Treaties had been made with the First Nations in the southern part of the Dominion of Canada to facilitate the settlers moving in. Difficulties arose with the natives living in the northern areas of the North-West Territories who had had little contact with Europeans except for fur traders. Chief Beardy, of Duck Lake, an incorrigible sort, had hampered the proceedings of signing Treaty Number Six in 1876 with the Plains, and Woods and Plains Cree aboriginals. Finally those aboriginals who had held out from signing the treaties, Chiefs Beardy and Poundmaker, did so when faced with starvation despite misgivings about the Government unfairly taking their land. The buffalo and other wild game had disappeared at alarming rates after the mass arrival of the Europeans.
North-West Rebellion
Louis Riel had returned from his exile in Montana after leading the Red River Rebellion, and with a small band of aboriginals and Métis, began the North-West Rebellion in 1885 over the denial of their land rights. They complained the land had not been set out as they were accustomed: in narrow two mile strips from the shore of the Saskatchewan River similar to the aboriginal land entitlement along the Red River.
With Riel’s consent, on March 25, 1885, Gabriel Dumont and thirty men appropriated supplies from Hillyard Mitchell’s General Store in Duck Lake in retaliation for their resistance to the Métis uprising against the federal government.
North West Mounted Police
NWMP Superintendent Leif Crozier had received telegraphed warnings on the plans of Louis Riel and Gabriel Dumont, and had arranged a small force to get the provisions from the store. After realizing that Riel’s forces were already present, in and superior numbers, the NWMP retreated to Fort Carlton. Crozier then returned to Duck Lake with a larger force and a bronze seven-pounder cannon.
Crozier met the rebels about a mile and a half from Mitchell’s store where they engaged in fighting for half an hour. It was determined the NWMP were outnumbered and to avoid their annihiliation, Crozier called for a retreat. Crozier withdrew to Fort Carlton, and while in retreat one of his men, Thomas MacKay, took a final shot at Dumont that grazed his head. Without Dumont to lead them, the rebels and aboriginals chose not to pursue the NWMP. On Colonel Irvine’s arrival at Fort Carlton it was decided that the place be abandoned for the safety of Prince Albert where the majority of the white settlers lived.
Métis Victory at Duck Lake
The victory at Duck Lake was enough of a catalyst for the aboriginals including a party of Sioux to the north, to assert their belief in a just cause. Thus, the rebels began to increase their supporters.
Sources:
Policing the Plains, Being The Real Life Record of the Famous Royal North West Mounted Police by R.G. MacBeth, p.124-125.
Forty Years in Canada, Samuel B. Steele (1915), p.203, 206-7
Barbara Martin - Barbara Martin lives in Toronto, Ontario, writing articles on Canadian history and environmental concerns. She is author of A STASH OF ...
