| Subject: |
1885, Resistance, Military, First Nations, Métis, Poundmaker, Riel, Louis, Middleton, General |
| Description: |
In this appendix to "Resumé of the Riel Rebellion”, dated April 29, 1885, Lieutenant Colonel A.C.D. Pigott transcribed a correspondence between Poundmaker and Louis Riel (continued from Pigott Appendix, Poundmaker to Riel). He also transcribed a correspondence between Poundmaker and General Middleton dated May 22, 1885. These two correspondences may either be fictionalized accounts, transcriptions based on an interview with Poundmaker, or may be transcriptions of all actual correspondence that were obtained by the Canadian military. In this document, Poundmaker continues his letter to Louis Riel and concludes that the presence of the Métis would lift the Cree’s spirits. Poundmaker, Opin-o-way-win, Met-tay-way-is, Mas-sin-ass and Pee-Yay-Chew signed the letter. In Poundmaker’s letter to General Middleton, Poundmaker wants confirmation of the Métis defeat, and asks that the General treat his people fairly after they surrender. Poundmaker also states that the prisoners that had been taken captive earlier were well-treated and were released. Poundmaker also asks for the terms of surrender in writing “so that we may have no misunderstanding from which so much trouble arises”. Lieutenant Colonel A.C.D. Pigott wrote “Resumé of the Riel Rebellion” during various engagements of the 1885 Resistance. This is one of only a few first-hand accounts by any member of the Canadian army during the 1885 Resistance. Pigott chronicled the 1885 Resistance from the March 26, 1885 skirmish at Duck Lake to the campaign against First Nations warriors from Big Bear’s and Poundmaker’s camps. These pages focus largely on battling the First Nations and list troop movements and the advance of columns by Generals Otter and Strange. This document also contains a number of appendices, not numbered in sequential order, including a map of the Battle of Fish Creek and a second-hand transcription of a correspondence between Big Bear, General Middleton and Louis Riel. This document, part of A.C.D. Pigott’s 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