Little Pine First Nation

[1] Their reserves include: Little Pine First Nation (LPFN) is located at the foot of Bluehill and rests along the shores of the Battle River.

[4] The year of the Cypress Hills Massacre in 1873, the most famous and influential of the Plains Chiefs Mistahimaskwa, also known as "Big Bear" (c.1825-1888), had the idea to unite all the Cree bands.

Big Bear's effort to unite Amerindians alarmed Ottawa officials, so they urgently sought to find other chiefs to sign treaty.

Little Pine held out for three years in hopes of seeing the formation of a unified Amerindian state, but eventually he negotiated and signed the treaty, because his people were starving.

Under Treaty 6, the bands were accorded concessions such as the "medicine chest" clause and also the promise of relief in the event of famine or pestilence.

But the price they paid was great, due to the fact that with the signing of the treaty, they lost control over about 315,000 square miles of land.

Cree Chief Minahikosis (c. 1830-1885), also known as Little Pine, signed an adhesion to Treaty 6 and he and his people moved from the Cypress Hills region to the foot of Bluehill along the Battle River.

This competition over the buffalo sparked old hostilities as the Blackfoot, Plains Cree, and Sioux consulted over measures to regulate the hunt.

In 1880, Big Bear and Little Pine headed south to the remaining buffalo range on the Milk and Missouri rivers, where they met with Riel.

The Metis leader was instrumental in persuading the Montana Amerindians---these included the southern Assiniboine, the Blackfeet, the Crow, and the Gros Ventre---to allow the Northerners to hunt on their reservations.

After this horse-stealing, the U.S. government set out military expeditions to confiscate the horses and equipment from the Canadian Natives and began to restrict border crossings from that point on.

Following these events and after the outbreak of the North-West Rebellion, Poundmaker's and Little Pine's people left their reserves and headed for Battleford, which was a distribution point for supplies.

The governing body or the councilors, consists of Russell Bearsears, Matthew Frank, Lawrence Kennedy, Roland Pete, and Lisa Sapp.

According to its official website, its mission is to drive students to "embrace their culture and traditional values as they grow into young men and women.