Almighty Voice

Jean Baptiste Kâkêkistahkwayiw, known as Almighty Voice, was the grandson of Chief One Arrow of the Willow Cree. In October 1895, facing severe food rations on the reserve, the twenty-year-old killed an unowned stray cow to feed his wedding feast and was arrested by Mounties. A guard jokingly told him he would hang for the theft; fearing execution, Almighty Voice escaped custody.

For nineteen months, Almighty Voice outwitted massive police search parties across Saskatchewan. Trapped in May 1897 in the Minichinas Hills with two companions, he held off over one hundred armed Mounties and militia for three days until the police brought up two field artillery guns to shell the bluff. His tragic stand became an enduring folk symbol of Indigenous defiance.