Canadian Historic Sites: Occasional Papers in Archaeology and History No. 21

Whisky, Horses and Death:
The Cypress Hills Massacre and its Sequel

by Philip Goldring

Appendix C. The Date of the Massacre

It is widely believed that the Cypress Hills massacre took place 1 May 1873. In fact it occurred a month later. The error appears in a handful of even the earliest accounts, but the majority of first-hand reports make it clear that 1 June 1873 is the correct date. Baptiste Champagne swore at the Winnipeg trial that the massacre day was a Sunday: [1] this fits 1 June, but 1 May was a Thursday. Throughout the trial, witnesses were routinely asked to state their whereabouts during the months of May and June 1873. Abel Farwell testified under cross-examination that "the Cypress Hills Massacre took place in the last of May or first of June, 1873." [2] Finally, two participants, John Evans and Trevanion Hale, swore out affidavits at the end of 18753 which alluded to the fact that they were about ten miles from Fort Benton, en route to that place, in the middle of May, 1873; they lost their horses there about 17 May and subsequently set out from Fort Benton to recover them. Thus they could not have reached the massacre site much before the end of May. These references and many others outweigh the small number of vague accounts which place the massacre before 1 June 1873.