The Cypress Hills Massacre
[The Cypress Hills Massacre](_blank)
at Parks Canada
Parks Canada (PC; french: Parcs Canada),Parks Canada is the applied title under the Federal Identity Program; the legal title is Parks Canada Agency (). is the agency of the Government of Canada which manages the country's 48 National Parks, th ...
occurred on June 1, 1873, near
Battle Creek
Battle Creek is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan, in northwest Calhoun County, at the confluence of the Kalamazoo and Battle Creek rivers. It is the principal city of the Battle Creek, Michigan Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), which encom ...
in the
Cypress Hills region of Canada's
North-West Territories
The Northwest Territories (abbreviated ''NT'' or ''NWT''; french: Territoires du Nord-Ouest, formerly ''North-Western Territory'' and ''North-West Territories'' and namely shortened as ''Northwest Territory'') is a federal territory of Canada. ...
(now in
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...
). It involved a group of American
bison hunters
Bison are large bovines in the genus ''Bison'' (Greek: "wild ox" (bison)) within the tribe Bovini. Two extant and numerous extinct species are recognised.
Of the two surviving species, the American bison, ''B. bison'', found only in North Amer ...
, American
wolf hunters or "
wolfers", American and Canadian whisky traders,
Métis
The Métis ( ; Canadian ) are Indigenous peoples who inhabit Canada's three Prairie Provinces, as well as parts of British Columbia, the Northwest Territories, and the Northern United States. They have a shared history and culture which derives ...
cargo haulers or "freighters", and a camp of
Assiniboine
The Assiniboine or Assiniboin people ( when singular, Assiniboines / Assiniboins when plural; Ojibwe: ''Asiniibwaan'', "stone Sioux"; also in plural Assiniboine or Assiniboin), also known as the Hohe and known by the endonym Nakota (or Nakoda ...
people. Thirteen or more Assiniboine warriors and one wolfer died in the conflict. The Cypress Hills Massacre prompted the Canadian government to accelerate the recruitment and deployment of the newly formed
North-West Mounted Police
The North-West Mounted Police (NWMP) was a Canadian para-military police force, established in 1873, to maintain order in the new Canadian North-West Territories (NWT) following the 1870 transfer of Rupert’s Land and North-Western Territory ...
.
Incident
The incident began in the spring of 1873 when a small party of Canadian
Red River Métis and American wolfers, led by Thomas W. Hardwick and John Evans, was returning from their winter hunt. While they were camped on the
Teton River, their horses disappeared overnight. Presuming that their horses had been stolen by '
Indians', the men travelled on foot to
Fort Benton, Montana Territory, about five miles, and asked for assistance from the local authorities to retrieve them. The authorities at Fort Benton refused to assist them, however,
so Hardwick organised his own expedition and set off to retrieve the stolen horses. The party numbered 13 men, comprising both U.S. and Canadian 'free traders' and
wolf-hunters.
The group quickly travelled from Fort Benton northward across the border in pursuit of the stolen horses. They eventually arrived at Abe Farwell's small trading post located in the
Cypress Hills region. While there, they encountered George Hammond, a friend of both Evans and Hardwick, who had been selling whisky in the area. Hammond subsequently joined Hardwick's group in the search for the missing horses.
Farwell had assured Evans that Little Soldier, the leader of a small band of
Assiniboine
The Assiniboine or Assiniboin people ( when singular, Assiniboines / Assiniboins when plural; Ojibwe: ''Asiniibwaan'', "stone Sioux"; also in plural Assiniboine or Assiniboin), also known as the Hohe and known by the endonym Nakota (or Nakoda ...
camped near the trading post, had no horses with them. After a brief search it was determined by the group that Little Soldier showed no evidence that he had stolen their horses, so Evans, Hammond, and the rest of the wolfers retired for the night to Farwell's trading post, where they spent the evening and the next morning drinking Farwell's whisky with a group of recently arrived Métis freighters.
In the morning Hammond complained that one of Little Soldier's men had stolen his horse for a second time,
and started towards Little Soldier's camp, insisting that the rest of the wolfers join him to retrieve his horse. The wolfers, along with the Métis, followed Hammond to the Assiniboine camp.
Historical accounts differ on what happened during the skirmish, as there were no reliable testimonies. The best information states that:
* Abe Farwell testified that he tried to restrain Hammond in an attempt to avoid any violence.
* Hammond approached Little Soldier's tent asking about the missing horse.
* Little Soldier replied that his group had not stolen the horse but that it was grazing on a nearby hill.
Both Little Soldier's and Hammond's parties were intoxicated, and negotiations between them fell through. Little Soldier offered Hammond two of his horses as hostages until the missing horse could be found, but the situation became increasingly tense as women and children began fleeing from the camp and Little Soldier's men began stripping off their garments in preparation for battle.
[Friesen, Gerald. ''The Canadian Prairies a History''. Student ed. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1987.]
The wolfers regarded these actions as a signal for a fight and lined up along a riverbank fifty yards outside the Assiniboine camp. In a last-ditch effort to avoid violence, Abe Farwell pleaded with the wolfers, asking them not to start shooting. Before he could continue negotiating with Little Soldier and the wolfers, Farwell saw Hammond fire his
rifle
A rifle is a long-barreled firearm designed for accurate shooting, with a barrel that has a helical pattern of grooves ( rifling) cut into the bore wall. In keeping with their focus on accuracy, rifles are typically designed to be held with ...
. The rest of the wolfers, protected by the tall river bank, then fired volleys into the camp. The Assiniboine, using inferior weapons, returned fire, but were unable to sustain an attack due to the wolfers' protected position.
The total number of casualties reported differs widely in various accounts. One of Hardwick's men—Ed Legrace—was killed, but the number of Assiniboine casualties was higher. In the personal account of Donald Graham, who joined the wolfers at Fort Benton and travelled with them to the Cypress Hills, he states that 13 of Little Soldier's men were killed in the exchanges of fire. After the battle, the wolfers buried Legrace in a cabin and set the building ablaze. Some sources claim that Legrace's wooden coffin still remains there to this day.
The site of the massacre was designated a
National Historic Site of Canada
National Historic Sites of Canada (french: Lieux historiques nationaux du Canada) are places that have been designated by the federal Minister of the Environment
An environment minister (sometimes minister of the environment or secretary of t ...
in 1964.
Artifacts from the Cypress Hills Massacre have also been preserved at nearby Fort Walsh National Historic Site, along with reconstructions of Farwell's and Solomon's trading posts.
Aftermath
![Nwmp 1900](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/71/Nwmp_1900.jpg)
News of the Cypress Hills Massacre did not reach
Ottawa
Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...
until late August 1873, therefore the event itself was not very well known in Canada. The Canadian government soon took steps to have those involved extradited from the United States and tried for murder, causing confrontation between Canada and the United States. The case languished for some time and then was taken up by the newly created
North-West Mounted Police
The North-West Mounted Police (NWMP) was a Canadian para-military police force, established in 1873, to maintain order in the new Canadian North-West Territories (NWT) following the 1870 transfer of Rupert’s Land and North-Western Territory ...
(NWMP). The NWMP at this time was still establishing itself; the battle between the Assiniboine warriors and Hardwick's group of wolf-hunters at Cypress Hills was one of the catalysts for its creation.
Investigation and trials
In December 1874, Assistant Commissioner
James Macleod
Lieutenant-Colonel James Farquharson Macleod (c. September 25, 1836 – September 5, 1894), born in Drynoch, Isle of Skye, Scotland, was a militia officer, lawyer, North-West Mounted Police officer, magistrate, judge, and politician in Alber ...
was given permission by the U.S. government to enter
Helena, Montana Territory to start an investigation into the Cypress Hills Massacre. Depending upon the findings of this investigation, the accused could have faced extradition to Canada to face trial under Canadian law. Seven arrests were made, but two men escaped custody before they could be examined. The remaining men were freed because there was not enough clear evidence to prove anything against them, and the American commissioner refused the extradition request as there was far too much conflicting testimony. The Canadian Commissioner (Macleod) was subsequently charged with false arrest, but this charge was soon dropped.
In June, 1876, shortly after they were released from custody in the United States, two traders and a wolfer crossed the border into Canada and were subsequently arrested and put on trial in
Winnipeg
Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,6 ...
. The Crown's case against them failed, however, once again weakened by insufficient or contradictory evidence. The three men were acquitted, and the case was finally dropped in 1882.
[Kelly, William & Nora. "The Horses of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police: A Pictorial History" Doubleday Canada Ltm. Toronto, Ontario. 1984]
W. E. Cullen, the American commissioner, said at the extradition hearing at
Helena: although the "preponderance of testimony is to the effect that the Indians commenced the firing... they were doubtlessly provoked to this by the apparently hostile attitudes of the whites... An armed party menacing their camp, no matter for what purpose, was by no means slight provocations."
Creation of the North-West Mounted Police
It is very difficult to measure the impact that the Cypress Hills Massacre had on
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
and the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
. The creation of the
North-West Mounted Police
The North-West Mounted Police (NWMP) was a Canadian para-military police force, established in 1873, to maintain order in the new Canadian North-West Territories (NWT) following the 1870 transfer of Rupert’s Land and North-Western Territory ...
(NWMP, later the
Royal Canadian Mounted Police
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; french: Gendarmerie royale du Canada; french: GRC, label=none), commonly known in English as the Mounties (and colloquially in French as ) is the federal police, federal and national police service of ...
), was introduced partially as a result of the massacre. Around this time, the
Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba,
Alexander Morris, was concerned about perceived threats of violence to uniformed Canadians and Americans conducting geological surveys. As a result, Morris had to call off any further surveying until there was a solution. Unable to find a solution, Morris used the reports of the massacre to call on the
Prime Minister of Canada
The prime minister of Canada (french: premier ministre du Canada, link=no) is the head of government of Canada. Under the Westminster system, the prime minister governs with the Confidence and supply, confidence of a majority the elected Hou ...
, Sir
John A. Macdonald
Sir John Alexander Macdonald (January 10 or 11, 1815 – June 6, 1891) was the first prime minister of Canada, serving from 1867 to 1873 and from 1878 to 1891. The dominant figure of Canadian Confederation, he had a political career that sp ...
, to create a police force. Already planning to establish a police force in the
North-West Territories
The Northwest Territories (abbreviated ''NT'' or ''NWT''; french: Territoires du Nord-Ouest, formerly ''North-Western Territory'' and ''North-West Territories'' and namely shortened as ''Northwest Territory'') is a federal territory of Canada. ...
, Macdonald had envisioned a horse mounted
brigade
A brigade is a major tactical military formation that typically comprises three to six battalions plus supporting elements. It is roughly equivalent to an enlarged or reinforced regiment. Two or more brigades may constitute a division.
Br ...
based on the idea of the
Royal Irish Constabulary
The Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC, ga, Constáblacht Ríoga na hÉireann; simply called the Irish Constabulary 1836–67) was the police force in Ireland from 1822 until 1922, when all of the country was part of the United Kingdom. A separate ...
. The force would be small; only 300 men could enlist. For an area that covered 480,000 square kilometres,
the force would have to be as mobile as possible. Alexander Campbell, the minister of the interior, did not believe sending an armed police force into the
North-West Territories
The Northwest Territories (abbreviated ''NT'' or ''NWT''; french: Territoires du Nord-Ouest, formerly ''North-Western Territory'' and ''North-West Territories'' and namely shortened as ''Northwest Territory'') is a federal territory of Canada. ...
was necessary at this time, causing Morris to fear that any delay in training and deployment could be exacerbated further once winter fell. To force their creation, Morris claimed that the
Métis
The Métis ( ; Canadian ) are Indigenous peoples who inhabit Canada's three Prairie Provinces, as well as parts of British Columbia, the Northwest Territories, and the Northern United States. They have a shared history and culture which derives ...
and white settlers in the area around
Portage la Prairie
Portage la Prairie () is a small city in the Central Plains Region of Manitoba, Canada. As of 2016, the population was 13,304 and the land area of the city was .
Portage la Prairie is approximately west of Winnipeg, along the Trans-Canada Hig ...
and
Fort Qu'Appelle
Fort Qu'Appelle is a town in Canadian province of Saskatchewan located in the Qu'Appelle River valley north-east of Regina, between Echo and Mission Lakes of the Fishing Lakes. It is not to be confused with the once-significant nearby t ...
were experiencing fear and unrest due to the massacre.
On September 25, 1873, the government of Canada passed an order-in-council to appoint nine officers of "Mounted Police Force for the North-West Territories". Recruitment began immediately, and the North-West Mounted Police was created. With the new police force patrolling the area, the border could no longer be so easily crossed.
The creation of the police force also had a political motive. The investigation into the massacre was to ensure that
First Nations
First Nations or first peoples may refer to:
* Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area.
Indigenous groups
*First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including:
**First Natio ...
in the area were able to trust the Canadian government. The investigation would require international cooperation of two federal governments, and the North-West Mounted Police would take measures to make examples out of international criminals. Although ultimately no prosecution took place, the willingness to seek justice for any Canadian contributed to the establishment of peace between the NWMP and First Nations.
As time went on the Cypress Hills Massacre gradually became part of popular knowledge about Canada's past even though the event was never fully closed and dealt with.
In media
![Philip Sheridan 1-restored](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7b/Philip_Sheridan_1-restored.jpg)
When the news of the Cypress Hills Massacre broke into
eastern Canada
Eastern Canada (also the Eastern provinces or the East) is generally considered to be the region of Canada south of the Hudson Bay/Strait and east of Manitoba, consisting of the following provinces (from east to west): Newfoundland and Labrador, ...
, it introduced a wave of
anti-Americanism
Anti-Americanism (also called anti-American sentiment) is prejudice, fear, or hatred of the United States, its government, its foreign policy, or Americans in general.
Political scientist Brendon O'Connor at the United States Studies Centr ...
. In the news, the American men were described as "American
gangsters
A gangster is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Most gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from ''mob'' and the suffix '' -ster''. Gangs provide a level of organization and r ...
" and "American scums". The idea that only American frontiersmen could commit this outrage had been maintained in many Canadian written accounts of the massacre. Canadians were not only shocked that the Americans committed such a crime in their country, but now the media was putting an increased negative view on Americans. Canadians believed that Americans would continually murder people on Canadian soil.
[Marty, Sid. Leaning on the Wind: Under the Spell of the Great Chinook. Custer, Washington: Heritage House Publishing Company, 2009. 64-65.] This fear was summed up by General
Philip Sheridan
General of the Army Philip Henry Sheridan (March 6, 1831 – August 5, 1888) was a career United States Army officer and a Union general in the American Civil War. His career was noted for his rapid rise to major general and his close as ...
's infamous statement to Tosawi of the Comanche, "The only good
Indians I ever saw were dead."
Although Canadians also took part in the Cypress Hills Massacre, it remains overlooked in
western Canadian history. Even though it took place in Canada, the massacre represented a temporary extension of
American frontier
The American frontier, also known as the Old West or the Wild West, encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of United States territorial acquisitions, American expansion in mainland North Amer ...
mentality into the Canadian northwest.
In fiction
A fictionalized account of the events of the Cypress Hills Massacre is told in the novel ''
The Englishman's Boy
''The Englishman's Boy'' is a novel by Guy Vanderhaeghe, published in 1996 by McClelland and Stewart, which won the Governor General's Award for English-language fiction in 1996 and was nominated for the Giller Prize. It deals with the events of ...
'' by Canadian author
Guy Vanderhaeghe
Guy Clarence Vanderhaeghe (born April 5, 1951) is a Canadian novelist and short story writer, best known for his Western novel trilogy, ''The Englishman's Boy'', '' The Last Crossing'', and ''A Good Man'' set in the 19th-century American and Can ...
.
The story focuses in part on the character of the "Englishman's boy", one of the members of the party of wolfers. While little is known of those involved in the actual event, the novel attributes the cause of the
massacre
A massacre is the killing of a large number of people or animals, especially those who are not involved in any fighting or have no way of defending themselves. A massacre is generally considered to be morally unacceptable, especially when per ...
to one Tom Hardwick, the "lead" wolfer. The book was made into a miniseries that first appeared on
CBC Television
CBC Television (also known as CBC TV) is a Canadian English-language broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster. The network began operations on September 6, 1952. Its French-l ...
in March 2008.
The movie ''
The Canadians'' was another fictionalized version. The Cypress Hills Massacre is also used as the plot centrepiece for the
Terrance Dicks
Terrance William Dicks (14 April 1935 – 29 August 2019) was an English people, English author and television screenwriter, script editor and Television producer, producer. In television, he had a long association with the BBC science-fictio ...
novel ''Massacre In the Hills'' which charts the beginning of the NWMP.
See also
*
List of massacres in Canada
This is a list of events in Canada and its predecessors that are commonly characterized as ''massacres''. ''Massacre'' is defined in the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' as "the indiscriminate and brutal slaughter of people or (less commonly) anim ...
*
List of conflicts in Canada
List of conflicts in Canada is a timeline of events that includes wars, battles, skirmishes, major terrorist attacks, riots and other related items that have occurred in the country of Canada's current geographical area. A complete list of terror ...
References
Further reading
*
*
Google booksAllen has been Deputy chief, Treaties & History Research Centre,
Department of Indian and Northern Affairs
Department may refer to:
* Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility
Government and military
*Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...
in Ottawa
* Hildebrant, Walter, Hubner, Brian (1994). ''The Cypress Hills: the land and its people''. Saskatoon: Purich Publishing. .
* Daschuk, James (2013). ''Clearing the Plains: disease, politics of starvation, and the loss of Aboriginal life''. Regina: University of Regina Press. .
* Friesen, Gerald (1987). ''The Canadian Prairies: a history''. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. .
Older sources
*
* Sharpe, Paul F. (1954). "Massacre at Cypress Hills: A Whoop-Up County Preview." ''The Montana Magazine of History ''4 (1): 26–41.
External links
Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan
{{Authority control
North-West Mounted Police
1873 in Canada
Conflicts in 1873
June 1873 events
Massacres in 1873
Canada–United States relations
Disasters in Saskatchewan
Conflicts in Canada
Maple Creek No. 111, Saskatchewan
Massacres of First Nations
Crime in Saskatchewan
National Historic Sites in Saskatchewan
American frontier
Indigenous conflicts in Canada
Violence in Canada
Métis in Saskatchewan
Assiniboine people
Legal history of Canada
1873 crimes in Canada