Fine Day or Kamiokisihkwew (Miyo-Kîsikaw) (c. 1856 – c. 1942) was a Cree war chief of the River People band of Plains Cree. He participated in the North-West Rebellion of 1885. During the

Battle of Cut Knife The Battle of Cut Knife, fought on May 2, 1885, occurred when a flying column of mounted police, militia, and Canadian army regular army units attacked a Cree and Assiniboine teepee settlement near Battleford, Saskatchewan. First Nations fight ...

, he acted as the Battle Chief, taking control of the war fighting parties from the political chief,

Poundmaker Pîhtokahanapiwiyin ( – 4 July 1886), also known as Poundmaker, was a Plains Cree chief known as a peacemaker and defender of his people, the Poundmaker Cree Nation. His name denotes his special craft at leading buffalo into buffalo poun ...

. When Fine Day's men gained the upper hand and started to pursue the retreating Canadian soldiers, he was restrained by Poundmaker from doing so. Described by a contemporary as "brave in all things," he was a skilled warrior, hunter, trapper and (in later life) a

shaman Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spir ...

. Fine Day's memories of the North-West Rebellion were published by the Canadian North-West Historical Society in 1926.FINEDAY. Incidents of the Rebellion, as Related by Fine Day (Canadian North-West Historical Society, Publications, vol. 1, number 1, Battleford, Saskatchewan, 1926) David G. Mandelbaum, in the introduction to his extensive study of the Plains Cree, cites Fine Day as his principal informant.

References

Cree people Indigenous leaders in Saskatchewan People of North-Western Territory People of the North-West Rebellion Pre-Confederation Saskatchewan people 1850s births 1940s deaths Year of birth uncertain Year of death uncertain Canadian animists Shamans Religious figures of the indigenous peoples of North America {{NorthAm-native-bio-stub