| Subject: |
1885, Resistance, Métis, Battle, Fish Creek, Battle, Duck Lake, Battle, NWMP, Dumont, Gabriel |
| Description: |
In this appendix to "Resumé of the Riel Rebellion”, Lieutenant Colonel A.C.D. Pigott has written, on these four pages, (Pigott Appendix, Post 1885, April 24, 1885 1-4), his remembrances of the 1885 Resistance upon 50 years of reflection. These four pages chronicle the Battle of Fish Creek (April 24, 1885) and the start of the 1885 Resistance during the Battle of Duck Lake (March 26, 1885). Piggott also discussed the dissolution of the Métis’ land base through the Scrip System as the main cause of the Resistance. He argued that Riel’s seizure of the supply stores in the Batoche region participated the conflict as the NWMP moved in to Duck Lake to have the shop owners’ property restored. As a result, the Métis routed the Mounted Police under Major Crozier. Pigott stressed the Métis’ expertise at guerilla warfare made them a difficult target for the Mounted Police and Prince Albert Volunteers: “The halfbreeds who were commanded by Gabriel Dumont were so well entrenched that their positions were only located by the puffs of smoke”. Pigott also listed the Mounted Police and the Army’s troop movements following the Métis’ victory at Duck Lake and prior to the Battle of Fish Creek. This document, part of A.C.D. Pigott’s post 1885 personal correspondence, is part of the A.C.D. Pigott Collection, which was acquired by the Gabriel Dumont Institute in October 1991 by the Ted Pappas family of Vancouver, British Columbia. The collection includes: Louis Riel’s English-French dictionary, Lieutenant Colonel Pigott’s 1885 Resistance battlefield manuscript, and a number of artifacts taken off the battlefield including: an inscribed watch, a pipe, a bullet maker and a buffalo powder horn (both from the Métis trenches), a carved wooden container taken from Big Bear’s camp, a First Nations decorative bracelet and horsehair braiding, which may have been traded for food by somebody captured by the Boulton’s Scouts. |
Resistance