Abishabis

Abishabis.
Abishabis (died 1843) was a Cree religious leader and prophet of a movement that spread during the 1840s among the Cree communities in what is now northern Manitoba and Ontario. His preaching, an admixture of Christianity and Cree beliefs, caused some Cree people to stop hunting furs, angering the Hudson's Bay Company and reducing its profits. In 1843, Abishabis was arrested on suspicion of murdering a First Nations family. While he was imprisoned at Fort Severn, a group of people broke in, took him from his cell, murdered him, and burned his body. His followers either slowly disavowed his teachings and destroyed their relics from the movement, or practiced the religion in secret. Abishabis had preached that he visited heaven and that followers could use a Cree writing system to create religious relics. His followers did not deify him but believed his teachings were a divine revelation. In 1930, it was reported that stories about him were passed down by the Cree people, who stated that he had brought them Christianity.