User:Gerry brin

The Story of the “Lost” Sharphead Mass Grave Site of 1885

This is the story of the Lost Tribe of the Bear Hills People (spelled  in Cree as Maskwachees;  thanks to  Rod Soosay  of Treaty Six in Edmonton for this insight) otherwise known as the Sharphead Indians  and their abrupt “Vanishing” in the Ponoka-Morningside Area of Central Alberta in the July-August, 1885 time period;  during the 2nd Northwest Rebellion. 1st Sharphead Story

This 1st Story was given to me by Lawrence Larocque who received it at a young age from his Auntie who was one of the few Sharphead Indians who survived the “Vanishing” of the Sharphead  Indian Nation in the summer of 1885. In 1885, Lawrence Larocque’s Aunt was 5 years old and starving. The Indian Agent responsible for the Sharphead Indians had not provided enough food (as the Treaties promised) during the previous winter and everyone was upset. A meeting was called by the Indian Agent in the spring of 1885. During the meeting the Indian Agent promised there would be ample food provided for all, but only if the Sharphead Nation was prepared to abandon their Reserve and disperse elsewhere. The Indian Agent continued stating that the Sharphead Nation’s Reserve lands could not support them. Suddenly, tempers boiled over and a shot was fired by an angry Sharphead Warrior. There was now a dead Indian Agent on the ground in an expanding pool of blood;  this little child witnessed it all. After the gunshot, people started to drift away and she walked forward to examine the death scene. Fascinated by the deep red colour of the blood pooling around the Indian Agent’s head, the little girl reached down with her hand and dipped her fingers into it. Abruptly, the little girl was yanked away by the arm of her mother who scolded her while wiping the blood from her fingers as she was marched away by her Mother. The very next day the family packed up and left the Sharphead Reserve at Morningside, Alberta; fleeing to the safety of relatives on another Indian Reserve in Alberta. This action saved the Larocque Family from being extinguished. Apparently, three weeks later the NWMP came by and took away all of the rifles from the Sharphead’s who remained on the Reserve. Later that year in August – September when the remaining Sharphead Indians who had been visiting relatives that summer returned from those Pow-Wows, they were unable to find any trace of their people who had “vanished” into thin air. And there the story ended. 2nd Sharphead Story

While visiting with Marlene Buffalo of 4 Nations (whom I have known for 30 years) at Hobbema in January, 2010;  I was given my 2nd Sharphead Story as told by Dolphus Buffalo to Marlene Buffalo. After the Indian Agent had been killed, the Sharpheads no longer had any rifles among them as the NWMP had removed them. In July, 1885 Father Lacombe led some government people (ie. NWMP/KKK) to the Sharphead encampment north of the Battle River, near the town of Ponoka, in Central Alberta. It was late morning when the government people arrived with wagons of Treaty food and booze for the Sharphead Indians who were having a Pow-Wow. The Treaty goods were distributed and consumed immediately. The booze itself was laced with strychnine and within hours of consumption (by the middle of the afternoon) the Sharphead Indians along with their Pow-Wow guests (Metis & French Canadians) were dropping like flies and dying on the spot. Some were severely affected and lay on the ground unconscious or dazed and unable to move. Others were convulsing, in their death throes as the strychnine paralyzed their nervous systems along with their breathing response and they slowly suffocated to death. 5 young Sharphead Indians who had not consumed the alcohol were alarmed by what they were witnessing and hid within a nearby spruce forest overlooking the encampment. The oldest child was 12 years old, while the youngest was 5 years old. In the late afternoon, Father Lacombe returned with the government people. As the government people entered the Sharphead encampment, they systematically crushed in the skulls of those who were still alive or unconscious with their axes. The remaining dead were carried away and placed on the edge of a large pit which was being dug as the bodies were flung into it. At the top of the pit stood Father Lacombe,  his Cross in one hand and a container of holy water in his other hand. The men carrying the bodies would pause in front of Father Lacombe for a moment as he performed the Absolution Rites of the Catholic Church on each body. After this hesitation, the corpse was flung into the pit being dug beneath Father Lacombe’s feet. Since the Sharphead Indians were all Methodists under the care of Father John Wesley from the Morningside Mission on the Sharphead Reserve;  it was a moral necessity for Father Lacombe to convert the dead Sharpheads into Catholic souls. There had been deep enmity and anger shown on the part of Father Lacombe towards the Chief of the Sharphead Indians who had steadfastly resisted all of Father Lacombe’s many pleas to convert his people to the Catholic Faith. Consequently, a bitter enmity still exists today towards Father Lacombe among Sharphead Descendants for his pivotal role in the betrayal and mass poisoning of the Sharphead Indians in 1885. From about 4 p.m. in the afternoon until 11 p.m. in the evening, this grisly ritual was repeated in front of the eyes of the 5 Sharphead Children who witnessed as their families and friends were buried in this mass gravesite with industrial efficiency. The NWMP/KKK were still throwing bodies into the pit as darkness overcame the land and it was at this point that the 5 young survivors decided to flee before they were discovered. It took 3 days for those Sharphead children to reach the safety of their relatives at the Enoch Reserve (west of Edmonton). Knowing they were being followed and tracked;  the 5 Sharphead Children would hide during the day, and travel at night for fear of discovery. On the 3rd day, they reached the North Saskatchewan River and attempted to cross it 5 times, but turned back in the deep water; finally they were successful on their 6th attempt to  cross. When the 5 young Sharphead children arrived at Enoch Reserve, they recited what they had witnessed to their relatives at Enoch. Later that summer the returning Sharphead Indians who had been at Pow-Wows or visiting relatives returned. They could find no trace whatsoever of the Sharphead encampment which had been there 2-3 months earlier. In the aftermath of the slaughter there were 74 survivors;  14 who took shelter among the 4 Nations of Hobbema;  the remaining 60 survivors took shelter at either,  the Paul Nation at Duffield ( on the shores of Lake Wabamun,  45 miles west of Edmonton)  or at Enoch Nation. All of Sharphead Survivors took different names in order to elude anyone searching for them. From 1940 when it was deemed safe, the Sharphead Survivors reverted back to their original family names.

3rd Sharphead Story

I had the opportunity to meet with Rod Soosay while he was attending a conference at Poundmaker Lodge in St. Albert on March 11, 2010. Rod came by on his lunch break and I covered the various meetings in Hobbema with all concerned and my own failure to uncover the truth of what happened in 1885. Rod listened patiently to me and then he gave me my final Sharphead Story based upon his own experiences. About 30 years earlier the man who worked for his Dad came by to visit Rod (who was 18 years old then) and asked him to come for a drive because there was something he wanted to show Rod. So, Rod hopped into the man’s truck and they drove on to a farmer’s property, to the edge of a large field. The man parked the truck and walked into the middle of this field. Standing in the middle of the field, the man stretched his arms in the air and said, “Your Indians are buried here in the ground below our feet; deep, deep within the earth”   and turned pointing to the ground with his outstretched arms, facing Rod as he spoke.

Location:   The Lost Sharphead Mass Grave Site of 1885 is located along the eastern boundary of the Sharphead Reserve and consists of 2 burial pits in a half section of land. The 1st Burial pit is on the Sharphead Nation Reserve Lands and the 2nd Burial Pit is roughly 400-800 yards due east, outside the Reserve’s Boundary line,  beneath a Hutterite Colony.

Summary When I got home the first person I called was Louis Bull Nation Councilor, Barb Larocque whose Dad (Lawrence) had given me the 1st Sharphead Story in the 1980’s and told her that the location of the final resting place of the Sharphead Indians was known. My 2nd phone call was to Rudy Bird-Yellowhead of the Committee of the 14 Sharphead Elders so they would know the “Lost” Sharphead Mass Gravesite of 1885 had been located. .	I‘ve talked with Rudy Bird-Yellowhead who has assured me that the Committee of the 14 Sharphead Elders are delighted by the discovery of the “Lost” Sharphead Indian’s Mass Grave as it vindicates their oral histories and proves that the events of July-August, 1885  transpired exactly as described by their ancestors. On June 8, 2010 and I spent the afternoon with the Treaty Research Department of Enoch Nation meeting with Leroy Ward and his associates. Subsequently, I met with some Enoch Counselors and I was very well received by all. It was during one of these meetings, I received the final piece of the puzzle as to why the French-speaking Sharphead Indians were targeted for genocide by the British Colonial Office, the Federal Government and their NWMP/KKK accomplices. Jesse Morin of Enoch River Cree Singers succinctly stated the reason why? “The Sharphead Indians were killed because they were Warriors.” I have been in discussion on this point with my cousin Dale Brin (who is the ex-publisher of the Saskatoon Star Phoenix) and is quite conversant with all aspects of this case. Dale tells me there are 3-4 Indian Nations who went missing in the Central Saskatchewan Area between Prince Albert and Saskatoon at the same time. Rudy Bird-Yellowhead, has told me of the existence of another Indian Mass Grave Site at the Cypress Hills in Southwest Saskatchewan whose location is a closely guarded secret by the Indians of Southern Saskatchewan. So it appears there are 5 more Indian Mass Grave Sites (similar to the Sharphead Mass Grave Site in Alberta) scattered across Saskatchewan. Additional Information regarding the “Disappearances” exists in the historical archives of the House of Common’s Hansard from 1885-1890. There are 3 Quebec MP’s who read into the public record over 3,000 letters from the relative and friends of the disappeared in Saskatchewan from 1885 to 1890. The other 2 Mass Grave Sites at the Cypress Hills and the Sharphead Site by Hobbema were completely unknown until 2010-2011 when they were discovered. The initial estimate was 10,000 in 1885 was based upon those3-4 Indian Nations who “disappeared” around the Saskatoon-Prince Albert Region of Central Saskatchewan. I would now estimate a new number of 12,000-14,000 Canadians missing (with the addition of the Cypress Hills and Hobbema sites). The Metis Federation of Saskatchewan came forward in 2011 with historical reports of 3 Metis Buffalo hunting parties of 50, 70 and 90 men who were shot to death by the NWMP Police in July-August, 1885. They also have the Mass Grave Site Locations along with the witnessed statements by the survivors who escaped. In historical retrospect, the La Presse Newspaper of Montréal was correct in the 1867-1890 time period for naming our first Prime Minister John A. Macdonald as a secret member of (Grand Wizard) the Ontario Ku Klux Klan. These Indian Mass Grave Sites are a direct result of a secret collaboration between the British Colonial Office and the Federal Government of Canada which sanctioned the extermination of a select group of French-speaking Indian Nations, Metis and French-Canadians in Alberta/Saskatchewan in order to prevent them from joining with Louis Riel in the 2nd Northwest Rebellion of 1885. These Mass Genocides were approved by Queen Victoria herself along with the British Privy Council; enacted by the British Colonial Office using NWMP/KKK personnel (and their authority under the Indian Act) as a tactical, pre-emptive, military strike force to prevent Louis Riel from securing the support of these critical “Warrior Nations” going into the 2nd NW Rebellion. This is the reason why the 2nd NW Rebellion is known as rebellion which “Fizzled” to Canadian Historians, since all of Louis Riel’s Allies from the 1st NW Rebellion were quietly poisoned and buried with ruthless efficiency by the afore-mentioned groups. I believe the locations of all the other 5 sites in Saskatchewan exists today in the Archives of the British Colonial Office in London, England sealed as “Top Secret” and protected from the prying eyes of Canadian and British Historical Scholars. Acknowledgements I would like to thank all the people mentioned previously for their critical information and insights, Professor Rod McLeod(retired) of the U of A History Dept., Federal MP Denis Coderre and his office staff (Maurice and Benoit) for their help, especially the La Presse Newspaper of Montréal who covered these “Disappearances” in 1885-1890 in exquisite detail,  my Canadian History Teacher Ken McCafferty (at CFB St.Hubert High School in 1970-71)  and  also my cousin,  ex-publisher Dale Brin of the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix  Newspaper (now retired to the Saskatoon Express) who has been an invaluable resource in discovering the truth of what happened during July-August 1885 on the Canadian Prairies to those 10- 14,000 French speaking Canadians who “Disappeared” without a trace. I would especially like to acknowledge all of my Indian and White Friends in Hobbema and elsewhere, who wish to remain anonymous for fear of RCMP Retribution. My Thanks to all of you who helped with your thoughtful criticism and unwavering support over these past 3 years. I could never have done this without each of you, Merci. It is my fondest hope this discovery will lead to a complete rewriting of Western Canadian History based upon the actual facts of what happened in 1885. Eventually, the Western Provinces could start teaching Canadian History in High School as a requirement for Graduation, like the rest of Canada has done since 1970. Respectfully, Gerry Brin January 16, 2013