CANADA, Saskatchewan (BNc) – Chief Peter Wuttunee (1886-1973) of the Red Pheasant Cree Nation Reserve in Saskatchewan, was an active member of the church of Christ.
When Alvin Jennings was preaching for the church of Christ in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, he received letters from the Red Pheasant Reserve in 1952 in response to his radio broadcasts on station CFQC. He conducted Bible studies in several homes on the Reserve and took used clothing for distribution. As many as 25 were present for some studies.
In one home, the elderly Chief Peter Wuttunee would watch from the back of the group.
J.C. Bailey also preached on the reservation. After he preached on one occasion, he asked the elderly Chief: “Well, what did you think of my sermon, Chief Wuttunee?” He replied, “Hump. That may be good enough for a white man, but that is not good enough for an Indian!” J.C. looked him in the eye and said, “That is good enough even for an Indian! With God there are no white men and Indians. That is the message from God’s Word.” That changed his attitude toward J.C. and after that he always came to hear him when he preached. J.C. wrote in his autobiography: “One of the noblest men I ever met is Brother Peter Wuttunee of the Red Pheasant Reserve.”
Peter Wuttunee’s son, Lennox Wuttunee and his wife were baptized first. Peter and his wife were also baptized later.
The congregation moved two buildings to a location on the Reserve, which they planned to use as a meeting place, but the buildings were destroyed by fire.
In the summer of 1961, I visited Red Pheasant with Jim Williams who worked with the brethren there for many years. At the time, there was an active church of Christ on the Reserve.
Jim and I visited the home of Chief Lennox Wuttunee. In the yard there was a pole with ropes attached. He explained that as Chief, it was his duty to perform certain customs in connection with the traditional religion that was still practiced by some. He said that originally, men would dance around the pole with ropes tied to hooks that were fastened through the skin of their chests. Eventually, in a frenzy, they would rip themselves loose from the pole! He explained that he did not allow them to use hooks anymore, but they used ribbons that they broke.
He also said that for one ritual they were supposed to come to the Chief’s door and mourn for seven days until he gave them permission to conduct a festival. When they came, they mourned for about an hour, but then all started laughing. He came out and told them, “If you can’t mourn for more than one hour, just go ahead and have your festival!”
There is a Church of Christ Cemetery on Red Pheasant. It was established in 1970 when Annie Lafond Wuttunee, the wife of Chief Peter Wuttunee, was buried on land set aside for the Red Pheasant Church of Christ. Chief Peter Wuttunee (1886-1973) was buried there in 1973. Peter’s son, Chief Lennox Wuttunee was buried there in 2009.
Link for more information about the Wuttunee family: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/214058634/peter-wuttunee
2021-11-06 at 7:36 am
I love these old stories and really enjoyed this one
2021-12-31 at 11:50 am
It’s good to see Roy Davison’s memories about my adopted grandfather, Peter Wuttunee, but there is far more to the story.
Peter Wuttunnee was an elder in the church. All his children, and almost all his grandchildren are baptized believers. The church on Red Pheasant never grew large. Like many rural communities, the young people moved to the cities to find work, and so the work of the Red Pheasant church also spread into the cities of Western Canada.
Sometime after the death of Peter & Annie’s oldest son, Peter Jr. (he was called “P2”), Peter and Annie adopted Jim Williams in a formal ceremony. Dad was invited to a large gathering of all the people under Treaty 6 (the treaty between the Canadian/British government and the native people in Western Saskatchewan). He thought he was being asked to lead a prayer, but Peter and Annie called him up in front of all the people, laid their hands on him, and said, “From this day on, Jim is our oldest son. You will treat him as our son, or we will want to know why not!” When they died, he was listed in the obituaries as their son, as he was at the death of each of Peter and Annie’s other children. Thus, I grew up as a member of the Wuttunee family.
The other elder in the Red Pheasant church was my mother’s father, Wilfred Orr. Grandpa Orr and J.C. Bailey preached together for years. They were best friends, and they were “as different as cheese and chalk.” Sometime in the mid-1960’s, Wilfred and Pearl Orr moved to Biggar, Saskatchewan, and built themselves a new home there. They met with the church on Red Pheasant unless the roads were impassible, then they worshipped in their own home.
When I was 17, I worked with Grandpa Peter Wuttunee and Grandpa Wilfred Orr as a student preacher for the Red Pheasant church. Beginning in 1987, I preached for the Red Pheasant church, living on Red Pheasant for a year, and then moving in to North Battleford, where I worked as a salesman, continuing to preach regularly for the Red Pheasant church and for the North Battleford church.
We built a church building on Red Pheasant about 1967; it burned down shortly after we finished it, and we never had the money to replace it.