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Cypress Hills Massacre National Historic Site of Canada

Maple Creek, Saskatchewan, Canada

Formally Recognized: 1964/10/27

Trilingual plaque in place; Parks Canada | Parcs Canada
HSMBC plaque
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Other Name(s)

Cypress Hills Massacre National Historic Site of Canada
Cypress Hills Massacre
Massacre de Cypress Hills

Links and documents

Construction Date(s)

Listed on the Canadian Register: 2008/04/01

Statement of Significance

Description of Historic Place

Cypress Hills Massacre National Historic Site of Canada is located about 2 km south of Fort Walsh National Historic Site of Canada in a broad valley bottom where American traders attacked a Nakoda camp. The rolling Prairies landscape is broken only by reconstructions of two former trading posts, Farwell’s and Solomon’s, involved in the massacre. The formal recognition refers to the associated landscape and archaeological remains surviving from the debacle on what is now Park’s Canada’s property, although the actual site of the massacre extends beyond these boundaries.

Heritage Value

Cypress Hills Massacre National Historic Site of Canada was designated national historic site of Canada in 1964 because:
- according to the Nakoda, the site of the Cypress Hills Massacre, where many Nakoda lost their lives, is the place to which their spirits are forever tied. Here the memory and legacy of the massacre victims reach across time to remind how the events that occurred at this location on June 1, 1873 influenced Canadian history;
- the massacre was one of the first major tests of Canada's law enforcement policies in Western Canada. Ottawa's determination to prosecute crimes against Natives with as much vigour as those against others was important in establishing peaceful relations between Aboriginal peoples of the prairies and the government.

The heritage value of Cypress Hills Massacre National Historic Site of Canada resides in its witness to the event of June 1, 1873 when a group of American “wolfers” attacked the Nakoda camp near Farwell’s and Solomon’s trading posts in a dispute over horses. Value lies in those landscape and archaeological resources associated with the battle, in the setting, and in the spiritual identity of the locations where the remains of those who lost their lives were interred. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police reconstructed Solomon’s and Farwell’s trading posts as a centennial project and Parks Canada conducted selective archaeological investigation of the trading post sites in 1972.

Sources: Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada, Minutes, 1964, Spring 2004.

Character-Defining Elements

Key features contributing to the heritage value of this site include:
- the location near the United States/Canada border;
- the setting in the rolling Cypress Hills of southwestern Saskatchewan;
- its site on a valley floor covered by native grasses and shrubs beside a coulee lined by slopes covered with native trees, shrubs, and grasses;
- the landscape features associated with the massacre, including the grove to which the Nakoda retreated, and the hillside from which the Nakoda launched a counterattack;
- the archaeological sites associated with the massacre, including the Nakoda campsite, firing positions in their extent and materials;
- integrity of the gravesites of Nakoda and other casualties of the battle;
- the archaeological remains of the two trading posts;
- the viewscapes to other parts of the massacre site not on Parks Canada property;
- its continued accessibility to those coming to honour the dead.

Recognition

Jurisdiction

Federal

Recognition Authority

Government of Canada

Recognition Statute

Historic Sites and Monuments Act

Recognition Type

National Historic Site of Canada

Recognition Date

1964/10/27

Historical Information

Significant Date(s)

1873/06/01 to 1873/06/01

Theme - Category and Type

Governing Canada
Security and Law

Function - Category and Type

Current

Historic

Defence
Battle Site

Architect / Designer

n/a

Builder

n/a

Additional Information

Location of Supporting Documentation

Indigenous Affairs and Cultural Heritage Directorate Documentation Centre 3rd Floor, room 366 30 Victoria Street Gatineau, Québec J8X 0B3

Cross-Reference to Collection

Fed/Prov/Terr Identifier

1633

Status

Published

Related Places

General view of the place

Fort Walsh National Historic Site of Canada

Fort Walsh National Historic Site of Canada is the site of an early North West Mounted Police post set among the rolling Cypress Hills in southern Saskatchewan. In the…

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