SASKATOON – A descendant of a Saskatchewan chief claims the Saturday re-enactment of the 1885 “siege” of Fort Battleford was unfair to his ancestors.
Tyrone Tootoosis, a descendant of Cree Chief Poundmaker, said that he believes the First Nations are inaccurately portrayed by the re-enactment.
“It’s not fair to educate the public based on this perception that First Nations attacked the fort – it’s not fair and it’s not right. The perpetuation of the fear that was alive in 1885 is being kept alive by this re-enactment,” he said.
Cree oral history teaches that Poundmaker brought his people to Fort Battleford to ask for food rations. They were starving after the disappearance of the buffalo, and wanted to ask for assistance promised in Treaty 6, said Tootoosis, a performer and amateur historian.
“The buffalo were gone. In summer, the land, it looked like winter, like snow was still on the ground and that was from the bleached bones of the bison. There was a treaty promise that we would be assisted in times of famine. That was only nine years after the treaty,” he said.
But when the Cree people approached the fort, the Battleford residents were fearful after hearing of the Metis attack on Duck Lake.
“The residents of Fort Battleford were indeed frightened when they heard what happened at Duck Lake. They weren’t sure of the intentions of First Nations. Poundmaker saw this as an opportunity to get extra food as they were promised,” said Bill Waiser, a western Canadian historian at the University of Saskatchewan.
“The people in the fort felt they were being besieged,” he said.
With the people of Battleford holed up inside the fort refusing to meet and Poundmaker’s people starving outside, it’s no wonder the Cree eventually looted the village, Waiser said.
“After a while you have a band of angry people around all these homes and stores, so they helped themselves,” he said.
Tootoosis said the re-enactment is unfair to First Nations people.
“I want the truth,” he said. “I want the public to know that our leaders had gone to the fort to remind people there not to worry. They also went there to ask for help so that their children wouldn’t starve to death. That’s the story that needs to be told, instead of just the re-enacting only one side.”
Comments