Keeseekoowenin - A Digital History

 

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This Website is owned and maintained by the Keeseekoowenin First Nation History Committee and published under the authority of the Chief and Council of Keeseekoowenin Ojibway First Nation.

 

The images and text contained in this website are the property of the Keeseekoowenin Ojibway First Nation

 

©Keeseekoowenin 1998

Chief Keeseekoowenin

"Gii zhi gho innin" Sky Man

Photo - Chief Keeseekoowenin, his wife, and son

Photo taken in 1905

  • Chief Keeseekoowenin (Sky Man), later christened Moses Burns
  • His wife, name unknown
  • Solomon Burns, his son

Keeseekoowenin (Moses Burns) by Walter "Baldy" Scott

Keeseekoowenin (Moses Burns) was born approximately in 1819 and lived to 1906. He was 6'1" tall, lean, with broad shoulders, and stood straight. He lived most of his life around the Riding Mountain area and made his home in the valley of the Little Saskatchewan River about a mile north of where the village of Elphinstone is today. He died in his home on the Keeseekoowenin reserve on April 10, 1906.

He was a quiet man and a leader, well thought of by his tribe, of whom he was chief. He was a hunter and trapper and a good provider. He had a family of three sons and seven daughters. He was also a good buffalo hunter when he was young and always had good horses for the buffalo chase.

Walter Scott of Scotland was his son-in-law. Walter Scott's father and Robert Campbell called him "Natures Gentleman". Chief Keeseekoowenin was given the name "Moses Burns" by the Reverend George Flett when he joined the Presbyterian Church.

Reverend George Flett and Moses Burns were close friends and first cousins. Moses Burns became very active in the church, helping Reverend Flett. All of the Burns family were true Christians.

His sons George, Solomon, and David built a fine large log house where he spent his later years with his wife and two daughters, Maria and Eliza. It was in this house he died two days after his wife died.

Moses Burns believed in the Native Great Spirit who created our world and its creatures but he did not got to pow-wows and such native ceremonies.

Keeseekoowenin's band hunted buffalo on the plains near the Riding Mountain in the early summer. They tanned hides, dried meat, and made pemmican for food, made clothing, etc. Mid-summer was a time for meeting and sports. In the fall, they went back to Lake Audy and Wasagaming. The band usually wintered around these lakes where there were elk and moose to hunt, and good trapping. There were fur traders at Lake Audy before the trading post was established north of Elphinstone. In the spring, the women were taken to the Ochre River area where there were lots of maple trees producing sap which was used to make maple syrup and sugar. Soon after, they moved back to the plains once again.

Moses Burns' family was as follows, listed in order of birth:

1. George Flett Burns
2. Mary Jane Burns married Bateese McLeod
3. Elizabeth Burns married Henry Cook
4. Maria Burns married Jack Fish
5. Harriet Burns married Glen Campbell
6. David Burns married a Bone, twin sister of Mrs. Billie Swain
7. Eliza Burns never married
8. Solomon Burns married a Houle woman from Sandy Bay Band
9. Victoria Burns married Walter Scott
10. Isabel Burns never married, died as a young girl

Other lists have mixed up the order and/or omitted one or more names.

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