If you are looking to give feedback on our new site, please send it along to, To view this site properly, enable cookies in your browser. This is a space where subscribers can engage with each other and Globe staff. 351 King Street East, Suite 1600, Toronto, ON Canada, M5A 0N1, Just $1.99 per week for the first 24 weeks, var select={root:".js-sub-pencil",control:".js-sub-pencil-control",open:"o-sub-pencil--open",closed:"o-sub-pencil--closed"},dom={},allowExpand=!0;function pencilInit(o){var e=arguments.length>1&&void 0!==arguments[1]&&arguments[1];select.root=o,dom.root=document.querySelector(select.root),dom.root&&(dom.control=document.querySelector(select.control),dom.control.addEventListener("click",onToggleClicked),setPanelState(e),window.addEventListener("scroll",onWindowScroll),dom.root.removeAttribute("hidden"))}function isPanelOpen(){return dom.root.classList.contains(select.open)}function setPanelState(o){dom.root.classList[o?"add":"remove"](select.open),dom.root.classList[o? That's what we're representing.". History Established in 1876, Fort Battleford presided over some of the most pivotal events in the history of western Canada.The North-West Mounted Police (NWMP) at Fort Battleford assisted during the negotiations between First Nations and the Canadian government at the time of the signing … Many settlers kept diaries and one of the West's first newspaper reporters, P.G. [1] Both bands were signatories of Treaty 6 and were unhappy in the way it was implemented by the Canadian government. Learn More. RCMP detachments remain open and your local police officers continue to be present in your community to ensure community safety. "One hundred and twenty-five years later, they're coming to us and asking, 'What happened here?' Parks Canada has used that material to create 15 vignettes acted out to convey the settler's isolation and fear. The Cree have finally won the "siege" of Fort Battleford - 125 years after the battle was fought.
Poundmaker and his band had a reserve near present-day Cut Knife about 50 km (31 miles) west of Fort Battleford. [7], The city of North Battleford was founded later in 1905 when the construction of the Canadian Northern Railway main line to Edmonton placed the line on the north side of the North Saskatchewan River. Welcome to The Globe and Mail’s comment community. While John L. Tobias says that the Crees tried to demonstrate their "peaceful intent" by including women and children in their group, simply took food to sustain themselves after finding the town abandoned, and then withdrew to avoid conflict with the police. Out of respect for social distancing, and in consultation with local … Mr. Whiting does acknowledge the "siege" of Battleford is widely misunderstood. In fact, Chief Poundmaker was there to ask for supplies promised to his hungry people and to reassure the Mounties that he had no plans to join Riel. Many settlers left accounts of their experience. "We don't want to use any wordings that could give people the wrong idea," said Mark Calette, Parks Canada's supervisor of historic sites in southern Saskatchewan. Welcome to The Globe and Mail’s comment community. To the east the Carrot River sub-district with 1,770 people remained quiet. During Saturday's re-enactment, 15 vignettes taken from those settler accounts will be acted out in an attempt to convey something of their isolation and fear. But the fort was never attacked or surrounded, nor was its surrender demanded.
In an age of difficult communications, all they knew was that area aboriginals had killed whites and a large party of Cree were massing nearby. "There was a siege mentality. That's kind of over the years how that story's been told.". Parks Canada has agreed to stop using the word "siege" in its posters and programming to describe the sometimes violent, sometimes tragic events at the frontier community during the Northwest Rebellion. Chief Poundmaker asked to meet with the Indian agent, but his request was denied. During the "siege," scouts from the fort often couldn't find any Cree for dozens of kilometres around. "It's a story that's not been well told over the years and perhaps it hasn't always been fairly told.". Prominent leaders of this uprising were Chief Poundmaker and Chief Big Bear. Mr. Whiting insists that the tour guides will leave nobody in doubt about what really happened. Laurie, filed regular dispatches from inside the stockade. "Our elders call this the white man's truth," says Mr. Tootoosis, a member of the Poundmaker band, curator of the Wanuskewin cultural park in Saskatoon and performer who calls himself a story-keeper. On March 30, the Cree did come.
But this year, the rebellion's 125th anniversary, at least one aboriginal historian has had enough. The loss of the buffalo and the inadequate rations provided by the Indian agents kept the bands in a continual state of near-starvation.
Chronology of Events (The Northwest Resistance), "Numbered key, drawn in pen and ink, to accompany the painting "The Surrender of Poundmaker to Major General Middleton at Battleford, on May 26th, 1885, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Looting_of_Battleford&oldid=968334455, All Wikipedia articles written in Canadian English, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Parks Canada has agreed to stop using the word "siege" in … At the same time, tour guides will give visitors the full perspective unavailable to people at the time. Scott Whiting, director of Fort Battleford National Historic Site, agrees that "siege" doesn't really describe what happened. Mr. Whiting does acknowledge the "siege" of Battleford is widely misunderstood. But the fort was never attacked or surrounded and its surrender was never demanded. Battleford is nestled between the banks of the scenic North Saskatchewan and Battle Rivers and offers an abundance of recreation opportunities. "It doesn't indicate on the poster the siege was in the minds of the settlers," he says. Mr. Tootoosis said it was about time the word was deleted. During the night of March 29 nearby homesteadswere raided their … In the spring of 1885, the region of what eventually became Saskatchewan was in turmoil as Metis and some Cree led by Louis Riel fought what they saw as settlers encroaching on their lands. Just half a dozen were left standing. After reaching the town he marched on the Cut Knife Reserve hoping … Civilians were armed to add to the detachment of 25 Mounties and the fort's stockade was beefed up for the attack settlers were sure was coming. [10] Most homes were burned, including the imposing home of Judge Charles Rouleau. Historian Douglas Hill characterized the Cree group as a "war party ... ready to take revenge for a winter of incalculable suffering" who "swooped on Battleford, killing six whites". One of the West's first reporters, P.G. "remove":"add"](select.closed),dom.control.setAttribute("aria-expanded",o)}function onToggleClicked(){var l=!isPanelOpen();setPanelState(l)}function onWindowScroll(){window.requestAnimationFrame(function() {var l=isPanelOpen(),n=0===(document.body.scrollTop||document.documentElement.scrollTop);n||l||!allowExpand?n&&l&&(allowExpand=!0,setPanelState(!1)):(allowExpand=!1,setPanelState(!0))});}pencilInit(".js-sub-pencil",!1); // via darwin-bg var slideIndex = 0; carousel(); function carousel() { var i; var x = document.getElementsByClassName("subs_valueprop"); for (i = 0; i < x.length; i++) { x[i].style.display = "none"; } slideIndex++; if (slideIndex> x.length) { slideIndex = 1; } x[slideIndex - 1].style.display = "block"; setTimeout(carousel, 2500); } //, Parks Canada draws fire over re-enactment of Siege of North Battleford, Due to technical reasons, we have temporarily removed commenting from our articles. Click here to subscribe. Some information in it may no longer be current. Mr. Calette said the debate will only improve re-enactments at the site. The Town of Battleford is a growing community with a small town atmosphere. The Looting of Battleford began at the end of March, 1885, during the North-West Rebellion, in the town of Battleford, Saskatchewan, then a part of the Northwest Territories.