Chief Kwarakwante, born in 1782, was the 3rd traditional Chief of our heredity, he settled on the shores of Jasper around 1801 when he was just 19 years old. "The head chief Karakonthie was at Fort Kingston (Cataraqui) in 1673 Kwarakwante was the grandson of Karakonthie aka Garakonthie who was one of our most famous chiefs..” Taken from Histoire du Canada by les Clerc S. Viateur.
Our people often traveled through the passes of the Rockies through Snake Indian Pass to the Athabasca Pass to trade with other tribes, the Shuswap and Ktunaxa nations. It was in the Athabasca pass where our ancestors took wives of the Sekani (means “People of the Rocks” ) they were the Beaver branch of the Athabaskans, who lived in the Rockies. Kwarakwante also married two sisters of Cree descent, of which the people of Kelly Lake are descendants from. Roaming the country they did much of the settling and trading throughout the Rocky Mountains and its passes, some families migrated to the Lesser and Greater Slave Lakes, and they are reported to have gone down the MacKenzie, and to Great Bear Lake. Later they were guides of MacKenzie, Thompson, Cheadle, and others. Chief Kwarakwante, as described by Milton and Cheadle (surveyor & guides for HBC) who made a trip across Canada in 1862-63. Chief Louie took the guides from Jasper House to Tete Jeune Cache as a tour through the breathtaking area through the Rockies. David Thompson would take two of our ancestors as expert guides on his exploration of the Columbia River.
Ten years later, Sanford Fleming and his party met our tribe from the Smoking River, 'where they reported a small band of Indians had been settled for about fifty years." Louis' son, Michel aka Kwarakwante or Callihoo, brought his band into Treaty 6 when he signed an adhesion at Fort Edmonton on September 18, 1878. He claimed a reserve west of St. Albert, and it became a successful farming community in the late 1800s. After 1958, about 500 descendants of the original Michel band regained treaty status after Bill C-31. They formed an association with an elected chief and council. Chief Gilbert Anderson of Edmonton, a great grandson of Chief Michel Callihoo, petitioned the federal government to "resume recognition and services to the Michel Band on the same basis as services and recognition are provided to other bands/Indian Nations in Canada." In 2001, the descendants sued the federal government, alleging illegalities in the loss of its reserve and early land surrenders. These Indians are from the same original tribe and are from the same pedigree of the As’in’i’wa’chi Ni’yaw Tribe (Kelly Lake Cree Nation), the Aseniwuchie Winewak Nation (Grande Cache settlements) and the Michel Band Society.
Chief Kwarakwante ancestry is most recognized as one of the oldest lineages of North American tribes in Canada and his genetics are reserved at the Fifth International Congress of Blood Transfer of Hematology, Paris, France. Chief Kwarakwante travelled long distances, building alliances with the Cree and the other tribes for better land the descendants who live today.
On one occasion, James Teit in 1909 maps out the territory of the Cree-Iroquois tribe as far reaches as a settlement on the confluences of the Fraser and Canoe River, British Columbia. The band was trading with the Shuswap for dried salmon, salmon oil and dentalium shells in exchange for our people’s clothing and moose skins. His remarkable journey and leadership helped improve the oppression and coming together of three tribes in the Peace area during the period of European contact in the West.