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Frog Lake is a small Cree community about a two and half hour drive east of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Frog Lake has 2,454 band members as of August, 2007. Frog Lake has a reserve population of approximately 1,000 residing on-reserve.[1]
[edit] Massacre
It was the scene of the Frog Lake Massacre of which nine white men were killed by Cree Aboriginals on April 2, 1885 in the course of the North West Rebellion.[2]
The Frog Lake Massacre was a Cree uprising during the North-West Rebellion. Led by Wandering Spirit, young Cree warriors attacked the small town near Frog Lake, Alberta in April 2, 1885.
Angered by what seemed to be unfair treaties by the Canadian government and the dwindling buffalo population, their main source of food, Big Bear and his Cree decided to rebel after the successful Métis victory at Duck Lake. They gathered all the white settlers in the area into the local church. Thomas Quinn, the town's Indian Agent, was killed after a disagreement broke out. The Cree then shot at the settlers. Nine people were killed and three were taken as captives.
The massacre prompted the Canadian government to take notice of the growing unrest in Western Canada. The rebellion was eventually put down, and Wandering Spirit, the war chief responsible for the Frog Lake Massacre, was hanged.[3]
- See the account of the massacre by the only white man who survived it, in Cameron, W.B. The war trail of Big Bear..[4]
- Frog Lake First Nation
- Frog Lake, Alberta, Canada. T0A 1M0
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