The Cypress Hills: An Island by Itself

With an abundance of buffalo, other game, and lodge pole pine, the hills straddling the Alberta/Saskatchewan/United States border were a natural gathering point for First Nations and Metis peoples. Their presence drew the Hudson Bay Company and American free traders, whiskey traders, and wolfers, resulting in a clash of cultures culminating in the 1873 Cypress Hills massacre, an armed ambush of a Nakoda camp by a group of drunken wolfers and whiskey traders. This event brought the Northwest Mounted Police to maintain peace in the west, and led to the creation of Fort Walsh, today a national historic site. Hildebrandt and Hubner uncover the history, stories, and people to establish a historical narrative of this significant region.