Battle of the Belly River

Last updated
Battle of the Belly River
DateOctober 25, 1870
Location
Present day Lethbridge, Alberta
Result Decisive Blackfoot victory
Belligerents
Blackfoot Confederacy Cree
Commanders and leaders
Big Leg
Black Eagle
Heavy Shield
Crow Eagle
Bull Back Fat
Button Chief
Big Bear
Little Pine
Little Mountain
Piapot
Strength
500–800 warriors 500–800 warriors
Casualties and losses
40 killed
50 wounded
200–400 killed

The Battle of the Belly River was the last major conflict between the Cree (the Iron Confederacy) and the Blackfoot Confederacy, and the last major battle between First Nations on Canadian soil.

Contents

The battle took place within the present limits of the city of Lethbridge on the banks of the Oldman River, which at the time of the battle, was called the Belly River. A devastating outbreak of smallpox had reduced the strength of the Blackfoot, and a Cree war party had come south in late October 1870 to take advantage of that weakness. An advance party of Crees had stumbled upon a Peigan camp and decided to attack instead of informing the main Cree body of their find.

The Blackfoot and the Cree were fighting to gain control of the Cypress Hills boundaries and in the fall of 1870 there was a battle between them called the "Battle of Belly River." Big Bear and Little Pine led the Cree’s and attacked a Blood First Nations camp. The next day, well armed Peigans entered the battle and defeated the Cree, approximately 200-400 Crees died in the battle. Eventually the Cree and Blackfoot negotiated peace and access to the Cypress hills. [1]

Soon word passed to other Blackfoot, Blood and Peigan camps in the immediate area, and warriors were sent to join battle. After several hours of trading shots, a Blackfoot party gained the high ground and made the Cree positions untenable. The retreat became a rout, and up to 300 Cree warriors were killed trying to make their escape.

More significant than the outcome of the battle, is the fact that it is perhaps the best-covered inter-tribal fighting of all time given the number of eyewitnesses it produced. Above all, it is believed to be the last significant inter-tribal battle in North America. [2] The clash does not refer to a single organized engagement but consists of many scattered encounters in the valley of the Oldman River. [3] The Blackfoot, after having significantly reduced their numbers in a ghastly smallpox epidemic that killed over 2,200 of their people, repulsed the Cree and Assiniboine attackers hoping to exploit the incidence by launching a full-scale raid against the Blackfoot.

Approximately a year after the battle, the Cree and Blackfoot made a formal peace. This was formalized by Crowfoot, a Blackfoot chief, ritually adopting Poundmaker, an up-and-coming Cree leader in 1873. Treaty No.7, between the Blackfoot Confederacy and the Crown, was signed in 1877. In 1906, the town of Lethbridge was founded near the battle site. The battle itself is commemorated in Indian Battle Park.


After the battle the region’s politics changed. In January 1871, just months after the fight the Cree extended an olive branch to the Blackfoot with a gift of tobacco and an informal peace. This was formalized in the fall of the same year on the Red Deer River. [4] A monument in Wetaskiwin now commemorates the peace between the Blackfoot and Cree Nations. The battle marked the end of inter-tribal warfare and the beginning of a new era of cooperation between the First Nations, a peace that has lasted to this day. [5]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blackfoot Confederacy</span> A name used for a group of Native Americans

The Blackfoot Confederacy, Niitsitapi, or Siksikaitsitapi, is a historic collective name for linguistically related groups that make up the Blackfoot or Blackfeet people: the Siksika ("Blackfoot"), the Kainai or Blood, and two sections of the Peigan or Piikani – the Northern Piikani (Aapátohsipikáni) and the Southern Piikani. Broader definitions include groups such as the Tsúùtínà (Sarcee) and A'aninin who spoke quite different languages but allied with or joined the Blackfoot Confederacy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cypress Hills (Canada)</span> Hills in Alberta and Saskatchewan, Canada

The Cypress Hills are a geographical region of hills in southwestern Saskatchewan and southeastern Alberta, Canada. The hills are part of the Missouri Coteau upland. The hills cover an area of approximately 2,500 km2 (970 sq mi). About 400 km2 (150 sq mi) or 16% of this area is an interprovincial park.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kainai Nation</span> First Nation in Alberta, Canada

The Kainai Nation is a First Nations band government in southern Alberta, Canada, with a population of 12,965 members in 2024, up from 11,791 in December 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Big Bear</span> 19th-century Cree chief

Big Bear, also known as Mistahi-maskwa, was a powerful and popular Cree chief who played many pivotal roles in Canadian history. He was appointed to chief of his band at the age of 40 upon the death of his father, Black Powder, under his father's harmonious and inclusive rule which directly impacted his own leadership. Big Bear is most notable for his involvement in Treaty 6 and the 1885 North-West Rebellion; he was one of the few chief leaders who objected to the signing of the treaty with the Canadian government. He felt that signing the treaty would ultimately have devastating effects on his nation as well as other Indigenous nations. This included losing the free nomadic lifestyle that his nation and others were accustomed to. Big Bear also took part in one of the last major battles between the Cree and the Blackfoot nations, leading fighters in the last, largest battle on the Canadian Plains.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Piikani Nation</span>

The Piikani Nation is a First Nation, representing the Indigenous people in Canada known as the Northern Piikani or simply the Peigan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jerry Potts</span> American-Canadian frontiersman (c. 1840–1896)

Jeremiah Potts, , was an American-Canadian plainsman, buffalo hunter, horse trader, interpreter, and scout of Kainai (Blood) and Scots heritage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Assiniboine</span> Indigenous peoples of the northern North American Great Plains

The Assiniboine or Assiniboin people, also known as the Hohe and known by the endonym Nakota, are a First Nations/Native American people originally from the Northern Great Plains of North America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tsuutʼina Nation</span> First Nation in Alberta, Canada

The Tsuutʼina Nation, also spelled Tsuu Tʼina or Tsu Tʼina, is a First Nation band government in Alberta, Canada. The Tsuu T'ina Nation 145 reserve is located directly west of Calgary, with its eastern edge directly adjacent to the southwest city limits. Their traditional territory spans a much larger area in southern Alberta. The land area of the current reserve is 283.14 km2, and it had a population of 1,982 in the 2001 Canadian census. The northeast portion of the reserve was used as part of CFB Calgary, a Canadian Army base, from 1910 to 1998. In 2006, the land was returned to the Nation by the Government of Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Treaty 7</span> Treaty between First Nations and Canadian Crown

Treaty 7 is an agreement between the Crown and several, mainly Blackfoot, First Nation band governments in what is today the southern portion of Alberta. The idea of developing treaties for Blackfoot lands was brought to Blackfoot chief Crowfoot by John McDougall in 1875. It was concluded on September 22 and December 4, 1877. The agreement was signed at the Blackfoot Crossing of the Bow River, at the present-day Siksika Nation reserve, approximately 75 km (47 mi) east of Calgary. Chief Crowfoot was one of the signatories to Treaty 7. Another signing on this treaty occurred on December 4, 1877, to accommodate some Blackfoot leaders who were not present at the primary September 1877 signing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">First Nations in Alberta</span> Group of people who live in the Canadian province of Alberta

First Nations in Alberta are a group of people who live in the Canadian province of Alberta. The First Nations are peoples recognized as Indigenous peoples or Plains Indians in Canada excluding the Inuit and the Métis. According to the 2011 Census, a population of 116,670 Albertans self-identified as First Nations. Specifically there were 96,730 First Nations people with registered Indian Status and 19,945 First Nations people without registered Indian Status. Alberta has the third largest First Nations population among the provinces and territories. From this total population, 47.3% of the population lives on an Indian reserve and the other 52.7% live in urban centres. According to the 2011 Census, the First Nations population in Edmonton totalled at 31,780, which is the second highest for any city in Canada. The First Nations population in Calgary, in reference to the 2011 Census, totalled at 17,040. There are 45 First Nations or "bands" in Alberta, belonging to nine different ethnic groups or "tribes" based on their ancestral languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Treaty 6</span> Treaty between the First Nations and Canadian Crown

Treaty 6 is the sixth of the numbered treaties that were signed by the Canadian Crown and various First Nations between 1871 and 1877. It is one of a total of 11 numbered treaties signed between the Canadian Crown and First Nations. Specifically, Treaty 6 is an agreement between the Crown and the Plains and Woods Cree, Assiniboine, and other band governments at Fort Carlton and Fort Pitt. Key figures, representing the Crown, involved in the negotiations were Alexander Morris, Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba and The North-West Territories; James McKay, The Minister of Agriculture for Manitoba; and William J. Christie, a chief factor of the Hudson's Bay Company. Chief Mistawasis and Chief Ahtahkakoop represented the Carlton Cree.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Alberta</span>

The province of Alberta, Canada, has a history and prehistory stretching back thousands of years. The ancestors of today's First Nations in Alberta arrived in the area by at least 10,000 BC according to the Bering land bridge theory. Southerly tribes, the Plain Indians, such as the Blackfoot, Blood, and Peigans eventually adapted to seminomadic plains bison hunting, originally without the aid of horses, but later with horses that Europeans had introduced.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fort Whoop-Up</span> Human settlement in Lethbridge County, Alberta, Canada

Fort Whoop-Up was the nickname given to a whisky trading post, originally Fort Hamilton, near what is now Lethbridge, Alberta. During the late 19th century, the post served as a centre for trading activities, including the illegal whisky trade. The sale of whisky was outlawed but, due to the lack of law enforcement in the region prior to 1874, many whisky traders had settled in the area and taken to charging unusually high prices for their goods.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gros Ventre</span> Native American group of north-central Montana

The Gros Ventre, also known as the A'aninin, Atsina, or White Clay, are a historically Algonquian-speaking Native American tribe located in northcentral Montana. Today, the Gros Ventre people are enrolled in the Fort Belknap Indian Community of the Fort Belknap Reservation of Montana, a federally recognized tribe with 7,000 members, also including the Assiniboine people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Lethbridge</span>

The modern history of Lethbridge extends to the mid-19th century, when the area was developed from drift mines opened by Nicholas Sheran in 1874, and the North Western Coal and Navigation Company in 1882. Prior to the development of drift mines in the area, Lethbridge, Alberta was known as Coal Banks, and was part of the territory of the Blackfoot Confederacy. The Confederacy was made up of the Kainai Nation, the Northern Peigan, the Southern Peigan (Blackfeet), and the Siksika Nation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indian Battle Park</span>

Indian Battle Park is a park located in the Oldman River valley urban park system of Lethbridge, Alberta. The park is home to Fort Whoop-Up, Helen Schuler Nature Centre and the High Level Bridge.

The Palliser Region is an area in the southeast corner of the province of Alberta, Canada that has been delineated and is serviced by the Palliser Economic Partnership. It borders the Canadian province of Saskatchewan to the east, and the US state of Montana to the south. It covers an area of 43,504 km2 (16,797 sq mi) The total population of the area stood at 112,314 in 2009. The city of Medicine Hat, with a population of 61,097, is the area's largest urban centre.

The Iron Confederacy or Iron Confederation was a political and military alliance of Plains Indians of what is now Western Canada and the northern United States. This confederacy included various individual bands that formed political, hunting and military alliances in defense against common enemies. The ethnic groups that made up the Confederacy were the branches of the Cree that moved onto the Great Plains around 1740, the Saulteaux, the Nakoda or Stoney people also called Pwat or Assiniboine, and the Métis and Haudenosaunee. The Confederacy rose to predominance on the northern Plains during the height of the North American fur trade when they operated as middlemen controlling the flow of European goods, particularly guns and ammunition, to other Indigenous nations, and the flow of furs to the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) and North West Company (NWC) trading posts. Its peoples later also played a major part in the bison (buffalo) hunt, and the pemmican trade. The decline of the fur trade and the collapse of the bison herds sapped the power of the Confederacy after the 1860s, and it could no longer act as a barrier to U.S. and Canadian expansion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mountain Chief</span> Native American South Piegan warrior

Mountain Chief was a South Piegan warrior of the Blackfoot Tribe. Mountain Chief was also called Big Brave (Omach-katsi) and adopted the name Frank Mountain Chief. Mountain Chief was involved in the 1870 Marias Massacre, signed the Treaty of Fort Laramie in 1868, and worked with anthropologist Frances Densmore to interpret folksong recordings.

References

  1. Dodson, 14, quoted at https://web.archive.org/web/20160401180710/https://treaty6education.lskysd.ca/1870
  2. Hamza, Alyssa (2023-08-10). ""The Last Great Battle"". Ember Archaeology. Retrieved 2024-11-25.
  3. Hamza, Alyssa (2023-08-10). ""The Last Great Battle"". Ember Archaeology. Retrieved 2024-11-25.
  4. Hamza, Alyssa (2023-08-10). ""The Last Great Battle"". Ember Archaeology. Retrieved 2024-11-25.
  5. Hamza, Alyssa (2023-08-10). ""The Last Great Battle"". Ember Archaeology. Retrieved 2024-11-25.

49°41′38″N112°51′40″W / 49.69391°N 112.86105°W / 49.69391; -112.86105 (Battle of the Belly River)