Siege of Battleford | |||||||
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Part of the North-West Rebellion | |||||||
![]() Poundmaker surrenders to Middleton in Battleford May 26, 1885 | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Cree | ![]() | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Poundmaker ![]() | William Morris [1] Frederick Middleton (late) | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
7 killed | 3 killed | ||||||
2–6 civilians killed |
The siege of Battleford was a siege during the North-West Rebellion that lasted from March 28 to May 26, 1885.
After the Métis victory at the Battle of Duck Lake on March 26, 1885, Cree bands who were sympathetic to the Métis cause and with grievances of their own began raiding stores and farms in the western part of the District of Saskatchewan for arms, ammunition, and food supplies. The raids caused civilians to flee to the larger settlements and forts of the North-West Territories.
On March 28, 1885, news arrived that Indian bands commanded by Poundmaker were on their way to Battleford. Five hundred civilians began moving into the nearby North-West Mounted Police post, Fort Battleford, for protection against the Cree raids. [2] Fort Battleford was under the command of Colonel William Morris and had a small garrison of 25 police. During the night of March 29, nearby homesteads were raided and their horses and cattle rounded up by the Cree. On March 30, Poundmaker asked for a meeting with the Indian agent J. M. Rae. After Rae refused to meet with him, the Cree raided food and supplies from abandoned stores and houses. [3] The next day, the Cree made camp near Battleford, replete with horses, cattle, and other looted provisions. [4] The New Town was protected due to its proximity to the Fort and its cannon. However, the Old Town was not. The occupants of the Fort could only watch as the Old Town, about a mile away, was plundered, looted, and burned. Stolen vehicles and horses carried away the supplies of the Hudson's Bay Company and the other merchants. All the public buildings were sacked, including the Battleford Industrial School. [5] On April 21, 1885, Francis Dickens and his men safely reached Battleford after the Battle of Fort Pitt. [6] [7]
General Frederick Middleton's original plan was simple. He planned to march all his troops north from the railhead at Qu'Appelle to Louis Riel's capital in Batoche as he predicted that capturing Batoche would end the rebellion. [8] Middleton was also under pressure from Canadian Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald to end the rebellion as quickly as possible. [8] Furthermore, the militiamen under his command were mostly untrained volunteers which Middleton had to train as they marched to the front. [8] However, the killings at Frog Lake and the siege of Battleford forced Middleton to change his plan. He sent a large group under Lieutenant-Colonel William Dillon Otter north from a second railhead at Swift Current to relieve Battleford and lift the siege. [9] On May 1, Colonel Otter moved west from Battleford with 300 men. In the early morning of the next day on May 2, he was confronted by the Cree and Assiniboine force just west of Cut Knife Creek, 40 kilometres (25 mi) from Battleford which would result in the Battle of Cut Knife. The Indigenous force had enormous advantages of terrain, virtually surrounding Otter's troops on an inclined, triangular plain. Cree war chief Fine Day deployed his soldiers successfully in wooded ravines. After about six hours of fighting, Otter retreated. Casualties would have been very high as the militia re-crossed the creek, had not Chief Poundmaker persuaded the Indigenous warriors not to pursue the government troops. Otter's force suffered 8 dead and 14 wounded while Poundmaker's force only suffered 5–6 killed and 3 wounded. [10] The defeat at Cut Knife delayed the lifting of the siege and delayed Middleton's assault on Batoche. [11] After the defeat of the Métis force at the Battle of Batoche and the surrender of Louis Riel to Middleton on May 15. Poundmaker surrendered to General Middleton at Fort Battleford on May 26, 1885. [12]
Casualties on both sides were relatively light. 3 militiamen, 7 Cree and 2–6 civilians were killed over the course of the siege. Most homes were burned, including the home of Judge Charles Rouleau. Just half a dozen buildings were left standing by the end of the siege. [13] The amount of damage caused during the siege was reported to be upwards of $300,000. [14]
Like the rest of the North-West Rebellion, the Siege of Battleford has remained a source of debate among historians. Historian Douglas Hill characterized the Cree in his book, The Opening of the Canadian West, as a "war party ... ready to take revenge for a winter of incalculable suffering" who "swooped on Battleford, killing six whites". [15] Canadian historian George Stanley writing on the event indicated that the Cree were not murderous but more haphazard and bumbling stating "they did not appear to have in mind an attack upon the town but were content with prowling around the neighbourhood". In October 2010, Parks Canada stated that they stop using the word "siege" in its posters and programming to describe the "sometimes violent, sometimes tragic events at the frontier community during the Northwest Rebellion." [16]
The North-West Rebellion, was an armed rebellion of Métis under Louis Riel and an associated uprising of Cree and Assiniboine mostly in the District of Saskatchewan, North-West Territories, against the Canadian government. Many Métis felt that Canada was not protecting their rights, their land, and their survival as a distinct people. A provisional government led by Louis was declared, and rebel territory carved out, starting on March 18. As government forces responded, fighting broke out, with the last shooting over by the end of June. Important events included the Frog Lake incident, the capture of Batoche in May 1885 and Big Bear's surrender in early July. About 91 people were killed in the fighting that occurred that spring before the conflict ended. Although the Metis were militarily defeated, the Canada government subsequently did modulate some of its policies. Louis Riel was hanged but has since been pardoned for his actions.
Events from the year 1885 in Canada.
The Battle of Cut Knife, fought on May 2, 1885, occurred when a flying column of North-West Mounted Police, Canadian militia, and Canadian regulars attacked a Cree and Assiniboine teepee settlement near Battleford in the North-West Territories' District of Saskatchewan. at the time of the 1885 North-West Rebellion. First Nations fighters forced the Canadian forces to retreat, with losses on both sides.
The Battle of Frenchman's Butte, fought on May 28, 1885, occurred when the Alberta Field Force attacked a force of Cree, dug in on a hillside near Frenchman's Butte. The battlefield is located in what was then the District of Saskatchewan of the North-West Territories, now the province of Saskatchewan.
Poundmaker, also known as pîhtokahânapiwiyin, was a Plains Cree chief known as a peacemaker and defender of his people, the Poundmaker Cree Nation. His name denotes his special craft at leading buffalo into buffalo pounds (enclosures) for harvest.
The Battle of Duck Lake was an infantry skirmish 2.5 kilometres (1.6 mi) outside Duck Lake, Saskatchewan, between North-West Mounted Police forces of the Government of Canada, and the Métis militia of Louis Riel's newly established Provisional Government of Saskatchewan. The skirmish lasted approximately 30 minutes, after which Superintendent Leif Newry Fitzroy Crozier of the NWMP, his forces having endured fierce fire with twelve killed and eleven wounded, called for a general retreat. The battle is considered the initial engagement of the North-West Rebellion. Although Louis Riel proved to be victorious at Duck Lake, the general agreement among historians is that the battle was strategically a disappointment to his cause.
The Battle of Fish Creek, fought April 24, 1885 at Fish Creek, Saskatchewan, was a major Métis victory over the Canadian forces attempting to quell Louis Riel's North-West Rebellion. Although the reversal was not decisive enough to alter the ultimate outcome of the conflict, it was convincing enough to persuade Major General Frederick Middleton to temporarily halt his advance on Batoche, where the Métis would later make their final stand.
The Battle of Batoche was the decisive battle of the North-West Rebellion, which pitted Canadian Militia units against a force of First Nations and Métis people. Fought from May 9 to 12, 1885, at the ad hoc Provisional Government of Saskatchewan capital of Batoche, the greater numbers and superior firepower of General Frederick Middleton's force eventually overwhelmed the Métis fighters.
Sir Frederick Dobson Middleton was a British general noted for his service throughout the Empire and particularly in the North-West Rebellion in Canada.
Fort Battleford was the sixth North-West Mounted Police fort to be established in the North-West Territories of Canada, and played a central role in the events of the North-West Rebellion of 1885. It was here Chief Poundmaker was arrested, and where six Cree and two Stoney men were hanged for murders committed in the Frog Lake Massacre and the Looting of Battleford.
Southbranch Settlement was the name ascribed to a series of French Métis settlements on the Canadian prairies in the 19th century, in what is today the province of Saskatchewan. Métis settlers began making homes here in the 1860s and 1870s, many of them fleeing economic and social dislocation from Red River, Manitoba. The settlements became the centre of Métis resistance during the North-West Resistance when in March 1885, Louis Riel, Gabriel Dumont, Honoré Jackson, and others set up the Provisional Government of Saskatchewan with their headquarters at Batoche.
The Battle of Fort Pitt was part of a Cree uprising coinciding with the Métis North-West Rebellion in 1885. Cree fighters began a series of attacks on Canadian settlements on April 2. On April 15, they captured Fort Pitt from a detachment of North-West Mounted Police.
The Battle of Loon Lake, also known as the Battle of Steele Narrows, concluded the North-West Rebellion on June 3, 1885, and was the last battle fought on Canadian soil. It was fought in what was then the District of Saskatchewan of the North-West Territories, at what is now known as Steele Narrows at Makwa Lake, in Saskatchewan's Steele Narrows Provincial Park. Steele Narrows is a channel that separates Sanderson Bay from Makwa Lake.
Exovedate is the name coined by Métis leader Louis Riel and given by him to his council of the Provisional Government of Saskatchewan during the North-West Rebellion in Canada. Ten years prior to this date on December 8, 1875 after attending a mass in Washington, D. C., Riel had a religious vision where God spoke to him in Latin. Riel believed that God had chosen him to be the divine leader of the Métis and that he had been given the mission to lead them to their promised land similar to how God had chosen Moses to lead the Jews. From this point onward Louis took the middle name "David" and called himself "the prophet of the new world."
The Frog Lake Massacre was part of the Cree uprising during the North-West Rebellion in western Canada. Led by Wandering Spirit, Cree men attacked and killed nine officials, clergy and settlers in the small settlement of Frog Lake, at the time in the District of Saskatchewan in the North-West Territories on April 2, 1885.
The Provisional Government of Saskatchewan was an independent state declared during the North-West Rebellion of 1885 in the District of Saskatchewan of the North-West Territories. The name was given by Louis Riel. Although Riel initially hoped to rally the Countryborn, Cree, and European settlers of the Saskatchewan Valley to his banner, this did not occur. The government, with the exception of Honoré Jaxon and Chief White Cap, had an entirely French-speaking and Métis leadership. Gabriel Dumont was proclaimed adjutant general in which capacity he became supreme military commander, although Riel could, and did, override his tactical decisions. The Provisional Government was declared by Riel on March 19, 1885. It ceased to exist following the defeat of the Métis militarily during the Battle of Batoche, which concluded on May 20, 1885. During its existence the government only exercised authority over the Southbranch Settlements along the South Saskatchewan River. Other major centres in the area such as Prince Albert, Saskatoon, and most First Nations reserves remained outside of its control.
The Looting of Battleford began at the end of March, 1885, during the North-West Rebellion, in the town of Battleford, Saskatchewan, then a part of the Northwest Territories.
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.
The North-West Mounted Police (NWMP) played a significant role during the North-West Rebellion in Canada in 1885. The NWMP suffered early reverses and, although they supported the relief force sent to the region under the command of Major-General Frederick Middleton, their performance was heavily criticized. Commissioner Acheson Irvine resigned from his command of the police as a result.
Cut Knife Creek is a river in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. The river begins about 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) south of the Highway 40 / Highway 21 intersection and ends at Battle River in the Poundmaker Cree Nation. Battle River is a major tributary of the North Saskatchewan River. The Battle of Cut Knife of the North-West Rebellion took place on Cut Knife Hill near the river on 2 May 1885. The site of the battle was designated a National Historic Site of Canada and is the location of Chief Poundmaker's grave.