Jerry Potts
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Jerry Potts (on or before 1840-1896), (also known as Ky-yo-kosi, meaning Bear Child), hunter, interpreter, and scout.
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[edit] Early life
Potts was born at Fort McKenzie, Montana on the Missouri River, the only child of his Kainai mother Namo-pisi (Crooked Back) and Andrew R. Potts, a Scottish fur trader. After his father's death, his mother returned to her family.
Potts married two members of the Piegan tribe named Panther Woman and Spotted Killer. He considered himself a Piegan but he kept his Kainai name, Kyi-yo-Kosi.
[edit] Career
By the time Potts was 25, he was a wealthy man because of his horse trading. He became a minor chief with the Kainai.
North West Mounted Police officer Samuel Benfield Steele described him as “a short, bow-legged man, with piercing black eyes and a long straight nose,[1].
In 1871, Potts was about 31 when his mother was murdered. Her killer had been an Indian who was drunk on "firewater" so he declared his own personal war on the whiskey runners. By the time Potts was 36 he had killed at least 40 men, mostly whiskey runners.[citation needed]
In September, 1874 Potts was trading horses in Fort Benton, Montana. He was hired as a guide, interpreter and scout by the North West Mounted Police at the fort. His contract as a guide for the NWMP was to last 22 years. He was paid $90 per month, which was quite a bit higher than a regular guide. He only ceased working for the force at age 58 because the pain of throat cancer made it that he could no longer ride. He died a year later, on 14 July 1896 at Fort Macleod, Alberta, Canada.[2]
[edit] References
- Potts, Jerry - Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
- S. B. Steele, Forty years in Canada: Reminiscences of the Great North-West, ed. M. G. Niblett (Toronto and London, 1918; reprinted 1972)
[edit] References
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This article or section is missing citations or needs footnotes. Using inline citations helps guard against copyright violations and factual inaccuracies. (October 2007) |
- ^ S. B. Steele, Forty years in Canada: Reminiscences of the Great North-West, ed. M. G. Niblett (Toronto and London, 1918; reprinted 1972)
- ^ Potts, Jerry - Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
[edit] External links
jerry pots kept a cat in his shirt
