Summary
The winter of 1877-1878, also known as the 'Black Winter' was a particularly difficult time frame within a decade of malnourishment, famine, violence, and disease. Drought and prairie fires, combined with the decline of buffalo on the Plains resulted in a large scale food crisis. This food crisis was met with indifference and exploitation by government officials. Rations were used as a way of coercing Indigenous peoples into treaty agreements and to undermine attempts of Indigenous resistance.
Implications
In an attempt to find food many Plains people moved south towards the violently contested American Plains. Some Cree also migrated north, going as far as Peace River were they came into competition with the local Dunneza population. In addition to the food crisis, diseases thrived among the malnourished and closely grouped reserve communities. By December 1879 the Blackfoot in Alberta and Western Saskatchewan exhibited symptoms of tuberculosis. Scarlet fever killed 30 people at Fort Walsh in September of 1880. The following month scarlet fever and measles infected the Siksika, Piikani, and Cree. In 1881 measles spread among the Niitsitapi in the west and smallpox hit Fort Qu'Appelle. There were a few exceptions to the large scale food crisis and disease outbreaks. The Dakota were thought of as American refugees in the nineteenth century and therefore were not bound by the same regulations as other treaty peoples. During this period the Dakota enjoyed a much greater degree of isolation and a healthy food supply unlike those on the reserves. As a result, the Dakota did not experience the malnourishment and diseases that were decimating the reserve populations.
Sub Event
'Black Winter'
Date
1877-00-00
Theme(s)