The Cypress Hills Massacre occurred on June 1, 1873, near Battle Creek in the Cypress Hills region of Canada's North-West Territories (now in Saskatchewan). It involved a group of American bison hunters, American wolf hunters or "wolfers", American and Canadian whisky traders, Métis cargo haulers or "freighters", and a camp of Assiniboine 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.

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 away, and asked for assistance from the local authorities to retrieve them. The authorities at Fort Benton refused to assist them,

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 in the Cypress Hills. 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 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.

The wolfers regarded these actions as a signal for a fight and lined up along a riverbank 50 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. 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 site of the massacre was designated a National Historic Site of Canada 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

thumb|North-West Mounted Police, 1900

News of the Cypress Hills Massacre did not reach Ottawa until late August 1873. 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 (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 was given permission by the U.S. government to enter Helena, Montana Territory, to investigate 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. 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.

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." This fear was summed up by General Philip Sheridan's infamous statement to Tosawi of the Comanche, "The only good Indians I ever saw were dead." 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 to one Tom Hardwick, the "lead" wolfer. The book was made into a miniseries that first appeared on CBC Television in March 2008.

The massacre is also covered in the 2023 historical fiction novel Crow Mary by Kathleen Grissom. The novel is told from the point of view of Abe Farwell's Crow wife.

The movie The Canadians is another fictionalized version. The Cypress Hills Massacre is also used as the plot centrepiece for the Terrance Dicks novel Massacre In the Hills which charts the beginning of the NWMP.

See also

  • List of massacres in Canada

References

Further reading

  • Google books Allen has been Deputy chief, Treaties & History Research Centre, Department of Indian and Northern Affairs 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.
  • Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan
  • Cypress Hills Massacre – Canadian Encyclopedia
  • Cypress Hills massacre (1873) in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography