Southern Alberta's Whiskey Trade

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The Cypress Hills Massacre of 1873 was the event that caused the Canadian government to act.  It caused such an uproar in the eastern newspapers that it led directly to the founding of the North-West Mounted Police.
There was an earlier incident, less well known, but in many ways a prelude to the Cypress Hills affair. It happened in the Sweetgrass Hills in 1872 and was led by the same men who were involved in the Cypress Hills in 1873* One of these men was Thomas H. Hardwick, known as the Green River renegade, probably fairly typical of many of the men who frequented the border country at the time.
Hardwick was bom in Missouri in iSiji;, He served in the Confederate Army and came to Montana in 18614., where he ranched and prospected for about five years.  He was 28 years old in 1872 and seemed to be a recognized leader among the Alberta-Montana wolfers.
He had been an Indian trader in Wyoming and had an affinity for trouble with his customers. He was captured twice, during the winter of 1869-70 and again during the summer of 1870, but escaped each time. He fought with the Crows against the Sioux during August and September I87O and was badly wounded. Nevertheless, a few months later he helped to defend a small trading post in central Montana from attack by Assiniboines. In February I87I he killed a Crow Indian and wounded another. In the spring of I872 he was involved in a fight with Indians in the Sweetgrass Hills. During the winter of 1872-73 he went on a wolfing and trading expedition to the Calgary area and was involved in the Cypress Hills Ifessacre on his way back to Benton. He led another group of wolfers into southern Alberta during the winter of l873-7l| where he again fought the Assiniboines, this time on the Little Bow River, near modern Lethbridge,
Hardwick then left the Indian trade and was employed as a stableman, saloon operator, scout, stock detective and sheriff. He operated a feed stable in Benton for a short time, By 1885 he had opened a livery stable in Butte, Montana, where he spent the rest of his busoness life. He died in Missouri in 1 901 .
The Sweetgrass Hills battle took place on April 5, 1872, Hardwick and his party had been engaged all winter in trading whiskey with the Indians and in setting out poisoned buffalo carcesses with which to kill wolves—both illegal acts. There had been some trouble with Peigan Indians. Just after sunrise on April 5th a party of Indians were sighted on a hill northeast of the stockade. The Indians were Assiniboines but the wolfers thought them to be Peigans or Bloods. Without warning Hardwick opened fire and, in the ensuing fight, four Indians were killed and about ten were wounded.
The Cypress Hills Massacre occurred in early May, I873.  It began when a group of wolfers, led by Tom Hardwick and John Evans, were returning from a successful winter on the plains around Calgary. Near Benton, Cree Indians ran off their horses, The wolfers continued on to Benton, obtained other horses, and followed the horse thieves to the Cypress Hills, On Battle RiVer,"near trading posts operated by Abe Farwell and Moses Solomon, they located a can^ of Assiniboines. These Indians were not the thieves but, again, Hardwick opened fii^ without warning and, when the battle ended, somewhere between thirty and eighty Indians lay dead. One wolfer, Ed Grace, who earlier had helped to build Fort Whoopu^.^