Editing North-West Rebellion (section)

==Background==
After the [[Red River Rebellion]] of 1869–1870, many Métis moved from [[Manitoba]] to the [[Fort Carlton]] region of the [[Districts of the Northwest Territories|North-West Territories]], where they founded the [[Southbranch Settlement|Southbranch settlements]] of [[Fish Creek, Saskatchewan|Fish Creek]], [[Batoche, Saskatchewan|Batoche]], [[St. Laurent de Grandin, Saskatchewan|St. Laurent]], [[St. Louis, Saskatchewan|St. Louis]], and [[Duck Lake, Saskatchewan|Duck Lake]] on or near the [[South Saskatchewan River]].<ref>{{Citation|publisher = Henry Thomas McPhillips|location = Prince Albert, NWT|title = McPhillips' alphabetical and business directory of the district of Saskatchewan, N.W.T.: Together with brief historical sketches of Prince Albert, Battleford and the other settlements in the district, 1888 |pages= 93–97|year = 1888|url = http://peel.library.ualberta.ca/bibliography/1740/115.html|author = Henry Thomas McPhillips|publication-date = 1888|access-date = 2014-04-10|archive-date = 2020-08-05|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200805020335/http://peel.library.ualberta.ca/bibliography/1740/115.html|url-status = live}}</ref><ref name="encyc_sask_Fr_Metis_1985">{{cite encyclopedia|url = http://esask.uregina.ca/entry/french_and_metis_settlements.html|title = French and Métis settlements |encyclopedia = Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan|publisher = Canadian Plains Research Center, University of Regina |year = 2006|access-date = 17 September 2013 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20131109095802/http://esask.uregina.ca/entry/french_and_metis_settlements.html|archive-date = 9 November 2013 |url-status = dead}}</ref> In 1882, surveyors began dividing the land in the newly formed [[District of Saskatchewan]] according to the [[Dominion Land Survey]]'s square township system. The established Métis farms were laid out in the [[Seigneurial system of New France|seigneurial system]], narrow strips stretching up from a river. The Métis were familiar with this system from their [[French-Canadian]] culture.<ref name="encyc_sask_NWR_2006">{{cite encyclopedia|url = http://esask.uregina.ca/entry/north-west_resistance.html|title = North-west Resistance |encyclopedia = Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan |publisher = Canadian Plains Research Center, [[University of Regina]]|year = 2006|access-date = 17 September 2013 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140108001032/http://esask.uregina.ca/entry/north-west_resistance.html|archive-date = 8 January 2014 |url-status = dead}}</ref> After the experience of the [[Red River Rebellion|1869 Red River rebellion]], surveyors were allowed to make exceptions to the standard survey practice, to accommodate pre-existing riverlot farms within two kilometres of a river. But that was scant consideration of the old-time communities. Outside accepted riverlot groupings, the survey imposed a standard  grid on the land, allocating particular numbered sections in each township to the HBC and the [[Canadian Pacific Railway]] (CPR).

The 36 families of the St. Louis settlement found, after the Dominion Land Survey was done, that the Crown had sold their farms and the village site, which included a church and a school (in Township 45, Range 7 west of the 2nd Meridian of the Dominion Land Survey), to the Prince Albert Colonization Company.<ref>{{cite web|url = http://members.shaw.ca/bcsk/primsrcf/newspaper/85_1226REBEL_G.html|title = North West Rebellion|publisher = The Globe (Toronto)|date = 1885-12-26|access-date = 2013-12-11|archive-date = 2016-11-10|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20161110235301/http://members.shaw.ca/bcsk/primsrcf/newspaper/85_1226REBEL_G.html|url-status = live}}</ref><ref name="HarrisMatthews1987">{{cite book|author1=Richard Cole Harris|author2=Geoffrey J. Matthews|author3=R. Louis Gentilcore |title=Historical Atlas of Canada: The land transformed, 1800–1891|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tWkxht1Oa8EC&pg=PA93|year=1987|publisher=University of Toronto Press |isbn=978-0-8020-3447-2|page=93|access-date=2014-04-10}}</ref> The families feared the loss of their homes and farms, which, now that the [[Métis buffalo hunt|buffalo herds]] were gone,<ref name="FosterHarrison1992">{{cite book|author1=John Elgin Foster|author2=Dick Harrison|author3=I. S. MacLaren|title=Buffalo|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lGfG1gnuqKUC&pg=PA67|date= 1992|publisher=University of Alberta |isbn=978-0-88864-237-0|pages=73–74}}</ref> was their primary source of sustenance.<ref name="The Resistance of 1885">{{cite encyclopedia
|url = http://faculty.marianopolis.edu/c.belanger/quebechistory/encyclopedia/North-WestRebellion-CanadianHistory.htm
|title = The Quebec History Encyclopedia (North-West Rebellion)
|encyclopedia = The Quebec History Encyclopedia
|publisher = Claude Bélanger, Marianopolis College
|year = 2007
|access-date = 2013-11-19
|archive-date = 2020-08-04
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200804175028/http://faculty.marianopolis.edu/c.belanger/quebechistory/encyclopedia/North-WestRebellion-CanadianHistory.htm
|url-status = live
}}</ref>

In 1884, the Métis in the Southbranch settlements (including many [[Anglo-Métis]]) sent a delegation to ask [[Louis Riel]] to return from the United States, where he had fled after the Red River Rebellion, to appeal to the government on their behalf.<ref name="encyc_sask_NWR_2006" /> He came and sent an appeal to the government. The government gave a vague response. The following year, on March 8, 1885, Riel and other prominent Métis at Batoche passed a 10-point “Revolutionary Bill of Rights” that asserted Métis rights of possession to their farms and demanded, among other things, that the government establish an office dealing with land issues in the North-West.<ref name="Beal and Macleod" />

On March 18, 1885, Riel, [[Gabriel Dumont (Métis leader)|Gabriel Dumont]], [[Honoré Jackson]] (a.k.a. Will Jackson), and others took the seminal step of setting up the [[Provisional Government of Saskatchewan]], believing they could influence the federal government in the same way as they had in 1869.
[[File:Bigbear-blanket.jpg|thumb|left|upright|The federal government's violation of its treaties with the [[Cree]] spurred [[Big Bear]], a Cree chief, to embark on a diplomatic campaign to renegotiate the terms of the treaties.]]

But much had changed since the Red River Rebellion. A railway had been completed across the prairies in 1883, though sections were not yet completed north of Lake Superior in Northern Ontario. The railway eased the transit of government troops to [[Qu'Appelle, Saskatchewan|Qu'Appelle]]. Qu'Appelle was more than 1800 miles (3000 km) from Toronto and 160 miles (260 km) in direct line from Batoche.<ref>Journal of the West Oct 1993 "Armed Forces in the Canadian West" issue, p. 40)</ref>

The [[North-West Mounted Police]] (NWMP), created in 1874, served as an armed force as well. Its local detachments provided government presence at some trouble spots, at least potentially protected vulnerable settlements, and also provided guidance and local knowledge to the neophyte Ontario and Quebec militia troops.

As violence broke out, it became clear that English-speaking settlers on the prairies and the great majority of First Nations did not support Riel. Catholic officials saw as heresy Riel's claim that God had sent him back to Canada as a prophet, and they tried to minimize his support. Catholic priest [[Albert Lacombe]] worked to obtain assurances from [[Crowfoot]] that his [[Blackfoot]] warriors would not participate in a conflict.<ref>{{cite book|last=Dempsey|first=Hugh A.|title=The Early West|year=1957|publisher=Historical Society of Alberta|location=Edmonton|page=21|url=http://www.ourfutureourpast.ca/loc_hist/page.aspx?id=245933|access-date=2013-10-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150904074848/http://www.ourfutureourpast.ca/loc_hist/page.aspx?id=245933|archive-date=2015-09-04|url-status=dead}}</ref>

The [[First Nations in Canada|First Nations]] were also frustrated at conditions at the time. By the end of the 1870s, the stage was set for discontent among the Indigenous people of the prairies: fur-animals and bison were scarce (causing enormous economic and food supply difficulties)<ref name="Miller_1989_2000">{{cite book |author=James Rodger Miller |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eGXeFCkTmlgC |title=Skyscrapers Hide the Heavens: A History of Indian-white Relations in Canada |publisher=University of Toronto Press |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-8020-8153-7 |orig-year=1989}}</ref>{{rp|171}} and, in an attempt to assert control over Indigenous population, federal government officials sometimes held back rations, violating the terms of the treaties it had signed just prior.<ref name="Miller_1989_2000" />{{rp|174}}

First Nations' dissatisfaction with the treaties and rampant poverty spurred Cree chief [[Big Bear]] to embark on a diplomatic campaign to renegotiate the terms of the treaties. (The timing of this campaign coincided with widespread frustration among Métis but it seems the [[Cree]] and [[Métis people (Canada)|Métis]] did not act in unison.)<ref>Friesen, Gerald. ''The Canadian Prairies: A History''. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1984. p. 226. {{ISBN?}}</ref>

Some Cree took violent action in the spring of 1885, when the rebellion of Riel and the Métis was happening at same time, but at least one researcher states that they were almost certainly unrelated. In both the [[Frog Lake Massacre]] and the [[Looting of Battleford]], small dissident groups of Cree men revolted against white authorities, ignoring the leadership of Big Bear and [[Poundmaker]].<ref name="Miller_1989_2000" />{{rp|240–241}} Although he quietly signalled to Ottawa that these two incidents were the result of desperate and starving people and were, as such, unrelated to the ongoing Métis rebellion, [[Edgar Dewdney]], the lieutenant governor of the territories, publicly claimed that the Cree and the Métis had joined forces.<ref>Arthur J. Ray, ''I Have Lived Here Since the World Began: An Illustrated History of Canada's Native People'' (Toronto: Key Porter Books, 2005) p. 221. {{ISBN?}}</ref><ref name="Miller_1989_2000" />{{rp|247}}