Beardy Bearspaw Big Bear John Calihoo Carry the Kettle Dave Crowchild James Gladstone Maski-pitoon Pakan Peguis Piapot Poundmaker Red Crow Shot Both Sides Sitting Bull Marie Rose Smith Star Blanket Henry Bird Steinhauer Sweet Grass Gerald Tailfeathers Tom Three Persons

John Calihoo, Iroquois, First President and Founder of the Indian Association of Alberta

John was born in 1882 and grew up at Lac Ste. Anne. His grandfather was an Iroquoi Voyageur who came West from the Six Nations Reserve in Ontario in 1820 or 1825. Calihoo knew his own territory very well and became a guide and freighter for a company that supplied beef to railway workers. He also carried the payrolls for the workers from Edmonton along the line. Around 1912, Calihoo began carrying the mail between Edmonton and Valleneuve, becoming the first Aboriginal to be entrusted with the Royal Mail. John formed the Indian Association of Alberta in 1939, and in 1947 he led an Aboriginal group to Ottawa to appear before a joint committee of the Senate and House of Commons to help develop a study regarding Aboriginal issues. He stepped down as acting president of the Association in 1947 but remained the honorary president until his death in St. Albert in 1957.

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