In the 1870s, a number of fur trading posts were
established along Battle Creek, which
runs through Cypress Hills.
As the authority of the Hudson's Bay Company slowly eroded across the
West in the late-1860s, the region around Cypress Hill, close to the
international border, became a haven for American desperadoes seeking
their fortune in an illegal whiskey trade. All too frequently, whiskey
trading touched off terrible scenes of violence. "In this traffic
very many Indians were killed," reported one contemporary account,
"and also quite a number of white men
In 1873, a bloody "battle" known as the Cypress Hills
Massacre took place when American wolfers, including Thomas Hardwick and
John Evens, who were stopped at one of
the posts, lost some horses. They believed the horses had been stolen by
a group of Nakoda (Assiniboine) camped nearby, and after much drinking
set out to take revenge.
These
"wolfers" were known to authorities in Canada. A gang of
100-300 Americans had stolen a couple of US military cannons and
set up a stronghold just across the border at Fort Hamilton in the
Territories. Fort Hamilton was a former Hudson's Bay fort, one of
many the HBC-abandoned as they pulled out of of the territories.
From this base, some 50 miles north of the US border, the wolfers
smuggled whisky in from Montana to sell to the Indians and hunted the
fast-dwindling buffalo on the prairie. The wolfers got their name
from their practice of poisoning the carcasses of buffalo left behind by
robe traders, and then harvesting the furs from the dead wolves and
coyotes that ate the tainted meat. Indian dogs, and sometimes the people, too, were also killed this way.
In the ensuing one-sided battle between
the Nakoda and the the wolfers, between 16 and 22 Nakoda,
including women and children One Nakoda named Little Soldier had
been singled out as the horse thief. He was killed and
decapitated. His head was displayed on a tall stick. One wolfer was also killed.
Although it took several months for the news to filter back to the
eastern press, when the story did break, the country became enraged. The
slaughter was seen as a clear indication that the Canadian West was at
risk of emulating the wild frontier which existed south of the border.
American involvement in the incident was particularly disturbing. The
free movement of Montana traders across the international border was
seen both as an infringement of Canadian sovereignty, and as a blatant
disregard for Canada's desire to have a peaceful frontier under British
law.
The massacre convinced Sir John A. McDonald to pass a bill
establishing a force known as the North West Mounted Police -- a force
that would later become the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, or the
Mounties. Fort Walsh was established near the trading posts and served
the North West Mounted Police until 1883. The duties of the NWMP
was to: suppress the whiskey trade; bring law and order to Canada's North West Territories; establish a Canadian presence;
and peacefully encourage the First Nations to sign treaties and settle
on reserves
Although several of the murderers were later arrested and tried in
Canada, none was ever convicted, and the case was officially closed in
1882.
Fort Walsh stills exists as a tourist site. The site of the
massacre is marked nearby.
Editor's note: It has
recently been brought to our attention that a colourful individual with
the name of
John Liver Eating Johnston was one of the
many Americans who sold whisky to the Indians in Cypress Hill. You
can read more about his at:
http://www.johnlivereatingjohnston.com.
08/01/2008 |
