Cypress Hills Massacre: The Crime That Created the Mounties
On June 1, 1873, American wolf hunters and whiskey traders attacked a camp of Nakoda (Assiniboine) people in the Cypress Hills. They killed at least 23 men, women, and children - possibly more. The attackers claimed they were recovering stolen horses; the evidence suggests they were drunk, trigger-happy, and operating in lawless territory where Indigenous lives meant nothing. The massacre changed Canadian history. The Canadian government, already planning a police force for the western territories, accelerated the timeline. The North-West Mounted Police - later the Royal Canadian Mounted Police - was formed the following year, partly to prevent American-style frontier violence from spreading north. The Cypress Hills Massacre became a founding myth: Canadian expansion would be orderly where American expansion was chaotic.
The Context
The Cypress Hills in 1873 were lawless territory - Canadian in theory, ungoverned in practice. American traders had established 'whiskey forts' across the region, selling rotgut alcohol to Indigenous peoples and destabilizing communities. Wolf hunters poisoned carcasses with strychnine, killing wolves for bounty and inadvertently killing everything else that ate carrion. The U.S. Army had pushed these operators north; Canada had no presence to push them anywhere. Fort Whoop-Up, Fort Slide-Out, Fort Stand-Off - the names reflected the operators' attitudes toward law and consequences.
The Attack
The Americans claimed a hunting party had stolen their horses. They may have been right, or they may have been looking for an excuse. On the morning of June 1, a group of wolf hunters, whiskey traders, and a few Canadian mixed-race traders attacked a Nakoda camp in the Cypress Hills. The Nakoda were weakened by disease and alcohol; their leader, Little Soldier, was killed almost immediately. The attack lasted most of the day. At least 23 Nakoda died - some estimates run higher. One attacker was killed. The survivors fled; the attackers looted the camp and returned to their forts.
The Response
News of the massacre took months to reach Ottawa, but when it arrived, the response was significant. Canada had been planning a mounted police force for the western territories; the massacre made it urgent. In 1874, the North-West Mounted Police was formed and dispatched west - 300 men to police a million square miles. Their first major act was to shut down the whiskey forts. Fort Whoop-Up surrendered without a shot when the Mounties arrived. The message was clear: Canadian territory would have Canadian law, and the chaos of the American frontier would not cross the border.
The Trials
Canada attempted to prosecute the attackers, but justice failed. Most fled to Montana; extradition was complicated by jurisdictional disputes. A few were arrested and tried in Winnipeg in 1876, but juries acquitted them - the evidence was confused, witnesses unreliable, and settler sympathy lay with the accused. No one was ever convicted. The massacre became a symbol of frontier violence that went unpunished, a founding trauma for the Nakoda, and a justification for Canadian law enforcement. The NWMP became the RCMP, and the Mounties became a symbol of orderly Canadian expansion - a national myth built on a crime.
Visiting Cypress Hills
The Cypress Hills Massacre site is located in Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park, which straddles the Alberta-Saskatchewan border. The massacre occurred on the Saskatchewan side, near Fort Walsh National Historic Site. Fort Walsh, built by the NWMP in 1875, interprets the massacre and its aftermath. Parks Canada operates the site; guided programs are available in summer. The Cypress Hills themselves are unusual - forested 'islands' rising from the prairie, unglaciated during the ice ages. The park offers camping, hiking, and dark sky viewing. Medicine Hat (Alberta) and Swift Current (Saskatchewan) are the nearest cities with full services. The site is remote; plan accordingly.
From the Air
Located at 49.55°N, 109.87°W in the Cypress Hills of southwestern Saskatchewan. From altitude, the Cypress Hills appear as forested highlands rising from the surrounding prairie - an ecological anomaly, the highest point between the Rockies and Labrador. Fort Walsh National Historic Site is visible as a restored fort complex in the hills. The Alberta-Saskatchewan border runs through the park. The prairie stretches in every direction beyond the hills. This is remote country - few roads, sparse settlement, the isolation that made it lawless in 1873.