North-West Rebellion

The conflict is referred to by several names, including the North-West Rebellion, the North-West Resistance, the 1885 Resistance, the Northwest Uprising, the Saskatchewan Rebellion, and the Second Riel Rebellion. The conflict, grouped with the Red River Rebellion, is collectively referred to as the Riel Rebellions. Indigenous studies scholars and many historians refer to Indigenous uprisings in reaction to European colonization as resistances—Indigenous nations self-governed the land before the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) and then the Canadian government exerted its sovereignty over it. The Canadian Encyclopedia, and the Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan. ==Background==

After the Red River Rebellion of 1869–1870, many Métis moved from Manitoba to the Fort Carlton region of the North-West Territories, where they founded the Southbranch settlements of Fish Creek, Batoche, St. Laurent, St. Louis, and Duck Lake on or near the South Saskatchewan River. In 1882, surveyors began dividing the land in the newly formed District of Saskatchewan according to the Dominion Land Survey's square township system. The established Métis farms were laid out in the seigneurial system, narrow strips stretching up from a river. The Métis were familiar with this system from their French-Canadian culture. After the experience of the 1869 Red River rebellion, surveyors were allowed to make exceptions to the standard survey practice, to accommodate pre-existing riverlot farms within two kilometres of a river. But that was scant consideration of the old-time communities. Outside accepted riverlot groupings, the survey imposed a standard grid on the land, allocating particular numbered sections in each township to the HBC and the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR). The 36 families of the St. Louis settlement found, after the Dominion Land Survey was done, that the Crown had sold their farms and the village site, which included a church and a school (in Township 45, Range 7 west of the 2nd Meridian of the Dominion Land Survey), to the Prince Albert Colonization Company. The families feared the loss of their homes and farms, which, now that the buffalo herds were gone, was their primary source of sustenance. In 1884, the Métis in the Southbranch settlements (including many Anglo-Métis) sent a delegation to ask Louis Riel to return from the United States, where he had fled after the Red River Rebellion, to appeal to the government on their behalf. The North-West Mounted Police (NWMP), created in 1874, served as an armed force as well. Its local detachments provided government presence at some trouble spots, at least potentially protected vulnerable settlements, and also provided guidance and local knowledge to the neophyte Ontario and Quebec militia troops. As violence broke out, it became clear that English-speaking settlers on the prairies and the great majority of First Nations did not support Riel. Catholic officials saw as heresy Riel's claim that God had sent him back to Canada as a prophet, and they tried to minimize his support. Catholic priest Albert Lacombe worked to obtain assurances from Crowfoot that his Blackfoot warriors would not participate in a conflict. The First Nations were also frustrated at conditions at the time. By the end of the 1870s, the stage was set for discontent among the Indigenous people of the prairies: fur-animals and bison were scarce (causing enormous economic and food supply difficulties) and, in an attempt to assert control over Indigenous population, federal government officials sometimes held back rations, violating the terms of the treaties it had signed just prior. Some Cree took violent action in the spring of 1885, when the rebellion of Riel and the Métis was happening at same time, but at least one researcher states that they were almost certainly unrelated. In both the Frog Lake Massacre and the Looting of Battleford, small dissident groups of Cree men revolted against white authorities, ignoring the leadership of Big Bear and Poundmaker. ==Demographics==

The 1885 census of Assiniboia, Saskatchewan and Alberta reported a total population of 48,362. Of this, 20,170 people (about 40 percent) were Status Indians. The District of Saskatchewan, part of the North-West Territories in 1885, was divided into three sub-districts and had a population of 10,595. To the east, the Carrot River sub-district with 1,770 people remained quiet. The Prince Albert sub-district in the centre of the district had a population of 5,373 which included the Southbranch settlements with about 1,300. The South branch settlement was the centre of Louis Riel's Provisional Government of Saskatchewan during the conflict. To the west, the Battleford sub-district where the Cree uprising of people in bands led by Poundmaker and Big Bear occurred, had 3,603 people. The largest settlement and the capital of the district was Prince Albert with about 800 people followed by Battleford with about 500 people who were "divided about equally between French, Métis and English". The Métis population in Saskatchewan in 1885 was about 5,400. A majority tried to stay neutral in the dispute with the national government, as the priests recommended. About 350 armed men supported Riel. A smaller number opposed him, led by Charles Nolin. In addition, he had the support of a small number of members of First Nations. Riel's supporters included the older, less assimilated Métis, often with close associations with the First Nations population. Many moved back and forth into First Nations communities and preferred to speak Indigenous languages more than French. Riel's opponents were younger, better educated Métis; they wanted to be more integrated into Canadian society, not to set up a separate domain as Riel promised. ==Course and suppression==

On March 18, 1885, Riel, Gabriel Dumont, Honoré Jackson (a.k.a. Will Jackson), and others set up the Provisional Government of Saskatchewan. Riel had been invited in to lead the movement but he turned it into a military action with a heavily religious tone, thereby alienating the Catholic clergy, the whites, nearly all of the First Nations, and most of the Métis. He had a force of a couple hundred Métis and a smaller number of First Nations at Batoche in May, confronting isolated groups of armed settlers, HBC trading posts and NWMP detachments, and two small militia units at Winnipeg. but on March 23 Prime Minister Macdonald publicly confirmed the news of the rebellion. Immediately the federal government sent Major General Frederick Middleton, the commander of the Canadian Militia, to Winnipeg, where a militia unit, the 90th Winnipeg Rifles, and a militia artillery unit, the Winnipeg Field Battery, already existed. Eventually, over a period of many weeks, Middleton brought 3,000 troops to the West, and incorporated another 2,000, mostly English-Canadian volunteers, and 500 North-West Mounted Police into his force. On March 30, a group of armed Cree, short of food due to declining bison populations, approached Battleford. The inhabitants fled to the nearby North-West Mounted Police post at Fort Battleford. The Cree then took food and supplies from the abandoned stores and houses. In March, Fort Carlton was destroyed by fire accidentally as it was being evacuated. Government mobilization After the declaration of a provisional government, lawlessness in the Batoche area and the Battle at Duck Lake, the government immediately commenced the mobilization of some of Canada's ill-equipped part-time militia units (the Non-Permanent Active Militia), as well as the units of cavalry, artillery and infantry regulars that made up the tiny Permanent Active Militia, Canada's almost-nonexistent regular army. on the march towards the conflict, near the Qu'Appelle Valley. By March 30, after hasty mobilization in Toronto, two trains containing the 10th Royal Grenadiers and Queen's Own Rifles militia battalions were ready to leave Toronto. Other militia units, the 9th Voltigeurs from Quebec City and the 65th Mount Royal Rifles from Montreal, were also quickly mobilized. Soon every major city in the East was the scene of embarkation for inexperienced young militiamen cheered by immense crowds. Many of the soldiers suffered from the winter weather during the transit to the trouble spot. The militia struggling westward had to contend with the many large breaks in the CPR line in northern Ontario. They marched through snow or were carried in exposed sleighs. They rode on rustic railway flatcars over the completed stretches of track, which did not shelter them from the cold. During the campaign the troops dealt with snow, muskeg and black mud. When the conflict was over, the government hanged Wandering Spirit and several others for what they had done at Frog Lake. The Canadian Militia was commanded by Major General Frederick Middleton, who had had previous experience imposing imperial rule over the Maori and Indian Mutineers. Middleton assembled a force that detrained from CPR trains at Qu'Appelle and then moved north toward Batoche. His column left from Qu'Appelle on April 6 and arrived at Batoche a month later, on the way fighting the Battle of Fish Creek 26 km from Batoche. Meanwhile, a force commanded by William Otter detrained at Swift Current and proceeded north to restore order at Battleford, fighting the Battle of Cut Knife on the way was a major Métis victory, persuading Major General Frederick Middleton to temporarily halt his advance. Other forces were formed in the West. The Alberta Field Force led by Thomas Bland Strange, assembled at Calgary, moved north on the Calgary and Edmonton Trail to secure Edmonton from attack, then went down the North Saskatchewan River to secure Victoria Settlement, recapture Fort Pitt, then moved overland in pursuit of Big Bear's band. April–May Métis and First Nations victories On April 15, 200 Cree fighters descended on Fort Pitt. They intercepted an NWMP scouting party, killing Constable Cowan, wounding another, and captured a third. Surrounded and outnumbered, garrison commander Inspector Francis Dickens, son of the famous author, negotiated with the attackers and capitulated. Big Bear allowed the remaining police officers to leave safely. Inspector Dickens and his officers reached safety at Battleford six days later. The Cree fighters kept the townspeople as hostages, taking them to their camp at Frog Lake, and after a second raid in May, destroyed the fort. (A militia patrol at Fort Pitt on May 25 encountered a Native man named Ma-ma-nook, a resident of Saddle Lake who was well known in Edmonton, wearing Cowan's tunic and carrying his rifle. The patrol killed him when he did not stop at their command.) Cree insurgents looted Hudson's Bay Company posts at Lac la Biche and Green Lake on April 26. By April 24, Middleton's column had made a gradual but unopposed advance to Fish Creek only 26 km from Batoche. That day 200 Métis achieved a remarkable victory over Middleton's column numbering 900 soldiers. The reversal, though not decisive enough to alter the outcome of the war, temporarily halted the advance of Middleton's column toward Batoche. That was where the Métis made their final stand two weeks later. Otter's column, working toward Battleford, meanwhile also suffered a setback. The column, led by Lieutenant Colonel William Otter, attacked a sleeping Cree encampment on Cut Knife Hill 45 km northwest of Battleford on May 2. Cree fighters under war chief Fine-Day successfully held off the soldiers in the Battle of Cut Knife. Despite its use of a Gatling gun, Otter's flying column of militia was forced to retreat. Big Bear did not fight in the battle and personally prevailed on the Cree fighters not to harass the retreating Canadian troops. Fine-Day was affiliated with the chief Poundmaker, who surrendered to government troops later that same month. Ending the Métis uprising On May 12, Middleton's force captured Batoche itself. The greatly outnumbered but well-entrenched Métis fighters ran out of ammunition after three days of battle and siege. The Métis resorted to firing sharp objects and small rocks from their guns. They were finally killed or dispersed when Canadian soldiers advanced on their own and overran the Métis fighters in their rifle pits. Riel surrendered on May 15. Gabriel Dumont and other participants in the uprising escaped across the border to the Montana Territory of the United States. The defeat of the Métis and Riel's capture led to the collapse of the Provisional Government. Ending the Cree uprising was a decisive victory for the Canadian militia, with the capture of Louis Riel, and the collapse of the Provisional Government of Saskatchewan. But the capture of Batoche did not end the separate conflict with the Cree insurgents. Otter's column recovered from its defeat at Cut Knife Hill (today's Poundmaker Hill) and pressed on to secure Battleford from additional Cree raids. Poundmaker and several of the chiefs loyal to him marched into Battleford and surrendered on May 26. On May 14 Major General Thomas Bland Strange led the Alberta Field Force, a mixed force of militia and an NWMP detachment from Calgary, eastwards down the North Saskatchewan, toward the scene of unrest. Part of his force was on barges; the rest on foot or horseback on shore. Conditions were unpleasant as it was cold and snowy. By May 25 the force was at Fort Pitt and Frog Lake. On May 28, the force came into contact with Big Bear's band who had been holding a Thirst Dance on a hill north of Fort Pitt, camped with hostages from Frog Lake and Fort Pitt. The soldiers advanced to attack, but fighters in the band won a battle at Frenchman's Butte, 43 km northeast of Lloydminster, at the end of May. Big Bear's band pushed off to the north, and NWMP Major Sam Steele's mounted scouts followed the trail. Small battles took place when Strange's scouts journeyed to where Big Bear's soldiers had trenches between Frenchman's Butte and the Red Deer River, and again at Horse Lake, about 30 kilometres from Ft. Pitt. At Loon Lake, about 60 km northeast of Frenchman's Butte, on June 3, the scouts and Big Bear's band fought in the last armed engagement of the 1885 rebellion. That day Steele's scouts, numbering 65, caught up to Big Bear's force. Big Bear's fighters were almost out of ammunition. They released their hostages and fled across the lake at Steele Narrows, after a short exchange of fire, having suffered four shot and six drowned while trying to reach an island. Demoralized, defenceless, and with no hope of relief after Poundmaker's surrender, most of Big Bear's fighters surrendered over the next few weeks. On July 2 Big Bear voluntarily surrendered to NWMP Sargeant Smart, stationed at an NWMP post near the destroyed Fort Carlton. ==Aftermath==

, a trial that sparked national controversy between English and French Canada.The conflict was Canada's first independent military action. It cost about $5 million. Although it lost the Conservative Party most of its support in Quebec, at least temporarily, it secured anglophone control of the Prairies (following the Rebellion, no First Nations politician became premier until Wab Kinew in 2023). It also demonstrated the Canadian government was capable of decisive action. The trial of Louis Riel occurred shortly after the rebellion, where he was found guilty of high treason, and hanged. His trial and execution sparked a national controversy between English and French Canada. These men, found guilty of murder outside of the military conflict, were Wandering Spirit, (Kapapamahchakwew) a Plains Cree war chief, Little Bear (Apaschiskoos), Walking the Sky (AKA Round the Sky), Bad Arrow, Miserable Man, Iron Body, Ika (AKA Crooked Leg) and Man Without Blood, for murders committed at Frog Lake and at Battleford (the murders of Farm Instructor Payne and Battleford farmer Barney Tremont). Settlers and former Native fighters came in conflict when settlers sought to reclaim looted property after the rebellion was quashed. Several Natives were killed in a confrontation at Battleford in late June. The Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) played a key role in the government's response to the conflict, as it was able to transport federal troops to the area quickly. While it had taken three months to get troops to the Red River Rebellion, the government was able to move forces in nine days by train in response to events in the North-West Territories. The successful operation increased political support for the floundering and incomplete railway, which had been close to financial collapse. The government authorized enough funds to finish the line. Thus, Prime Minister John A. Macdonald realized his National Dream of linking Canada across the continent. The government addressed the critical food shortage of the Cree and Assiniboine by sending food and other supplies. After the fighting, new Territorial Council ridings were created, although still only covering specific areas of concentrated settlement. The North-West Territories election of 1885 was held. The Scrip Commission was dispatched to the District of Saskatchewan and to present-day Alberta to address Métis land claims. The Saskatchewan Métis requested land grants; the government granted these to all by the end of 1887. The government resurveyed the official surveys to allow pre-existing Métis riverlots in accordance with their wishes. In 1888 Dominion Land Survey officials resurveyed townships in Range 42, 43, 44, and 45, land along the South Saskatchewan River that was historically Métis land. Portions of these townships were divided into riverlots. This new survey recognized the Métis' long-standing land use and addressed a key grievance of the local Métis. The Métis did not understand the long term value of their new land, however, and sold much of it to speculators who later resold it to farmers. Those who served with the Militia and NWMP during the conflict received the North West Canada Medal, established in September 1885. The cause of the rebellion was soon subject of debate. Macdonald's government came in for heavy criticism. During the 1887 federal election, members of Sir Wilfrid Laurier's Liberal Party told the House of Commons that federal surveyors had "mishandled western settlement" and blamed the "poor administration of Metis land claims" for the 1885 rebellion. The federal Minister of the Interior investigated and had land surveyor William Pearce submit a report explaining the work of the surveyors. International reaction While the conflict was ongoing, the American and British press took note of the actions of both the Métis and the Canadian Government. Some newspapers, such as the Times and Guardian, wrote approvingly of the actions taken by the Canadian government. ==Long-term consequences==

The French language and Catholic religion faced increasing marginalisation in both Saskatchewan and Manitoba, as exemplified by the emerging controversy surrounding the Manitoba Schools Question. Many Métis were forced to live on undesirable land, or in temporary locations such as road allowances, or in the shadow of Indian reserves (Métis did not have treaty status, like Treaty Indians did, so did not have any official right to land). Riel's trial and Macdonald's refusal to commute his sentence caused lasting resentment in Quebec, and led to a fundamental francophone distrust of anglophone politicians. French Canada felt it had been unfairly targeted. ==Memory==

In the spring of 2008, Tourism, Parks, Culture and Sport Minister Christine Tell proclaimed in Duck Lake, that "the 125th commemoration, in 2010, of the 1885 Northwest Rebellion is an excellent opportunity to tell the story of the prairie Métis and First Nations peoples' struggle with Government forces and how it has shaped Canada today." {{quote box Batoche, where the Métis Provisional Government had been formed, has been declared a National Historic Site. Batoche marks the site of Gabriel Dumont's grave site, Albert Caron's House, Batoche school, Batoche cemetery, Letendre store, Dumont's river crossing, Gariépy's crossing, Batoche crossing, St. Antoine de Padoue Church, Métis rifle pits, and RNWMP battle camp. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police training depot at Regina was established in 1874, and still survives. The RCMP chapel, a frame building built in 1885, is still standing. It was used to jail prisoners taken when the rebellion collapsed. One of three Territorial Government Buildings still stands on Dewdney Avenue in the city of Regina. It was the site of Riel's trial, and where the drama the Trial of Louis Riel is still performed. Following the May trial, Riel was hanged November 16, 1885, at the North-West Mounted Police barracks in Regina. The RCMP Heritage Centre, in Regina, opened in May 2007. The Métis brought his body to Saint-Vital, his mother's home, now the Riel House National Historic Site, and then interred it at the Saint-Boniface Basilica in Manitoba, his birthplace, for burial. Highway 11, stretching from Regina to just south of Prince Albert, has been named Louis Riel Trail by the province; the roadway passes near locations of the conflict. Fort Carlton Provincial Historic Site has been rebuilt as it had been ravaged by three separate fires. Big Bear (Mistahimaskwa) used the site in his initial negotiations for Treaty Six in about 1884, and finally, the following year he surrendered here after his engagement at Steele Narrows (Battle of Loon Lake). The Prince Albert blockhouse was employed by the North-West Mounted Police on evacuating from Fort Carlton after the first fire. Duck Lake is home to the Duck Lake Historical Museum and the Duck Lake Regional Interpretive Centre, and murals that present the history of the conflict in the area. The Battle of Duck Lake, the Duck Lake Massacre, and a buffalo jump are all located here. The "First Shots Cairn" was erected on Saskatchewan Highway 212 as a landmark commemorating the scene of the first shots in the Battle of Duck Lake. Our Lady of Lourdes Shrine at St. Laurent north of Duck Lake is a local pilgrimage site. The Battle of Fish Creek National Historic Site, the name has been changed to Tourond's Coulee / Fish Creek National Historic Site to preserve the battlefield of April 24, 1885, at la coulée des Tourond, Madame Tourond's home, early Red River cart Fish Creek Trail and the site of Middleton's camp and graveyard. is in the cemetery with the graves of those killed. The Marr Residence is a municipal heritage property of Saskatoon which served as a field hospital for wounded soldiers during the conflict. Fort Otter was constructed at Battleford's government house at the capital of the North-West Territories. Poundmaker was arrested at Fort Battleford and sentenced to prison. Eight First Nations men were hanged, five for murders in the Frog Lake Massacre, two for murders in the Battleford area, and one for the murder of a Mountie at Fort Pitt on April 15. Fort Pitt, the scene of the Battle of Fort Pitt, is a provincial park and national historic site where a National Historic Sites and Monuments plaque designates where Treaty Six was signed. Frog Lake Massacre National Historic Site of Canada, at Frog Lake, Alberta, is the location of a Cree uprising that occurred in the District of Saskatchewan, North-West Territories. Frenchman Butte, a national historic site of Canada, is the location of the 1885 battle between Cree and Canadian troops of Strange's Alberta Field Force. At Cutknife are the world's largest tomahawk, the Poundmaker Historical Centre and Big Bear monument/cairn, which was erected by the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada. There is also now, in the correct location, a cairn erected upon Cut Knife Hill, which is the viewing site of the Poundmaker Battle site and Battle River valley. The Narrows between Makwa Lake and Sanderson Bay, in the Makwa Lake Provincial Park, was the site of the last engagement of the conflict, the Battle of Loon Lake. Steele Narrows Provincial Historic Park conserves the lookout point of a Cree burial ground. Fort Ethier, a two-story log blockhouse built by Strange's Alberta Field Force in its march north to Edmonton, still stands near Wetaskiwin., Toronto. The monument commemorates militiamen that served in the conflict.] The members of the Canadian Militia are commemorated through a number of memorials in Canada, including the North-West Rebellion Monument in Queen's Park, in Toronto, Ontario, and The Volunteer Monument in Winnipeg, Manitoba. A statue for Wm. B. Osgoode and John Rogers, who fell in action at Cutknife Hill, also stands at the Cartier Square Drill Hall, in Ottawa, Ontario. ==Historiography==

Arthur Silver Morton, the University of Saskatchewan's first librarian, compiled many of the original manuscripts, transcripts, and photographs related to the 1885 conflict that were made available in 1995 as part of project funded by Industry Canada in 1995. Canadian historian George Stanley conducted research on the 1885 conflict and Louis Riel in the 1930s while completing his postgraduate degrees at Oxford University, where he published his 1936 book The Birth of Western Canada: A History of The Riel Rebellion. For more than five decades Stanley's 1936 The Birth of Western Canada was reprinted and used as a textbook. informed North-West Rebellion encyclopedia entries in the Canadian Encyclopedia and Encyclopedia Britannica. They downplayed the event as local with "no real legacy of bitterness in the West". In his 1987 publication Footprints in the Dust, Douglas Light focused on the local history of the region incorporating Métis and First Nation perspectives on events including accounts of everyday life. This was described as a "valuable and distinctive contribution to rebellion historiography". At the University of Saskatchewan, Alan Anderson prepared a report on French settlements in Saskatchewan that informed relevant content in the online Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan, published in 2006 by the University of Regina's Canadian Plains Research Center. By 2018, when the book was reprinted for the fourth time, the relationships between Indigenous peoples and settlers had evolved further driven by priorities, economic opportunities, collective action on the part of Indigenous communities, and changes in governments at the federal, provincial and territorial levels. Barkwell is also the author of the 2011 305-page book Veterans and Families of the 1885 Northwest Resistance. He updated his "1885 Northwest Resistance Movement Biographies" in 2018 which lists the men and women who participated in the 1885 Northwest Resistance. Barwell's research, which is published by the Gabriel Dumont Institutean affiliate of the University of Saskatchewan and the University of Regina"provides a more human face" to the 1885 Resistance." ==In fiction==

• Stewart Sterling's Red Trails (1935) depicted the pulp hero Eric Lewis, a Mountie of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police. He tries to keep "peace and order" during the North-West Rebellion, helped by Sergeant Tim Clone. • North West Mounted Police, by Cecil B. DeMille (1940). The film is about a Texas Ranger who joins forces with the North-West Mounted Police to put down the rebellion. • Buckskin Brigadier: The Story of the Alberta Field Force (1955), by Edward McCourt. A historical novel about the men of the Alberta Field Force and their experiences throughout the rebellion. • The Magnificent Failure (1967) by Giles Lutz is a historical novel of the North-West Rebellion. • Riel, Canadian made-for-TV film portraying both 1870 and 1885 rebellions, starring Christopher Plummer, William Shatner, Leslie Nielsen • The Temptations of Big Bear, by Rudy Wiebe, McClelland & Stewart, 1973 • Lord of the Plains, by Albert Silver, c 1990, Ballantine Books. Spur Award Finalist. Focuses on Gabriel Dumont and his family. • The novel for young adults called Battle Cry at Batoche (1998), by B. J. Bayle, portrays the events of the North-West Resistance from a Métis point of view. • Song of Batoche, by Maia Caron (Ronsdale Press: 2017), a historical novel centered on the North-West Rebellion through the perspectives of Métis women, Gabriel Dumont, Louis Riel, and others involved. ==See also==