Ahtahkakoop

Ahtahkakoop (Cree: Atāhkakohp, "Starblanket")(c. 1816 – 1896) was a Head Chief of the Plains Cree and presided over the House Cree (Wāskahikaniwiyiniwak) division of the Plains Cree people of northern Saskatchewan, who led his people through the transition from hunter and warrior to farmer, and from traditional indigenous spiritualism to Christianity during the last third of the 19th century.^[1]

He rose to be a respected and tactical leader of the Cree Nation in the latter part of the 19th century. At the onset of his leadership, the plains buffalo herds were abundant in the northern plains and parklands, providing greatly to the social, environmental, and economical balance vital to the survival of the Cree. By the 1860s, the buffalo were rapidly disappearing and with the arrival of the European settlers this balance became altered. Chief Ahtahkakoop understood that the ways of living that his band was used to needed to change in order for it and its future generations to survive.^[2] Together with his friend and fellow Chief, Mistāwasis ("Big Child"), he signed the 1876 Treaty 6 as the second signatory chief at Fort Carlton, Saskatchewan. By signing this treaty he agreed to relocate his band to a 67 square miles reserve at Sandy Lake, 45 miles northwest of present-day Prince Albert, Saskatchewan.