After Louis Riel’s return to Canada in May 1884 and Big Bear sponsored a Thirst Dance on Poundmaker’s Reserve in June 1884, Ottawa decided that Edgar Dewdney was to have complete control over Indian Affairs in the North-West Territories. More police were to be recruited and the Indian Act was to be amended to permit Dewdney to arrest any aboriginal native who was on another band’s reserve without permission from the government.
To quell a growing concern among the settlers, Dewdney had Hayter Reed issue a statement that nothing was going on and unlikely that there would be an Indian war. To Ottawa, Dewdney privately admitted that the situation was very serious. Reed and Dewdney had learned on their tours of the reserves that Chiefs Big Bear, Piapot and Little Pine were close to uniting the Cree to call for new treaties where Indian territory and autonomy would be the major provisions. Dewdney had been concerned when Little Pine had invited the Blackfoot to attend a council in 1885, that this joining would jeopardize the government’s control of the West.
Dewdney waited until January 1885 for the amendments to the Indian Act to come into effect before he could to do anything about his growing concerns over the Cree. These amendments could be used to arrest and imprison Little Pine, Little Poplar, Big Bear and Piapot, to destroy their movements. Dewdney ordered that the guns and ammunition normally provided to the Cree to enable them to hunt for food be withheld.
Dewdney Hires Informers
To improve his intelligence from the Cree, Dewdney hired men with discretionary powers to work as Indian Agents. Also, English speaking half-bloods who had formerly worked for the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) and were familiar with the Cree, were hired as farm instructors to provide the Indian Agent with information what was happening on the reserves. Staff who had personality conflicts with the Cree were transferred. Indian Agent, Thomas Quinn, at Fort Pitt, and his farming instructor, John Delaney, were to be transferred after March 1885.
New Laws Enacted to Suppress Natives
Over the winter of 1884-1885 the Plains Cree conformed to the treaty stipulations while pursuing new strategies to see that the Canadian government adhered to the treaty provisions. Their plan of a major council among the people of the Treaty 4, 6 and 7 regions to discuss how they would force Canada to meet its treaty obligations. The Canadian government, however, enacted laws to control the native population when they saw individuals among the Plains Cree creating dissention in the bands over the policies of the treaties. “An amendment to the Indian Act in 1884 promised to deal severely with anyone who “induces, incites or stirs up any three or more Indians,” either to disorderly conduct or to a breach of the peace.”[1]
Dewdney wanted to prevent the Cree from holding their councils in 1885, and to avoid violence he wanted to make certain the Cree were satisfied with their treaties. He made a statement in February 1885 that the government had violated the treaties and ordered delivery to the Cree all of the goods and supplies the treaty stipulated. Dewdney added an increase to the ration supply. If this failed to placate them, Dewdney intended to have the police arrest their leaders and keep the Cree on their reserves, and remove any chief who attempted to attend an Indian council. Dewdney had full support of Ottawa on any arrests of the Cree leaders providing he use sufficient numbers of police to effect the arrests and enough evidence to justify the incitement to an insurrection. These preparations were in place when Dewdney heard of the Metis clash with the NWMP at Duck Lake in March 1885.
Riel Rebellion Provides Opportunity to Suppress Natives
The Riel Rebellion of 1885 provided Dewdney with a perfect opportunity to suppress the Cree movement for a new treaty. Through Cree involvement in violence at Duck Lake, Dewdney was able to label these acts as part of the rebellion even though these acts were not involved in the treaty negotiations. He maintained that the incidents at Battleford, Duck Lake and Fort Pitt were part of the Riel Rebellion.
Privately, Dewdney reported to Ottawa that he saw the events at Battleford and Frog Lake as the acts of desperate, starving people and unrelated to what the Metis were doing. Dewdney in late March, had sought to open negotiations with the Cree, but Indian Agent Rae had refused to meet with the Cree leaders. Subsequent efforts to open negotiations ended in failure because there was no way to get a message to Poundmaker, and after Colonel Otter’s attack on the Cree camp any thought of negotiations was dropped. Publicly, Dewdney proclaimed the Cree were part of the Métis uprising.
Both Chiefs Poundmaker and Big Bear were charged with treason-felony, despite Dewdney’s knowledge that neither man had acted in an act of rebellion. Eyewitnesses to the facts at Frog Lake, Fort Pitt and Battleford all made it clear that neither chief was involved in the murders and looting that had occurred. The charges against Big Bear and Poundmaker were designed to remove leadership of the Cree movement for revision of the treaties. They were charged to elicit prison sentences that would have the effect of coercing the Cree to accept government control. The trials were conducted to have the same effect, and to reinforce it Big Bear and Poundmaker were convicted and received three years in Stony Mountain Penitentiary. Dewdney admitted in 1885 that the treaties’ promises and provisions were not being fulfilled, and Dewdney had taken steps to assure Canadian control over the Cree, which were themselves violations of the treaties.
Sources:
The American Indian: past and present (1991), Roger L Nichols, 206-207.
Broken Treaties: United States and Canadian Relations with the Lakotas and Plains Cree (2009), Jill St. Germain, [1-p.317], p. 324, 326.
The Trials of Big Bear and Poundmaker (1975), Sandra Estlin Bingman, Saskatchewan History,28, 81-95.
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