Few Aboriginal people enjoy as much recognition in the non-Aboriginal
world as Chief Maskepetoon: John McDougall often wrote about Maskepetoon's admirable acts; Alberta author and historian Grant MacEwan called him
"the Ghandi of the Prairies"; Sunday school books relate the
stories of his ability to forgive; history books associate him with the truce negotiated at
Wetaskiwin/Peace
Hills; and at Red
Deer's Collicut Centre he is included in a mural that celebrates the
region's past.
Maskepetoon is the central figure in many Alberta stories that portray
him as a model of morality and peace. One such account describes how Maskepetoon
walked into a Blackfoot camp, alone and
unarmed, to negotiate peace. Big Swan, a war chief, killed him immediately.
Maskepetoon was consequently called a "martyr of peace," a man who died
because of his Christian devotion to goodwill and non-violence. However, some Crees interpreted
his actions as not those of a peacemaker, but rather those of a warrior who
demonstrated his bravery by walking into the enemy camp unarmed
and unassisted.
An additional episode highlights the
Chief's remarkable propensity for forgiveness: when Maskepetoon met the Blackfoot
man who had killed his
father, he invited the man into his lodge, forgave him and presented him
with a chief's costume.

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