The Cypress Hills massacre occurred on June 1, 1873, in the Cypress Hills region of Battle Creek, North-West Territories (now in Saskatchewan), involving a group of American Bison hunters, American wolf hunters or 'wolfers', American and Canadian whiskey traders, Métis cargo haulers or 'freighters', and a camp of Nakoda (or Assiniboine) people.
A large number of horses had been stolen from the wolfers just across the Montana Territory border. Angry over their loss, the wolfers attempted to track the horse thieves into Canada, but soon lost their trail. Instead, the wolfers arrived in the Battle Creek valley where the trading posts operated by Abel Farwell and Moses Solomon were located, opposite a camp of some 200 to 300 Nakota people. Tensions were already somewhat elevated, alcohol had been flowing freely on all sides, and a misunderstanding over a missing horse led to a mixed group of wolfers, whiskey traders, and Métis freighters opening fire on the Nakota camp, resulting in 23 confirmed Nakota deaths and the death of one wolfer, Ed LeGrace. Both trading posts were subsequently abandoned and burned.[1]
This incident outraged Canadians, who wanted Americans to respect their sovereignty; Western Canada was threatened. This incident led the North-West Territories government of the day (Temporary North-West Council) to pass legislation advising Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald to create the North-West Mounted Police.[2] Fort Walsh was then established in the Cypress Hills region. It served as the NWMP headquarters from 1878 until 1883, and is named after its NWMP (later RCMP) superintendent, James Morrow Walsh. All of the "wolfers" were arrested and tried, but none were ever convicted.
Part of the site of the Cypress Hills massacre has been preserved at Fort Walsh National Historic Site, along with reconstructions of Farwell's and Solomon's trading posts.
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A fictionalized account of the events of the Cypress Hills massacre is told in the novel The Englishman's Boy by Canadian author Guy Vanderhaeghe. The story focuses in part on the character of the "Englishman's boy", one of the members of the party of wolfers. While little is known of those involved in the actual event, the novel attributes the cause of the massacre to one Tom Hardwick, the "lead" wolfer. The character of Ed LeGrace appears in the novel, though he is simply called Ed Grace. The book was made into a miniseries that first appeared on CBC Television in March 2008.
The movie The Canadians was another fictionalized version. In it the wolfers were depicted as meeting members of the North-West Mounted Police, which were actually formed after the incident and in part because of it.