page_title: Qu'Appelle, Saskatchewan
section_title: North-West Rebellion
hierarchical_section_title: Qu'Appelle, Saskatchewan / History / North-West Rebellion
caption_attribution_description: English: Qu'Appelle Powwow
context_page_description: Qu'Appelle is a town in Saskatchewan, located on Highway 35 approximately 50 kilometres east of the provincial capital of Regina.
  Qu'Appelle was for a time the terminus of the Canadian Pacific Railway and the major distribution centre for what was then the District of Assiniboia in the North-West Territories and is now southern Saskatchewan. The town is situated in a lush rolling parkland, with intermittent coulees containing steady-flowing creeks running into the Qu'Appelle Valley, poplar bluffs and sloughs.
  Qu'Appelle had at one stage been credibly anticipated to be the major metropole of the North-West Territories by both the federal government and the Church of England. It was under serious consideration by the federal government as district headquarters of the District of Assiniboia and territorial headquarters of the North-West Territories. The Church of England had in anticipation of Qu'Appelle's future urban importance designated it the cathedral city for the Diocese of Qu'Appelle, which geographically corresponded precisely to the District of Assiniboia in the North-West Territories.
context_section_description: Despite its loss of initial prominence as a likely territorial headquarters Qu'Appelle attained national prominence in 1885 during the North-West Rebellion. Until the construction of the Qu’Appelle, Long Lake, and Saskatchewan Railway in 1890 linked the newly established Regina with Saskatoon and Prince Albert, Qu'Appelle was the major debarkation and distribution centre for the North-West Territories.
  General Frederick Dobson Middleton, who billeted in Qu'Appelle's Queen's Hotel (which survived into the 21st century), made Qu'Appelle the marshalling point to the locus of the North-West Rebellion (the Saskatchewan or Second Riel Rebellion) in the north-west for troops arriving by train from eastern Canada.
  For some years Qu'Appelle was the centre of national attention as journalists based there reported back home to eastern Canada on developments in the Saskatchewan Rebellion. Qu'Appelle's significance in the 1880s before the anticipated prominence of it and Fort Qu'Appelle was substantially reduced by Lieutenant-Governor Dewdney's preference for Buffalo Bones — in the case of Qu'Appelle ultimately virtually eliminated — is even today in the Canadian Encyclopedia indicated by a simple reference to it: "General Middleton's original plan was simple. He wanted to march all his troops north from the railhead at Qu'Appelle to Batoche." The resolution of the Saskatchewan Rebellion perhaps needless to say did not comprehensively resolve conflicts among settlers and aboriginal people.  Many Qu'Appelle children of the late 19th and early 20th centuries recounted frightening encounters with angry Cree and Métis, who not unreasonably bore a considerable grudge against white settlers in the Qu'Appelle region.
caption: Aboriginal people gathering for a powwow at Qu'Appelle prior to 1905
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