b'Rebellion continued from page 31But Gabriel Dumont and 130 of his Metis riflemen wouldBatoche was a nothing battle compared to the major fights not be deterred. They set up a clever ambush at Fish Creekof the American Civil War or even the Little Big Horn on the morning of April 24, 1885, and caught Middleton,(eight Canadian dead, 16 Metis and Native allies slain), who had left his cavalry scouts behind at base, leavingbut still, it was a decisive one as it ended the Metis\' great his 800 men totally unaware of the Metis presence untilhope of an independent, Native entity in Western Canada. it was too late. Dumont and his Metis sharpshooters,Gabriel Dumont, urging Riel to flee once more to Montana, augmented by Sioux refugees who had joined the uprisingdid so himself, and would later join Buffalo Bill\'s Wild gunned down 50 Canadian militiamen at a cost of justWest Show. General Strange, with Steele\'s mounties leading four dead and was in a position to wreak additional havocthe way, caught up once more with Big Bear\'s warriors at on Middleton, when Riel, just as he did at Duck Lake,Frenchman\'s Butte and decisively defeated them just 12 stopped what could easily have been a slaughter of thedays after the fall of Batoche. Big Bear got away as Strange Canadian militia.The Fish Creek debacle wasn\'t the onlyonce more was hesitant in "Committing Custer," but later bad news Middleton received that week. The force of 400the same day Poundmaker and his weary warriors marched men under Colonel Otter, which had sallied forth frominto Battleford, surrendering to the authorities. Releasing Battleford on the day Middleton got his comeuppance athis captives, Big Bear finally surrendered to the Canadians Fish Creek, hoped to catch Chief Poundmaker and histwo months later, in July. By then he was nothing more Crees napping at their camp at Cut Knife Creek, about 40than a harried refugee, fleeing through the forests until miles away. But despite the advantage in firepower (twoexhaustion and reality caught up with him.cannons and a Gatling gun), it was Otter who was stymied,stopped and was forced to run under heavy Cree fire fromUnfortunately, Canadian justice as administered by the Poundmaker\'s 300 braves, losing eight men while thesemi-alcoholic, dour Scot MacDonald wasnt just and Indians made good their escape. was extremely cruel. Big Bear\'s intervention on behalfof the Frog Lake survivors and Fort Pitt captives and his And to the west General Strange and his Alberta Fieldsuccessful effort to make sure they were treated fairly and Force wasn\'t doing any better. Moving through forestkindly, all of which was verified by many of the captives and river, Steele, his Mounties, and the Rocky Mountainthemselves, was disregarded. The Winnipeg Courts Scouts, augmented by militia, had cleared Alberta ofsentenced the heavily chained Big Bear to three years in hostile forces and moving into Saskatchewan had caughtthe Stoney Mountain Prison. Sick, weakened by his ordeal up with Big Bear. Once more the wily old Medicine Manand broken in spirit, Big Bear would be released less than was able to getaway. It was due to the cautious naturetwo years later, and would live only another year, dying of General Strange, who, while more aggressive - andon January 17, 1888. He would be joined in death by his competent - than Middleton, had known of Custer\'sfriend and sub-chief Poundmaker, who also broken in disaster only a couple hundred miles away from wherespirit, would also be released early only to die shortly he had been fighting the Cree, and unsure of the territoryafterward on his reservation.and terrain was loathe to, as he put it, "Commit Custer"(Edward McCourt, Buckskin Brigadier, Macmillan Canada,MacDonald showed no mercy whatsoever to the leader 1968, p. 71). He kept at the pursuit but was willing to strikeof the Metis who, refusing to flee, was captured just only when the circumstances were right. days after the fall of Batoche but Louis Riel wanted noInspector Samuel Benford Steele who later was one of themercy. He was eloquent in his last stand, his wife dying of The morale in the Metis camp had all but disintegrated.first original Mounties, joining up in 1873 in the originaltuberculosis and unable to see him. He fiercely defended Dumont lamented the opportunities he had to crush themission to suppress the American whiskey traders, befriendhimself and the Metis cause. Pressed to declare himself Canadians, only to be stopped by a Riel who seemed to bethe tribes and gain their trust, and police the West. insane in order to cause MacDonald to show mercy and even more mentally unstable as the uprising began to fallspare his life, Riel refused. His supporters urged the courts apart. Scores of discouraged Metis began to desert the cause.by Howard\'s Gatling gun and by cannon fire made one lastto consider his American citizenship, obtained while he They were low on ammunition and supplies and had littleall-out assault on the thinned Metis line on the afternoon oflived in Montana, but they refused to even consider Riel\'s hope of getting more while the enemy was constantly beingTuesday, May 12, 1885. American citizenship. President Cleveland who turned reinforced.Alarmed, Dumont, a seasoned plains fighter,a deaf ear to cries of annexation and a blind eye to the begged Riel to let their forces melt away into the forests andThe Metis fought desperately in their rifle pits until theymachinations of Lieutenant Howard and his Gatling Gun conduct a campaign of unrestricted guerrilla warfare againstran out of ammunition and were reduced to firing nails,supporting the Canadians, wanted nothing to do with the Canadians. But Riel refused, ordering Dumont to pull allmetal buttons, and rocks. They were overrun by theLouis Riel. Finally, a desperate Gabriel Dumont hatched the way back to Batoche, the Metis provisional capital justoverwhelming Canadian force, and then they ran, thata plan to storm the Regina prison in which Riel was held 20 miles north of Fish Creek on the South Saskatchewanis, most of them. A 93-year-old wrinkled, white-hairedand take him to safety in the United States. Unfortunately,River. There Riel planned a set battle that would decide theMetis named Edward Ouellette stood at his post till thetoo many people knew of the plan, and the night Dumont fate of the Metis - and it wasn\'t long in coming. end. Gabriel Dumont would later state how he pleadedwas ready to go ahead with it, he found the Regina prisonwith Ouellette to join the retreat, saying, "Father, we havetoo heavily guarded to even attempt a rescue operation. Middleton now resumed the advance with two aces upto retreat" only to be told, "Wait, I want to kill anotherAfter months of appeals, Louis Riel finally marched to the his sleeve. The first, came in the gift of two Gatling gunsEnglishman."Oullette died emptying his pistol into theRegina prison gallows on November 16, 1885 (Tanner, The nursed by an American officer, Lieutenant Arthur C.oncoming Canadians until the passionate old man wasCanadians, pp.220-221).Howard, US Army, Connecticut National Guard, and adropped by a Canadian bullet (Tanner, The Canadians, p.Gatling gun expert who, despite America\'s "neutrality"215; Howard, Strange Empire, pp. 479-480). The victoriousThe Riel Rebellion ended, but like our Civil War and our had been placed in command of the Canadian North WestCanadians were anything but joyous over their suppressionIndian Wars, the ramifications of the rebellion still exist Field Force (Middleton)\'s Second Regiment machine gunof the Riel Rebellion, one militiaman who had steppedin today\'s Canada. The Metis and Cree still clamor for company (Howard, Strange Empire, p. 451). The secondashore from the stranded "Northcote" recalled comingjustice, and their alienation has also affected the overall came in the form of a steamboat, "The S.S. Northcote" across a souvenir he dared not take away: relationship between English and French-speaking which had plied the Red and Saskatchewan rivers for many Canadians, and not for the better. Furthermore, the years and was now commandeered by Middleton to act as"Nailed to a tree was a cardboard placard, draped in aCrees still suffer, almost in silence, their young women his naval force - bombarding Batoche. With a force almostscrap of white muslin. It was just a rough and ragged boarddisappearing at the hands of criminals along the same Red five times more than the 200 men, Metis sharpshooters,ripped from some packing box, but affixed to it was a cheap,River where the Metis once enjoyed their dances and their Sioux and Nez Perce warriors (the Crees, fleeing Strange\'sshiny lithograph - the Sacred Heart of Jesus.The chromosocial gatherings. The Western Canadians still feel a sense advance, were unable to succor Riel and Dumont inhad been attached to the card with the pointed tin tagsof being neglected, of being the unwanted cousin used by Batoche) Strange assaulted Batoche on the morning ofused to designate the brand name on plug tobacco. TheMacDonald for his vision of a Canada coast to coast but May 8, 1885 but was forced back almost immediately byafternoon\'s rain, sifting through the leaves of the poplars,with little thought for the citizens - White, Metis, First the desperate Metis. To add to Middleton\'s frustration, thehad done some damage. The muslin was moist and theNations - of the Canadian West. No matter what a Harper Metis disabled his navy by swinging several ferry cablescardboard stained and limp. or a Trudeau might do or say, the plight of the Metis and against the upper deck of the ship and smashing its twothe Cree continues to this day - over 125 years after Louis smokestacks, causing the damaged vessel to drift away, onThe Canadian found himself strangely moved. He wouldRiel, heeding the call of his people - prophetically told his fire, from the scene of combat. tell the others about it; he had found a shrine. A cardboardAmerican minister friend about seeing that gallows - andshrine." which he left there, a sad little reminder ofhis body swinging from it.But Howard had taken ashore the two Gatling guns beforethe faith of a people who had signed on to a lost cause the steamer had been disabled, and after two more days of(Howard, Strange Empire, pp. 482-483; Tanner, TheAnd so it goes. desperate hand-to-hand fighting, the Canadians, supportedCanadians, p.215).32 November 2019'