Canada and the World
Current Events with a Canadian Perspective
Last update
19 November 2010
Aboriginal Timeline Part 6
1885 to 1921
1885 (March 19)
A provisional Metis government is proclaimed at Batoche, Saskatchewan with Riel as
President and Gabriel Dumont as Adjutant-
(March 26)
About 100 Metis and Cree and an equal number of North West Mounted Police fight the first engagement of the Northwest Rebellion. The battle just north of Duck Lake lasted only 30 minutes but it was bloody. The police came off worst losing 12 men killed to the rebel’s six.
(March 30)
Two hundred Cree people led by Poundmaker (right) attack Battleford, Saskatchewan.
(April 2)
Nine non-
(May 9—12)
Battle of Batoche. Canadian forces lay siege to the Metis stronghold of Batoche. After an artillery barrage and probing attacks, the battered rebels surrender.
(May 15)
Riel surrenders.
(May 26)
Poundmaker surrenders.
(November 16)
Riel hanged in Regina, Saskatchewan as a traitor.
(November 17)
Eight Native people, including Wandering Spirit, hanged at Battleford, Saskatchewan in the second largest mass hanging in Canadian history.
Also in 1885
The Queen v. St. Catharine’s Milling and Lumber comes to trial in Ontario. The company is accused of cutting timber on land reserved to Indians. It is the first Aboriginal rights case to be heard in a Canadian court and is decided in favour of the Native people.
1880s
Buffalo are becoming a rarer sight on the Prairies. Herds once numbered in the hundreds of thousands have all but disappeared. In 1882, eight buffalo were spotted near Souris, Manitoba, the largest number seen in a decade. In 1888, it is reported there are only six buffalo still alive in Alberta. The natural habitat of the animals has been destroyed as land is brought under the plough.
1889
Prairie Indians continue to perform the Sundance despite a ban being placed on it four years earlier. The ceremony is performed to seek guidance from the spiritual world.
1894
The Game Preservations Act passes Parliament. A complete ban on killing buffalo for six years is hoped to stop the animal from falling into extinction.
1895
Emily Pauline Johnson, Mohawk poet born on the Six Nations Reserve, Ontario publishes White Wampum, her first book of poetry.
1896 (February 21)
Three elders of the Na’as Band in British Columbia send a petition to Ottawa asking that potlatches be legalized again.
(July 15)
Father Albert Lacombe helps set up a reserve for Metis people at what would become St. Paul, Alberta.
(August 16)
Three Tagish people, Skookum Jim, Kate Carmack, and Tagish Charlie, discover gold along with George Carmack at Rabbit Creek, Yukon starting the Klondike Gold Rush.
1897 (May 30 & 31)
After a two-
1899
Treaty No. 8 covered most of northern Alberta.
1901 (28 July)
A three-
1905
Treaty No. 9 covering Northern Ontario is signed by the Ojibwa and Cree.
1906
Treaty No. 10 signed by the Chipewyan and Cree of northern Saskatchewan and Alberta.
1907
Tom Longboat, an Onondaga Indian from the Six Nations Reserve near Brantford, Ontario,
wins the Boston Marathon in record time (two hours, 25 minutes and one-
1910 (June 15)
By a slim majority, 69-
1911 (May)
The Indian Act is amended to allow Ottawa to take any Indian reserve land near towns of 8,000 or more people regardless of any treaties or agreements. The act is also changed to prohibit Native people from using band funds to launch land claims actions.
1912
Under the leadership of the Geographical Commission of Quebec, the province has begun changing Indian names to French ones on its maps.
1913 (October)
Duncan Campbell Scott is named to head up Indian Affairs. He believes strongly that Native people should be absorbed into white society. He’s on record as saying about Canada’s past that “all its life flowed either from the Old World (Europe) or New England.”
1913
Nisga’s people from British Columbia petition the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London, England asking that their Aboriginal rights be upheld.
1914 (14 August)
Just days after Canada declared war on Germany Francis Pegahmagabow volunteers for service. An Ojibwa from Parry Sound, Ontario, he becomes the most decorated Aboriginal in Canadian history. As a scout and sniper he is credited with killing 378 Germans and capturing 300 more. Twice wounded and awarded the Military Medal for courage three times, he survived World War I.
Also in 1914
Native people are prohibited from appearing in traditional regalia or performing traditional dances at fairs or stampedes.
1916
The Allied Tribes of British Columbia is founded.
1920 (February 20)
The Indian Act is amended to give Indians the right to vote if they give up their Indian status. Duncan Scott says the assimilation process will continue until there is not a single Indian living in Canada.
1921
Treaty No. 11 covers much of the Northwest Territories. Ottawa began negotiations shortly after oil was found at Fort Norman.
© Canada and the World, August 2010
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Return to Aboriginal Timeline Part 5
WHO WAS HE?
Louis Riel was born in 1844 on the Red River Settlement, near what is today Winnipeg.
His family were well-
By his mid-
Today, Riel is seen as a hero who stood up for his people in the face of a racist government. His memory has been rehabilitated and he placed eleventh in the 2004 “Greatest Canadian” project on the CBC.
WHITE ESKIMOS?
Canadian explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson in 1910 finds a group of people living on Coronation Gulf in the Arctic. Because of their light hair and grey or blue eyes Stefansson believes he has found the descendants of Norse people who disappeared from Greenland in the 15th century. DNA tests later disprove his theory.
Pauline Johnson
Marathon winner
Joseph Boyden’s 2005 novel Three Day Road is inspired in part by real-