Canada and the World
Current Events with a Canadian Perspective
Last update
24 August 2011
The Cypress Hills Massacre
In 1873 a battle occurred in southern
Saskatchewan among wolf hunters, whiskey
traders, cargo haulers, and Assinboine Indians
A chain of events that began with the theft of some horses ended with the death of about 20 completely innocent Indians.
American Wolf Hunters Cross the Border
In late May 1873, a group of about a dozen American wolf hunters was heading to Fort Benton in Montana with their season’s furs when 20 of their horses were stolen.
According to Philip Goldring writing in the Canadian Encyclopedia, the hunters “tracked their missing property north into Canada, lost the trail, and reached [Abel] Farwell’s [trading] post in a foul mood.”
Tensions between Indians and Traders High
Farwell and Moses Solomon operated trading posts beside what is now known as Battle
Creek. Nearby, was a 50-
Parks Canada
Cypress Hills Park.
The American traders supplied the Indians with liquor in exchange for furs and buffalo hides. The whiskey trade was illegal but there was no Canadian authority present to uphold the law, or protect the Native People from exploitation.
Walter Hildebrandt, writing in the Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan says “The Assiniboine had accused Solomon of cheating them and had fired shots into his post; they threatened to ‘clear out’ the traders and kill them all if they resisted.”
Into this tense situation rode the dozen angry American wolf hunters.
Hunters Start Drinking
Whiskey began to flow in the trading posts. On the morning of June 1, one of the wolfers said his horse had been stolen and blamed the Assiniboine. It wasn’t difficult to recruit a party among the drunken wolf hunters, traders, and Métis freight haulers to retrieve the horse.
Shortly after the group set off for the Indian camp the missing horse was found to have just wandered off but it was too late to stop the men fired up for a fight. The Indians had also been drinking and started taunting the white men.
Indians Overwhelmed by Modern Weapons
Philip Goldring picks up the story: “There are different accounts of who fired first, but the result was horrific. Shooting with repeating rifles from shelter in a coulee, the whites overwhelmed the Assiniboine, whose muskets and arrows killed only one wolfer.”
Hopelessly overmatched the Indians withdrew and the attackers entered their camp, where they found a wounded chief, Little Soldier.
Bill Twatio (Esprit de Corps, April 2005) records that Little Soldier was “murdered in cold blood, decapitated, his head impaled on a pole. Other lodges were set afire. Several women were raped and some allegedly killed. Estimates of the number of Assiniboines killed, ranged from 15 to 30.”
News of the Massacre Travels Slowly
It wasn’t until August 1873 that news of the Cypress Hills Massacre reached Ottawa. The government sent out officers from the newly formed Northwest Mounted Police to try to arrest the wolf hunters and others.
Three men were captured and tried in Winnipeg in 1876, but there was not enough evidence to convict them. Eventually, the government gave up and dropped all charges relating to the massacre in 1882.
However, the government was persuaded by the event of the need for some effective law enforcement in Canada’s frontier. The Northwest Mounted Police set up posts and began shutting down the illegal whiskey trade and the violence it spawned.
Sources
“Cypress Hills Massacre.” Philip Goldring, Canadian Encyclopedia.
“Cypress Hills Massacre.” Walter Hildebrandt, Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan.
“Rape, Murder, Arson … the Cypress Hills Massacre: the Depredations of American Wolf
Hunters and Whiskey Traders Led to the Creation of the North-
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“American adventurers had been trading rot-
Fort Walsh National Historic Site of Canada
In his 1996 novel The Englishman’s Boy Guy Vanderhaeghe writes a fictionalized account of the Cypress Hills Massacre.
In 2008, the story was made into a miniseries by the CBC under the same title as the book.