Battle of Frenchman ' s Butte The Battle of Frenchman ' s Butte , fought on May 28 , 1885 , occurred when a force of Cree , dug in on a hillside near Frenchman ' s Butte , was unsuccessfully attacked by the Alberta Field Force . It was fought in what was then the District of Saskatchewan of the Northwest Territories . Background . A band of Cree led by war chief Wandering Spirit , living in what is now central Alberta and Saskatchewan joined the North - West Rebellion of 1885 after the Métis success at the Battle of Duck Lake . The starving band seized food and supplies from several white settlements and captured Fort Pitt , taking prisoners . Major - General Thomas Bland Strange , a retired British officer living near Calgary , raised a force of cowboys and other white settlers , added to them two units of North - West Mounted Police ( NWMP ) , and headed north . He was reinforced by three infantry units from the east , bringing his forces to some 1 , 000 men . While he left some of his force to provide protection for the isolated white settlements in the area , he led several hundred troops east to Fort Pitt . The Cree burnt the fort ahead of him and retreated to the nearby hills . Over the next few days , Strange ' s scouts fought skirmishes with small groups of Cree and marched over Frenchman ' s Butte . On the night of May 27 , the Cree dug in at the top of a hill east of the Butte and waited . The battle . Early on the morning of May 28 , the Cree warriors divided into two groups . Wandering Spirit , the Cree war chief , led some 200 warriors to positions in the trenches and rifle pits , while Little Poplar remained with a second group to protect the camp , some two miles away . General Strange arrived opposite the Cree position at six in the morning and opened fire with a piece of artillery . The Cree responded , opening fire on Strange ' s units . Some Canadian troops tried to cross the valley , but they found the bottom covered in muskeg . On top of this , there was a steep , open hillside in front of the Cree , making any frontal assault suicidal . Strange pulled his forces back and deployed them along the bottom of the valley . The two units of NWMP formed the left flank . To their right was the 65th battalion of Montreal , with the Winnipeg Light Infantry in the centre , while the right flank was formed by the Alberta Mounted Rifles . The two sides exchanged fire for three hours . Cree rifle fire wounded some of the Canadian troops in the valley , while the Canadian artillery put holes in the hillside , damaging the trenches . Eventually , General Strange ordered Major Sam Steele to lead the NWMP north and outflank the Cree . The Cree saw this , and Wandering Spirit led a group of warriors along the tops of the hills , parallel to Steele , and occasionally opened fire . This caused the NWMP to believe that the Cree ' s lines were much longer than they actually were , so Steele turned back . Around the same time , some Cree warriors managed to outflank the Alberta Mounted Rifles and almost captured the supply train . Afraid of being attacked from behind , General Strange ordered his force to retreat . The Canadians withdrew to Fort Pitt after three hours of fighting . The Cree slipped away later that day , initiating the final stage of the rebellion , as more than 1 , 000 men searched the woods for Big Bear ' s band . On May 29 , near Frenchman ' s Butte Inspector S . B . Steele made contact with an Indian scouting party . Steele ' s scouts called out to the party and were fired upon . Steele ' s troops returned fire and killed the first Indian casualty of the war . They rode down with a friend to view the remains and found his body on top the hill where he evidently had been dragged by the scout . His body was stripped of all clothing with the rope ( cut short to about one yard in length ) still around his neck , which had cut into his jaw . He was a huge fine looking Indian , ' Ma - me - nook ' by name . The scout who had captured his mount ( a swift - footed black stallion belonging to the HBCo ) had galloped around the prairie with the rope attached to his saddle pommel , trailing the body in the grass in circles , the trails of which were still visible . He had thus been left exposed for days before being buried ; and his body from the intense heat , was huge in size when I saw him . I requested to have him buried . " H . A . MacKay , memories , HBCo archives and Glenbow Archives . Conclusion . The battle was a victory for the Cree , albeit a hollow one . It bought them time to escape from Strange , but the rebellion was hopeless . The Métis had been defeated at the Battle of Batoche three weeks earlier , and Poundmaker ' s joint Cree - Assiniboine force had been forced to surrender . The Big Bear band fell apart during the retreat to the north . The Battle of Loon Lake on June 3 demoralized them further , and by early July the rebellion was over . Big Bear was captured and imprisoned . Wandering Spirit was executed along with seven others . General Strange retired back to his ranch and the Alberta Field Force disbanded . Legacy . In the spring of 2008 , Tourism , Parks , Culture and Sport Minister Christine Tell proclaimed in Duck Lake , that " the 125th commemoration , in 2010 , of the 1885 Northwest Resistance is an excellent opportunity to tell the story of the prairie Métis and First Nations peoples ' struggle with Government forces and how it has shaped Canada today . " Frenchman Butte is a National Historic Site of Canada , which locates the theatre of the 1885 battle staged between Cree and Canadian troops .