Cree bands from Western Canada organized to meet with Little Pine and Big Bear in Montana. These Cree groups had also negotiated a tenuous alliance with the Blackfoot, who planned to attend the meeting. Typically, the government was suspicious when meetings occurred amongst Indigenous nations - in keeping with the larger pattern, this meeting inspired paranoia amongst colonial officials. Ultimately, the meeting did not take place due to an unexpected raid on the Crow, leading American officials to order the return of the Cree and Blackfoot to Canada. The accord between the Blackfoot and the Cree soon fell apart.
PAC RG 10 vol. 3739, file 28748-1, Dewdney to Macdonald, 3 April 1882; Fred White to Minister of the Interior, 9 June 1882; Freylinghausen to Sackville-West, 9 June 1882. Saskatchewan Herald, 1 August 1881; "Starving Indians," Benton Weekly Record, 14 July 1881; 25 August, 1 September, 13 October 1881 PAC RG 10, vol. 3739, file 28478-1, C.G Denny to Commissioner, 24 October 1881; Vol. 3768, file 33,642; vol. 3603 file 20141, McIlree to Dewdney, 21 June 1882 Glenbow Institute Calgary, Edward Dewdney Papers, v, file 57, Irvine to Dewdney, 24 June 1882; Saskatchewan Herald, 24 June 1882