service Paper no. 48, Ottawa, 1979, p. 7.
During the late 1890’s members of the government began to plot to remove the Pheasant’s Rump band from their reserve. In 1901 under the pretense of a surrender (later evidenced to be fraudulent) the Pheasant’s Rump people were moved to the White Bear Indian reserve. As early as 1934, descendants of Chief Pheasant’s Rump, wrote letters to the government inquiring about the original Pheasant’s Rump reserve land and requesting that the Assiniboine be allowed to return there. 1972 saw the first of many court actions seeking legal redress, with continuing current court action seeking affirmation of the continued existence of the Pheasant’s Rump Band of Assiniboine Indians since at least the date of adhesion to Treaty 4, and a return of the original reserve lands as surveyed in 1881.
At one time, the Assiniboine tribe was made up of close to 30,000 individuals with more than 20 separate bands, however, due to bouts of the smallpox epidemic and other calamities in the 1850s and 1870s, the tribe’s numbers were reduced to less than 3,000. Originating from the Ihanktuwan sub-group of the Sioux Nation, the Assiniboine people are thought to have separated from the Dakota in the early 1500s. Assiniboine traditional territory extends from the Milk and Missouri Rivers in the south to the Saskatchewan and Assiniboine River valleys in the north and from the foothills of the Rocky Mountains on the west and the forks of the Red River in the east, covering much of the northern portions of the present day states of Montana and North Dakota and the southern portions of the present day provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba.
Currently (2015), the First Nation’s total registered population is 408(+/-2), with approximately 150 members living on reserve. Comprised of approximately 23,091 acres, on-reserve development is primarily limited to individual members’ independent operations in the agricultural and cattle ranching industries, with other small-scale member-owned commercial endeavors.
Many of the First Nation’s members continue to practice traditional ceremonies and activities including pipe ceremonies, sweatlodges, Nakota medicine lodge, Dakota sundance, and a local Native American Church chapter.
Although the Assiniboine/Nakota language is almost extinct globally, attempts to locally promote the language through community classes persist.
