Ochapowace First Nation

This Plains Cree band under Kakisheway (Loud Voice) signed Treaty 4 on September 15, 1874. A reserve was surveyed for them on the north side of Round Lake and the Qu'Appelle River in 1876 (reserves for Chacachas and Kahkewistahaw were surveyed on the south side). As Kakisheway had requested to be relocated, in 1881 Surveyor John Nelson and Agent McDonald decided to place both Kakisheway and Chacachas on the same reserve, enlarging it to include members of both bands. Many members were away hunting when this occurred, and were upset when they returned to Crooked Lakes in 1882 to find they no longer had their own lands but were now amalgamated on to the Chacachas Reserve (1884). Approximately 45 band members joined Kakisheway; the others, including Chacachas, remained stragglers. In 1884 Kakisheway's son Ochapowace succeeded him and became chief of the amalgamated bands. Much of the old Chacachas Reserve has been purchased and re-designated reserve land through Treaty Land Entitlement, and now the descendants of Chacachas wait on the federal government to decide whether they will be re-established as a separate reserve once again. The band currently holds 18,279.7 ha of land; most of its population is located 8 km northeast of Broadview, with 564 of the 1,382 band members currently living on reserve. In addition to their controlling interest in Consolidated Capital Corporation, a high-quality beef program, the band has several major economic investments, the newest being the Winn Bay Sand Limited Partnership (2004).

Christian Thompson