Cypress Hills Massacre, Cypress Hills, Saskatchewan

Tragic events echo throughout our history, profoundly affecting succeeding generations. Such is the case with the Cypress Hills Massacre. On June 1st 1873, a group of American-based wolf hunters attacked and ruthlessly killed members of an impoverished gathering of Nakoda who were camping in the Cypress Hills. The site of the Cypress Hills Massacre, where many Nakoda lost their lives, is the place to which their spirits are tied forever. It is sacred ground for their descendants in the Carry the Kettle First Nation. Here, the memory and the legacy of the massacre victims reach across time, and serve as reminders of how the 1873 tragedy influenced Canadian history.

The Cypress Hills Massacre was the culmination of a difficult period in Nakoda history. The disappearance of large game resulted in famine and the forced abandonment of the Nakoda’s traditional territories. The hardship of the winter and spring of 1873 led the Nakoda southwards to the Cypress Hills where there were more available resources. While camped there, not far from the posts of two whiskey traders, the Nakoda encountered a group of American wolf hunters who were bent on finding and punishing someone for the suspected theft of their horses. When the hunters encountered the innocent Nakoda, accusations led to conflict, events escalated catastrophically out of control, and the hunters brutally killed the Nakoda. The loss of Nakoda Elders, warriors, women, and children was horrifying, and the devastation to that community was profoundly felt. The massacre remains a pivotal event in Nakoda history.

The tragedy also had national consequences. One of the significant outcomes of the massacre was the federal government’s determination to hasten the dispatch of the North-West Mounted Police to impose Canadian law and order in the western territories. The result was that the Cypress Hills Massacre was one of the first major tests of Ottawa’s law enforcement policies in western Canada. The federal government did not succeed in bringing the perpetrators of the massacre to justice. However, the presence of the police force and its efforts to be consistent and impartial in enforcing the new laws effectively helped to establish more peaceful relations between the Indigenous Peoples and the government in the region.

This site is a place of national significance, the commemoration of which helps to ensure that the tragic massacre of Nakoda Elders, warriors, and children will be remembered. For the Nakoda, the memory of the Cypress Hills Massacre and of their fallen ancestors reinforces their connection with these lands they hold to be sacred.