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The Lawless West Cypress Hills
1873
Cypress Hills

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At the close of trading season, unfair fur trading prices and stiff competition strained relations between the Indians and the traders. It was at this time that a group of lost American wolfers arrived in Cypress Hills looking for the Cree Indians who had stolen their horses in a raid some two weeks earlier.

Over the course of a few days while the wolfers, natives, and traders drank heavily and without care, another horse disappeared from camp.

Out of revenge, the wolfers surrounded and brutally attacked the unarmed village of Assiniboine men, women, and children in the early morning hours of June 1, 1873.

Even after the wandering pony was found, the wolfers continued to take prisoners, raped women and burned the remainder of the village. They marked their exit by displaying the head of the slain Assiniboine chief, Little Soldier, on a lodge pole at the perimeter of the village.