Cree & Ojibway Indian Hockey Tour 1928

The Ojibway players were from Bear Island in Lake Temagami—now known as Teme-Augama Anishnabai or Temagami First Nation.

The Ojibway team was led by right-winger and defenceman Pishabo. Nineteen years old and 190 pounds, Pishabo was Chief William Pishabo of the Temagami First Nation son. He was joined in the forwards by brothers H. and R. Anderson, and Langevin. Brothers George and William Turner were defenceman and substitute respectively. The goalie was Petrant, scion of a large Metis family at Bear Island.

The other team was composed of Cree players from Chapleau (according to one newspaper) or “the James Bay territory” (according to another). Papers weren’t concerned with such precision. It seems likely that the Cree team was drawn from Bear Island as well as Chapleau Cree First Nation, and possibly even Moose Factory or elsewhere.

Instead of standard Hockey jerseys, each player wore a “feathered head-dress,” buckskin tunic emblazoned with an O or C, and “beaded waists” on the ice.