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Why did Plains Cree leader Big Bear seek adjoining reserves for Indigenous nations?

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Plains style — Indigenous peoples of the Great Plains Dancers at the Totah Festival Powwow performing the Northern Tradition dance, a dance inspired by Plains traditions, on September 1, 2007, in Farmington, New Mexico.

Plains Cree leader Big Bear advocated for Indigenous nations to request adjoining reserves as a strategic effort to establish an Indigenous nation within a nation. By securing contiguous land, he aimed to consolidate the political and social power of Indigenous peoples, thereby creating a unified territory that could better resist colonial encroachment and maintain their autonomy.1

The Canadian government denied this request precisely because it recognized that such a configuration would achieve Big Bear’s goal of creating a self-governing Indigenous entity, which conflicted with the government's objectives of control and assimilation. This proposal was part of a broader effort by Big Bear to organize a pan-tribal alliance to protect the interests and sovereignty of Indigenous nations during the period of the Numbered Treaties.1