Battle of Fort Pitt

This contemporary illustration from The Illustrated London News depicts the Cree attack of April 15

Date	April 15, 1885
Location	Frenchman Butte No. 501, near Frenchman Butte, Saskatchewan
Result	Cree victory

Belligerents

Cree

Canada

Commanders and leaders

Big Bear

Francis Dickens

Strength

200-250

22 militia

Casualties and losses

0-4 dead

1 dead
1 wounded

The Battle of Fort Pitt (in Saskatchewan) was part of a Cree uprising coinciding with the Métis revolt that started the North-West Rebellion in 1885. Cree warriors began attacking Canadian settlements on April 2. On April 15, they captured Fort Pitt from a detachment of North-West Mounted Police.

In the Canadian North-West, a period of escalating unrest immediately preceded the rebellion as Ottawa refused to negotiate with its disaffected citizens. While the Métis under Louis Riel declared a provisional government and mobilized their forces, Cree chief Big Bear was not planning any militarization or violence toward the Canadian settlers or government. Rather, he had tried to unify the Cree into a political confederacy powerful enough to oppose the marginalization of native people in Canadian society and renegotiate unjust land treaties imposed on Saskatchewan natives in the 1860s.

This nominally peaceful disposition was shattered in late March by news of the Métis victory over government forces at Duck Lake. Support for Riel was strong among native peoples. On April 2, Big Bear's warriors attacked the town of Frog Lake, killing nine civilians. Big Bear, against his wishes, was drawn into the rebellion.

Similar attacks continued, with Cree raiding parties pillaging the towns of Lac La Biche Saddle Lake, Beaverhill Lake, Bear Hills, Lac St. Anne and Green Lake. These events prompted the mobilization of an Alberta field force under Thomas Bland Strange. The Cree would later defeat the Albertans at the Battle of Frenchman's Butte.

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