Human Rights A Day

Chief Peguis honoured with monument erected in Winnipeg’s Kildonan Park. Chief Peguis was born in 1774 near Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. At age 16, the young leader resettled his Saulteaux tribe where the Red River flows into Lake Winnipeg. (Today, it’s called Netley Creek, Manitoba.) When a man named Lord Selkirk and his group of Scottish settlers showed up there in 1812, Peguis helped them settle and offered them protection. He also sided with the Hudson’s Bay Company against its rival, the North West Company, due to concerns about the latter’s intentions for his people. Lord Selkirk rewarded Peguis for his support by signing a treaty that gave his people priority over other bands that had lived in the area longer. After Peguis and his band moved to St. Peters, north of Winnipeg, Peguis often visited Kildonan to celebrate Scottish festivities. He became friends with Anglican missionary Reverend William Cochrane, but when he asked to join Cochrane’s church, the minister refused on the basis that Peguis had fou