American Officials Raid Indigenous Communities
Reports from Fort Benton stated that American officials had raided Indigenous camps, some belonging to First Nations residing on the Canadian side of the 49th Parallel. American Troops burned 250 lodges, taking horses they claimed were stolen by Big Bear and Lucky Man's bands, and seizing Métis goods and tools the Americans claimed to be smuggled. Indian Affairs Commissioner Edgar Dewdney suspected that the Americans had acted beyond their rights. He believed that as a result of the raids, First Nations and Métis who lived on the Canadian side of the 49th Parallel had returned. This was not the case, there were numerous Dakota groups which had not yet entered back into 'Canada' (Rupert's Land) and thus were left out of numbered treaty-making.
- Dempsey, Hugh A. Big Bear: The End of Freedom. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 1985. 112.
- Hoy, Benjamin. “A Border without Guards: First Nations and the Enforcement of National Space.” Journal of the Canadian Historical Association 25, no. 2 (2014): 89–115. http://dx.doi.org/10.7202/1032842ar.
- Hoy, Benjamin. "Uncertain Counts: The Struggle to Enumerate First Nations in Canada and the United States 1870-1911.” Ethnohistory 62, no. 4 (2015): 729–50.