Fine Day or Kamiokisihkwew (Miyo-Kîsikaw) (c. 1856 – c. 1942) was a

Cree The Cree ( cr, néhinaw, script=Latn, , etc.; french: link=no, Cri) are a Indigenous peoples of the Americas, North American Indigenous people. They live primarily in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations in Canada ...

war chief of the River People band of Plains Cree. He participated in the

North-West Rebellion The North-West Rebellion (french: Rébellion du Nord-Ouest), also known as the North-West Resistance, was a resistance by the Métis people under Louis Riel and an associated uprising by First Nations Cree and Assiniboine of the District of S ...

of 1885. During the

Battle of Cut Knife The Battle of Cut Knife, fought on May 2, 1885, occurred when a flying column of mounted police, militia, and Canadian army regular army units attacked a Cree and Assiniboine teepee settlement near Battleford, Saskatchewan. First Nations figh ...

, he acted as the Battle Chief, taking control of the war fighting parties from the political chief,

Poundmaker Pîhtokahanapiwiyin ( – 4 July 1886), also known as Poundmaker, was a Plains Cree chief known as a peacemaker and defender of his people, the Poundmaker Cree Nation. His name denotes his special craft at leading buffalo into buffalo poun ...

. When Fine Day's men gained the upper hand and started to pursue the retreating Canadian soldiers, he was restrained by Poundmaker from doing so. Described by a contemporary as "brave in all things," he was a skilled warrior, hunter, trapper and (in later life) a

shaman Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiritu ...

. Fine Day's memories of the North-West Rebellion were published by the Canadian North-West Historical Society in 1926.FINEDAY. Incidents of the Rebellion, as Related by Fine Day (Canadian North-West Historical Society, Publications, vol. 1, number 1, Battleford, Saskatchewan, 1926)

David G. Mandelbaum David Goodman Mandelbaum (August 22, 1911, in Chicago – April 19, 1987) was an American anthropologist. He majored in anthropology at Northwestern University, studying with Melville J. Herskovits. His major published work dealt with the Plains ...

, in the introduction to his extensive study of the Plains Cree, cites Fine Day as his principal informant.

References

Cree people Indigenous leaders in Saskatchewan People of North-Western Territory People of the North-West Rebellion Pre-Confederation Saskatchewan people 1850s births 1940s deaths Year of birth uncertain Year of death uncertain Canadian animists Shamans Religious figures of the indigenous peoples of North America {{NorthAm-native-bio-stub