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Frog Lake Massacre

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The Frog Lake Massacre was part of the Cree uprising during the North-West Rebellion in western Canada. Led by Wandering Spirit, Cree men attacked and killed nine officials, clergy and settlers in the small settlement of Frog Lake, at the time in the District of Saskatchewan in the North-West Territories[1] on 2 April 1885. (The location, about 200 kms east of Edmonton, is now within the province of Alberta.)

Frog Lake Massacre
Part of North-West Rebellion
Location53°49′52″N 110°21′31″W / 53.831186°N 110.358696°W / 53.831186; -110.358696
Frog Lake, Alberta
DateApril 2, 1885
11:00 am
TargetResidents of Frog Lake
Attack type
Massacre
Deaths9
PerpetratorsCree warriors led by Wandering Spirit
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The District of Saskatchewan in 1885 (within the black diamonds) included the central section of Saskatchewan and extended into Alberta and Manitoba.

Causes edit

Chief Big Bear and his band had settled near Frog Lake in late 1884.[2] He had signed Treaty 6 in 1882[3] and been pushed to move his band near Fort Pitt, located about 55 km (34 miles) from Frog Lake, but had not yet selected a reserve site.[4] Angered by what he saw as an unfair treaty and by the dwindling buffalo population and the subsequent enforced starvation of the Cree people, Big Bear began organizing the Cree for resistance.[5]

On 28th March the Indigenous people living at Frog Lake learned of the Métis victory at the Battle of Duck Lake two days before and of Poundmaker's advance on Battleford. Hearing a rumour that a war had started and Canadian soldiers were coming to Frog Lake to kill Indigenous people there, Wandering Spirit took on the post of war chief of Big Bear's band. He began a campaign to gather arms, ammunition and food supplies in preparation for establishing a defended camp.[6] The largest local source of supplies were the government stables, the Hudson's Bay Company post and George Dill's store at Frog Lake.[7] Indian Agent Thomas Quinn as an official of the Canadian government, was seen to be protecting the supplies and therefore an obstacle to Wandering Spriit's aims. [8]

Meanwhile, Cree in the area were angry at Quinn because he had control of the inadequate rations that kept the Cree in a state of near-starvation.[3][5] But the attacks that occurred were perpetrated by several members of Big Bear's band, which had moved into the area not long before, not the local Cree.[9]

Massacre edit

A band of Cree led by the war chief Wandering Spirit took Indian Agent, Thomas Quinn, hostage in his home in the early morning of 2 April. The Cree then took control of the community.

Many of the white settlers in the settlement attended the local Catholic church, where two priests conducted Mass with Natives attending.[10] After Mass concluded, at around 11:00 a.m., Wandering Spirit ordered the whites in the community to willingly move to a Native encampment a couple of kilometres away.[5]

Quinn steadfastly refused to be moved; in response, Wandering Spirit shot him in the head. After that, despite Big Bear's attempt to stop the shootings,[11] Wandering Spirit's group then killed another eight unarmed people: the two Catholic priests, Leon Fafard and Felix Marchand, Fafard's lay assistant John Williscroft, as well as John Gowanlock, John Delaney, William Gilchrist, George Dill, and Charles Gouin.[5]

A Hudson's Bay Company clerk, William Bleasdell Cameron, who had been made to go to the church, after Mass had gone to the Hudson's Bay shop to fill an order made by Quinn for Miserable Man. When the first shots were fired, he escaped with the help of sympathetic Cree, and made his way to a nearby Wood Cree camp, where the chief protected him.[11][12][13]

After the nine people were killed, Wandering Spirit's men took captive the surviving whites and government loyalists in the community. The hostages numbered about 70 in all and included Theresa Gowanlock and Theresa Delaney, wives of two of the slain men, and their families,[5] as well as William Carmeron and several Metis men - John Pritchard, Pierre Blondin, Dolphus Nolin, and Louis Goulet. These men "purchased" the two widows and put them under Pritchard's protection.[14] The two Teresa's later wrote a book on their experience - Two Months in the Camp of Big Bear. William Cameron's book Blood Red the Sun also gave an account of the tragic day and its aftermath.[citation needed]

Aftermath edit

 
Survivor William Bleasdell Cameron with Horse Child, 12-year-old son of Big Bear. They were photographed together in Regina in 1885 during the trial of Big Bear. Cameron testified in Big Bear's defense.
Main article: The 1885 Hangings at Battleford

After the massacre, several of the Métis residents who were now captive hurriedly placed the bodies of Fafard, Marchand, Delaney and Gowanlock in the cellar under the church. At great risk, they also moved the bodies of Quinn and Gouin into the cellar of a house near where they were killed. However, they were refused permission to touch the other victims.

Two days after the killings, the church, the rectory and all the buildings of the Frog Lake settlement were burned on April 4, 1885 (the day before Easter). All that remained of the mission was the bell tower and the cemetery.[15]

In the days following April 2, Wandering Spirit's soldiers moved on to Fort Pitt.

The Frog Lake incident, along with the Metis rebellion at the same time, prompted the Canadian government to send troops and police to the area.[16] On June 14 the Midland Battalion (the advance guard of Major-General Strange) arrived and buried the victims of the massacre in the cemetery.[17][18] During their occupation the bell hanging in the fire blackened bell tower was taken.[19] (Later the bell, displayed prominently in the Legion hall at Midland, Ontario, was confused with the bell of Batoche. Taken from there in 1991, it was found in Metis hands in 2013.)[20]

When the rebellion was put down and law and order restored, Wandering Spirit, the war chief responsible for the Frog Lake incident, walked to Fort Pitt where he turned himself in.[21]

Wandering Spirit, (Kapapamahchakwew) a Plains Cree war chief, Little Bear (Apaschiskoos), Walking the Sky (A.K.A. Round the Sky), Bad Arrow, Miserable Man, Iron Body, Ika (A.K.A. Crooked Leg) and Man Without Blood were put on trial for murders committed during the Frog Lake Massacre and at Battleford (the murders of Farm instructor Payne and Battleford farmer Barney Tremont). None of the accused natives were allowed legal counsel, and Judge Charles Rouleau sentenced each of them to death by hanging. He sentenced three others to hang as well, but their death sentences were commuted.[citation needed]

Sentenced to be hanged and perhaps in an attempt to expiate his offences, Wandering Spirit attempted suicide but lived to be hanged.[22][16][23]

Wandering Spirit and the seven others were hanged on Nov. 27, 1885, in the largest mass hanging in Canada's history.[5]

Although Big Bear had opposed the attack,[11] he was charged with treason because of his efforts to organize resistance among the Cree. He was convicted and sentenced to three years in the Manitoba Penitentiary.[11] He served about half the prison term then was released, to die a short time later, in 1888.[24]

Legacy edit

Frog Lake became part of the province of Alberta in 1905. The site of the massacre was designated the "Frog Lake National Historic Site" in 1923, at the location of the Cree uprising which occurred in the District of Saskatchewan, North-West Territories.[25] Parks Canada says the site designated by the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada is extensive, but the national park service owns only a small portion, mainly a graveyard, where a stone cairn and federal plaque were erected in 1924. The geographic coordinates on this page are for that cairn.

In 2008, Christine Tell (provincial minister for tourism, parks, culture and sport) said "the 125th commemoration, in 2010, of the 1885 Northwest Resistance is an excellent opportunity to tell the story of the prairie Métis and First Nations peoples' struggle with Government forces and how it has shaped Canada today."[26]

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ "Canadian Plains Research Center Mapping Division" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-12-03. Retrieved 13 September 2013., now located in the province of Alberta,
  2. ^ Radison. Defending Frog Lake. p. 38.
  3. ^ a b "Treaty 6". Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan. Canadian Plains Research Center, University of Regina. 2006. Archived from the original on 15 November 2013. Retrieved 8 December 2013.
  4. ^ William Bleasdell Cameron (1888), The war trail of Big Bear (P.43-46), Toronto: Ryerson Press (published 1926)
  5. ^ a b c d e f John Chaput (2007). "Frog Lake Massacre". The Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan. University of Regina and Canadian Plains Research Center. Archived from the original on 4 September 2009. Retrieved 8 June 2010.
  6. ^ Radison. Defending Frog Lake. p. 73.
  7. ^ William Bleasdell Cameron (1888), The war trail of Big Bear (P.59-64), Toronto: Ryerson Press (published 1926)
  8. ^ Radison, Garry (2015). Defending Frog Lake. Lethbridge, Alberta: Smoke Ridge Books. pp. 38, 73–74.
  9. ^ Kostash. The Frog Lake Incident.
  10. ^ Kostash. The Frog Lake Reader. pp. 55–57.
  11. ^ a b c d W. B. Cameron, "Massacre at Frog Lake" Archived 2005-12-15 at the Wayback Machine, University of Alberta Libraries, response by W. B. Cameron to "Massacre at Frog Lake", Edmonton Journal, 4 Apr 1939, accessed 2 Aug 2009
  12. ^ William Bleasdell Cameron (1888), The war trail of Big Bear (The Frog Lake Massacre), Toronto: Ryerson Press (published 1926)
  13. ^ Dempsey, Hugh A. (1957). The Early West. Edmonton: Historical Society of Alberta. p. 6. Archived from the original on 2015-09-24. Retrieved 2013-07-23.
  14. ^ Charette, Guillaume (1976). Vanishing Spaces: Memoires of Louis Goulet. Winnipeg, MB: Editions Bois Brulé. pp. 128–130. ISBN 0-919143-20-2.
  15. ^ "Batoche: les missionnaires du nord-ouest pendant les troubles de 1885". Le Chevallier, Jules Jean Marie Joseph. Montreal: L'Oeuvre de presse dominicaine. 1941. Retrieved 2014-04-17.
  16. ^ a b "Frog Lake National Historic Site of Canada". www.pc.gc.ca. Retrieved 2022-03-05.
  17. ^ "With the Midland Battn. during the North West Rebellion of 1885". Diary of Will E. Young. 1885. Archived from the original on 2014-04-19. Retrieved 2014-04-17.
  18. ^ ""Procès-verbal de la translation des restes des révérends pères Léon-Adélard Fafard, O.M.I. et Félix Marchand, O.M.I. du cimétière de l'ancienne mision de Notre-Dame de Bon Conseil (Lac La Grenouille), à l'église de la mission de Notre-Dame du Rosaire (Lac d'Oignon). Diocèse de Saint-Albert"". Missions de la Congrégation des missionnaires oblats de Marie Immaculée. (Rome: Maison Générale O.M.I) no.253 (Mar 1935), pp. 59–61. Retrieved 2014-04-17.
  19. ^ "Grandin, Vital Justin (1829–1902); Oblates of Mary Immaculate. "Vicariat de Saint-Albert". Missions de la Congrégation des missionnaires oblats de Marie Immaculée". Missions de la Congrégation des missionnaires oblats de Marie Immaculée. (Paris: A. Hennuyer) no.92 (Dec 1885), pp. 417–430. Retrieved 2014-04-17.
  20. ^ ""Bell of Batoche really the Bell of Frog Lake". Alexandra Paul (Winnipeg Free Press). 2014-04-21. Retrieved 2014-04-21".
  21. ^ Radison. Defending Frog Lake. p. 122.
  22. ^ Presnell , A. (2000). Historical demogr orical demography of the Chippewa-Cr aphy of the Chippewa-Cree of the Rocky Bo ee of the Rocky Boy's Reservation Montana 1917-1937 (UMI Number: EP40816) [Master’s thesis, University of Montana]. ScholarWorks at University of Montana.https://scholarworks.umt.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=6387&context=etd
  23. ^ Radison. Defending Frog Lake. p. 122.
  24. ^ Pannekoek, Frits (2016). "Mistahimaskwa (Big Bear)". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved 15 February 2021.
  25. ^ "Parks Canada – National Historic Sites in Alberta – National Historic Sites in Alberta". Government of Canada. Archived from the original on 2011-06-05. Retrieved 2009-09-20.
  26. ^ "Tourism agencies to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the Northwest Resistance/Rebellion". Home/About Government/News Releases/June 2008. Government of Saskatchewan. June 7, 2008. Archived from the original on 2009-10-21. Retrieved 2009-09-20.

Further reading edit

  • Cameron, W. B. (1926). The war trail of Big Bear. London: Duckworth. This work was published in three editions 1926–1930, and a revised edition was published in 1950 as Blood Red the Sun. Calgary: Kenway Publishing Co. 1950. OCLC 10524211.
  • Gallaher, Bill (2008). The Frog Lake Massacre. Surrey, BC: Touchwood Editions. ISBN 978-1894898751. Though a novel, a highly accurate account of the massacre and aftermath. First ed. 1984
  • Hughes, Stuart (2015). The Frog Lake "Massacre": Personal Perspectives on Ethnic Conflict. ISBN 978-0771097973.
  • Littlejohn, Catherine. "The Indian oral tradition: a model for teachers." MA thesis, University of Saskatchewan, College of Education, 1975. Interviews about the massacre with First Nations people of the area
  • Radison, Garry (2009). Ka-pepamachakwew-Wandering Spirit: Plains Cree War Chief. Calgary: Smoke Ridge Books. ISBN 978-0968832950.
  • Radison, Garry (2015). Defending Frog Lake: An Analysis of the Frog Lake Massacre. Lethbridge: Smoke Ridge Books. ISBN 978-0994777300.

External links edit

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