The Kinistin and Yellow Quill Saulteaux people moved to the Qu’Appelle Valley from their ancestral territory north of the Great Lakes, signing an adhesion to Treaty 4 on August 24, 1876, at Fort Pelly. Attempting to maintain his traditional way of life, Kinistin broke from Yellow Quill and camped in the parkland of the Barrier River district. Uprooting his people again in 1885 to avoid the Resistance, he moved north into the caribou country of the Dene. Following Riel’s defeat, Kinistin returned to Barrier River to choose a reserve. In February 1890 he sent for Reginald Beatty, extracting a promise to aid him in securing a reserve along the Barrier River. Beatty honoured his promise, and helped persuade the Department of Indian Affairs to create the Kinistin Reserve in 1900 (a clerical error changed the name to Kinistino). Of the two reserves (4,020.2 ha) held by the Kinistino Band, the main community is located 40 km southeast of Melfort, at the west end of Kipabiskau Lake; 306 of the 803 band members live there.
Christian Thompson