Siege of Fort Battleford
Poundmaker Negotiates Food Ration for Shortage
On March 30, 1885, when overdue rations failed to reach Poundmaker’s reserve, he and his Cree and Assiniboine followers of men, women and children made their way to Fort Battleford to meet with the Indian Agent. The rations had been deliberately calculated, the bare minimum ration of one meal per day to keep the aboriginals hungry.
Government Reneges on Promises
The aboriginals’ demands for the livestock and farm implements as promised in the treaty were not responded to by the government. Their crops had been poor, the game scarce, and they had been unable to work with the wild cattle provided, reducing them to depend on the relief given by the government. They had bags of grain, but no implements with which to grind it into flour. They lacked clothing, the promised medicine chests had not been provided, their requests had been consistently ignored by the government. The chiefs were barely able to restrain the younger members who thought violence would get the government’s attention.
Poundmaker and the other Cree Chiefs had resisted Louis Riel’s efforts over the years to join forces him, feeling that violence was not the best method to deal with the government. Although Poundmaker was “known to criticize government policy and the deplorable conditions on reserves, his aim was to achieve reform through peaceful means”, and after a recent murders of a farm inspector and farmer on the nearby Mosquito Reserve he desired to proclaim his people’s loyalty to the Queen. He had been chosen among the chiefs to negotiate with the government on behalf of all bands in the area of Battleford for better rations.
Settlers Flee to Fort Battleford
As the aboriginals made their way to Battleford, the shopkeepers and settlers panicked, taking refuge in the NWMP Fort Battleford. They had heard reports of aboriginals attacking and killing farm inspectors and farmers over rationed food. With 500 people inside the fort, rumours were rife, creating a hysterical state as intelligence gathered from outside via the telegraph indicated that an uprising was in the works.
Poundmaker Arrives at Battleford
Poundmaker was surprised to find the town abandoned, and sent a message to the fort indicating his peaceful intentions and requested a meeting with the Indian Agent Rae. While Poundmaker waiting for days to meet with the Indian Agent, other groups arrived: some Stoneys from Mosquito’s Reserve and Riel’s agitators from Duck Lake. When Rae refused to leave the fort, Peter Ballantyne and the Hudson’s Bay Factor, McKay, came out to meet with Poundmaker. McKay agreed to release food to the aboriginals from the Hudson’s Bay Company store.
Poundmaker Leaves Battleford
Poundmaker and Little Pine, Chief of the Stoneys, were unable to restrain their hungry followers from looting the abandoned offices and houses. It was this action that set the minds of those inside the fort that Battleford was under siege. It was nothing of the sort which Poundmaker’s departure clearly illustrated. Little Pine suffering from temporary blindness and other symptoms of starvation died on March 31, 1885 a few miles from his reserve. Chief Red Pheasant had died a few days earlier which resulted in Poundmaker becoming the main aboriginal leader in the Battleford area.
Sources:
Medicine That Walks: Disease, medicine and Canadian plains native people, (2001) Maureen Katherine Lux
Encyclopedia of the Great Plains Indians (2007), David J. Wishart,
Aboriginal people and colonizers of Western Canada to 1900 (1999), Sarah Carter
The North-West Mounted Police, 1873-1893 (1950), John Peter Turner
Sweet Promises: A Reader on Indian-White Relations in Canada (1991), James Rodger Miller
Chief Poundmaker
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