The Lakota people who, along with the Santee and the Yankton bands which made up the Sioux nation, defeated Lt. Col. George Custer at the Battle of the Little Big Horn in June 1876.
Upon fleeing to Canada, the Lakota people settled at Wood Mountain, Willow Bunch and the Moose Jaw River valley.
For years, Moose Jaw was known to them as a place with “lots of wood, berries, fish and game animals.”
A recent publication, “Wood Mountain Uplands” by the Wood Mountain Historical Society, states: “The Lakota soon developed a pattern of wintering at The Turn on Moose Jaw Creek, above its confluence with Thunder Creek.
“As they were not part of any treaty, they had to support themselves. They worked for residents as domestic servants and farm hands. In the winter men cut fire wood. In summer they travelled to either Wood Mountain or the Pinto Horse Butte to hunt.”
Probably the best known of the Lakota women was Emma, who did housework for the settlers at Moose Jaw.
Her Lakota name was Tasunke Nupawin (Owns Two Horses), and she was born on the plains in what is now South Dakota around 1868.
She eventually married one of her own band, John Okute, and they lived in a log cabin where the Providence Hospital was later built.
John scouted for the Mounted Police and worked for Alex Zess, who operated a slaughterhouse at Moose Jaw.
When land around Wood Mountain opened up for homesteading, he and Emma acquired a homestead and lived on it until they died.
One of their sons was John Okute Lecaine, who was educated at the residential school at Lebret and became a fine writer and published poet.
A daughter, Elizabeth, was affectionately known as Lizzie Ogle by all who travelled to Assiniboia to see her beautiful handicrafts.
When Emma died in 1941, a friend wrote: “Emma, being the granddaughter of Black Moon, the famous judge of Sitting Bull’s band, inherited the active and penetrating mind of her grandparent. Her jovial and winning disposition made her loved and respected by hundreds of friends . . . With her goes a nobility that deeply underlies the ancient story of her people.”
Another Lakota Sioux woman was Katrine, Emma’s sister. Her Lakota name was Pte Sanwin (White Buffalo).
Katrine married Big Joe, a fellow Lakota whose name was Nupa Kikte.
They acquired the surname Ferguson when Joe worked for Ferguson’s Meat Market in Moose Jaw, and their descendants still bear that name.
Molly was another Lakota Sioux resident of Moose Jaw. She loved jewelery — old-timers said she “fairly tinkled” — and loved to sing the old tribal songs.
She clung to the ancient ways of her people and lived in a tent all her life. She never married and passed away in her tent at Wood Mountain at the age of 83.
Julia Lethbridge, whose Lakota name was Wanbli Sunpagewin (Crossed Eagle Quills) was the mother of Wiliam Lethbridge, a well-known rancher and artist of Fir Mountain. (A showing of his artwork was held at the Moose Jaw
Art Museum a number of years ago.)
Julia was the last of the Sioux refugees to live at Moose Jaw. Eventually she moved to Wood Mountain, where the Canadian government had located a small reservation for the Moose Jaw Sioux.
When she died at the age of 90, she was the last surviving member of Sitting Bull’s band who found refuge in Canada after the Custer battle.
Tasinaskawin Brule (Blanket Woman of the White Moon) was another well-known Lakota Sioux. She was the widow of Black Bull, head of the local band.
Just before she died at Moose Jaw, she called the band to her teepee doorway and asked to be propped up and the flap of the tent raised so that she might see the rising sun for the last time.
All her possessions — seven ponies, a wagon, teepee and blanket — she willed to a friend, Mrs. Annie Wallis, who returned the possessions to the band.
Mrs. Wallis arranged for her burial in Moose Jaw Cemetery and for the headstone which reads simply: “Tasinaskawin Brule, died April 3, 1910.”
The grave, usually visited on Heritage Moose Jaw’s Cemetery tours, is located in the extreme southwest corner near the west fence.
Of the many Aboriginal women who lived and died at Moose Jaw a century ago, this is the only known and marked grave.
A small grave marker west of the cemetery chapel reads: “Infant daughter of Thomas and Mary Aspdin.” Mary Aspdin was the daughter of chief Black Moon, who had led his Lakota people to Canada.
