METISNET:
A HANDBOOK OF METIS FACTS, FANCIES & FIGURES SECTION K

[A] [B] [C] [D] [E] [F] [G] [H] [I] [J] [K] [L] [M] [N] [O] [P] [Q] [R] [S] [T] [U] [V] [W] [X] [Y] [Z]

Kelsey, Henry - "On June 12, 1690, a young man by the name of Henry Kelsey set forth from an English outpost on the western shore of Hudson Bay to search out the Indian tribes of the unknown western interior. A month later he reached the junction of the Saskatchewan and Carrot Rivers, and, travelling up the Carrot for a distance of some 30 miles, set out on foot to cross a stretch of open country. The exact route followed by Kelsey is unknown, but it is believed tht he visited the Quill Lakes region and the Touchwood Hills, and perhaps, ventured as far as the eastern shore of Last Mountain Lake. What is known is that he was the first European on record to visit the plains of what is now Saskatchewan. Kelsey left behind two separate accounts of his journey, the one recorded in a kind of rhyming couplet, explained by historians as a device employed by the young explorer in committing details of his travels to memory, since he had taken no writing materials with him. In his more detailed prose narrative of his explorations, Kelsey reports having met with five Indian strangers who said they came from the vicinity of the Waskashreeseebee, a river which most authorities believe to have been the Red Deer River of the east, though it sounds suspiciously like Waskanissippi (or Pile-of-Bones Creek). One of the most interesting segments of Kelsey's journal reads as follows:

This 'great sort of Bear' was a Plains Grizzly, and Kelsey who shot one, was given the name of 'Miss-Top-Ashish' or 'The Little Giant' in commemoration of his deed."

The above is taken from the series entitled, "The Saskatchewanians," of which "Henry Kelsey" is Number 44. "In observance of Saskatchewan's sixtieth year, this newspaper [The Prince Albert Daily Herald], in cooperation with the Saskatchewan Diamond Jubilee and Canada Centennial Corporation, has presented a series of 35 biographical sketches and illustrations of men and women who have contributed substantially to the making of our history.... Commencing early in 1966, an additional series of 35 Saskatchewanians will appear in this paper, with a final, similar list scheduled for 1967."

Kis-sis-away Tanner's Camp - Kis-sis-away Tanner's Camp was located in the Dirt Hills of south central Saskatchewan. Kis-sis-away Tanner was a Metis commercial trader from Fort Qu'Appelle who, along with other Metis hivernant, passed a number of wintering seasons in the Dirt Hills during the late 1860s and early 1870s. Hudson Bay Company trader Issac Cowie (Issac Cowie, The Company of Adventurers: A Narrative of Seven Years in the Service of the Hudson's Bay Company During 1867-1874. Toronto: William Briggs, 1913, pp. 420-422), refers to Ki-sis-away Tanner and his hivernant group in his [Cowie's] journal entries. In March of 1871 Cowie was dispatched (by the HBC) southward from Fort Qu'Appelle to obtain pemmican for the provisioning of fur trapping units en route to York Factory. Cowie encountered Tanner and a group of Metis winterers at Ki-sis-away Tanner Camp in the Dirt Hills. Cowie's journals indicate that Tanner had established a presence at that location over a number of years (at least to the late 1860s) and that Tanner and his camp were widely known throughout the vicinity. David Burley, Gayle Horsfall, and John Brandon (Structural Considerations of Metis Ethnicity: An Archaeological and Architectural Study. Vermillion: The University of South Dakota Press, 1992, p.67) state that, "The ceramic assemblage [at Kis-sis-away Tanner's Camp] is similar to that from Petite Ville in that all specimens for which a manufacturer could be identified were made by the Spode/Copeland Company of Staffordshire, England." See the Spode/Copeland entry.

Kokum - Metis term for Grandmother.