First Nations battle in what is now Alberta, Canada
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Battle of the Belly River" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR(July 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
Battle of the Belly River
Date
October 25, 1870
Location
Present day Lethbridge, Alberta
Result
Decisive Blackfoot victory
Belligerents
Blackfoot Confederacy
Cree
Commanders and leaders
Big Leg Black Eagle Heavy Shield Crow Eagle Bull Back Fat Button Chief
Big Bear Little Pine Little Mountain Piapot
Strength
500-800 warriors
500-800 warriors
Casualties and losses
40 killed 50 wounded
200-400 killed
The Battle of the Belly River was the last major conflict between the Cree (the Iron Confederacy) and the Blackfoot Confederacy, and the last major battle between First Nations on Canadian soil.
The battle took place within the present limits of the city of Lethbridge on the banks of the Oldman River, which at the time of the battle, was called the Belly River. A devastating outbreak of smallpox had reduced the strength of the Blackfoot, and a Cree war party had come south in late October 1870 to take advantage of that weakness. An advance party of Crees had stumbled upon a Peigan camp and decided to attack instead of informing the main Cree body of their find.
The Blackfoot and the Cree were fighting to gain control of the Cypress Hills boundaries and in the fall of 1870 there was a battle between them called the "Battle of Belly River." Big Bear and Little Pine led the Cree’s and attacked a Blood First Nations camp. The next day, well armed Peigans entered the battle and defeated the Cree, approximately 200-400 Crees died in the battle. Eventually the Cree and Blackfoot negotiated peace and access to the Cypress hills.[1]
Soon word passed to other Blackfoot, Blood and Peigan camps in the immediate area, and warriors were sent to join battle. After several hours of trading shots, a Blackfoot party gained the high ground and made the Cree positions untenable. The retreat became a rout, and up to 300 Cree warriors were killed trying to make their escape.
Approximately a year after the battle, the Cree and Blackfoot made a formal peace. This was formalized by Crowfoot, a Blackfoot chief, ritually adopting Poundmaker, an up-and-coming Cree leader in 1873. Treaty No.7, between the Blackfoot Confederacy and the Crown, was signed in 1877. In 1906, the town of Lethbridge was founded near the battle site. The battle itself is commemorated in Indian Battle Park.
^Dodson, 14, quoted at https://web.archive.org/web/20160401180710/https://treaty6education.lskysd.ca/1870
and 28 Related for: Battle of the Belly River information
TheBattleoftheBellyRiver was the last major conflict between the Cree (the Iron Confederacy) and the Blackfoot Confederacy, and the last major battle...
TheBellyRiver Group is a stratigraphical unit of Late Cretaceous age in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin. It takes the name from theBelly River...
culminated in 1870 with the BattleoftheBellyRiver between the Blackfoot Confederacy and the Cree. It was the last major battle fought between native nations...
the so-called BattleoftheBellyRiver (near Lethbridge, called Assini-etomochi – "where we slaughtered the Cree") and lost over 300 warriors. The next...
involved in attacks against the enemies ofthe Cree. TheBattleoftheBellyRiver was one ofthe largest battles that the Cree were involved in. Occurring...
Back and Forth, and called theBattleofBelly Butte by the Northern Cheyenne) was fought on January 8, 1877, by soldiers ofthe United States Army against...
was a battle between them called the "BattleofBellyRiver." Big Bear and Little Pine led the Cree's and attacked a Blood First Nations camp. The next...
Bellyofthe Beast is a 2003 American action film directed by Hong Kong film director Ching Siu-tung in his American directorial debut, and starring Steven...
Assiniboine. The Plains Cree engaged in one last battle against the Blackfoot, theBattleoftheBellyRiver on October 25, 1870, near present-day Lethbridge...
participation in the 1870 BattleoftheBellyRiver. Following this, in 1873, Big Bear clashed with the Métis. Francis Pegahmagabow was the First Nation soldier...
covering the history of Alberta and its predecessor states. 2019 Alberta general election timeline Alberta Heritage Savings timeline Timeline ofthe petroleum...
TheBattleof Chickamauga, fought on September 18–20, 1863, between the United States Army and Confederate forces in the American Civil War, marked the...
TheBattleofthe Atlantic, the longest continuous military campaign in World War II, ran from 1939 to the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945, covering a major...
TheBattleof Stiklestad (Norwegian: Slaget på Stiklestad, Old Norse: Stiklarstaðir) in 1030 is one ofthe most famous battles in the history of Norway...
TheBattleof Kosovo took place on 15 June 1389 between an army led by the Serbian Prince Lazar Hrebeljanović and an invading army ofthe Ottoman Empire...
TheBattleofthe Frogs was a frog-related incident in the Connecticut Colony town of Windham in 1754. On a summer night in June or July, the people of...
TheBattleof Nanking (or Nanjing) was fought in early December 1937 during the Second Sino-Japanese War between the Chinese National Revolutionary Army...
The Little Bighorn River is a 138-mile-long (222 km) tributary ofthe Bighorn River in the United States in the states of Montana and Wyoming. The Battle...
The Potomac River (/pəˈtoʊmək/ ) is a major river in the Mid-Atlantic region ofthe United States that flows from the Potomac Highlands in West Virginia...
Global Information