View source for Social:Battle of Seven Oaks

{{Short description|1816 battle of the Pemmican War}}
{{page numbers needed|date=June 2022}}
{{Infobox military conflict
|image=The Fight at Seven Oaks.jpg
|image_size=300px
|caption=The Fight at Seven Oaks, 19 June 1816
|conflict=Battle of Seven Oaks
|partof=the Pemmican War
|date={{Start date and age|1816|06|19|df=yes}}
|place=Seven Oaks (Winnipeg, Manitoba)
|result=Decisive Métis/North West Company victory
|combatant1={{flagicon image|Metis Blue.svg}}{{flagicon image|Metis Red.svg}} Métis of the North West Company
|combatant2={{flagicon image|Hudson's Bay Company Flag.svg}} Hudson's Bay Company
|commander1={{flagicon image|Metis Blue.svg}}{{flagicon image|Metis Red.svg}} Cuthbert Grant
|commander2={{flagicon image|Hudson's Bay Company Flag.svg}} Robert Semple{{KIA}}
|strength1=65<ref name="Hargrave1871"/>
|strength2=28<ref name="Hargrave1871"/>
|casualties1=1<ref name="Hargrave1871"/>
|casualties2=21<ref name="Hargrave1871"/>
{{Designation list |embed=yes |designation1=NHSC |designation1_offname=Battle of Seven Oaks National Historic Site of Canada |designation1_date=1920 }}
|}}

The '''Battle of Seven Oaks'''<ref>Also known as the '''Seven Oaks Massacre''' and the '''Seven Oaks Incident'''</ref> was a violent confrontation in the Pemmican War between the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) and the North West Company (NWC), rivals in the fur trade, that took place on 19 June 1816, the climax of a long dispute in western Canada.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |first=J.E. |last=Rea |date=4 March 2015 |url=http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/seven-oaks-incident |title=Seven Oaks Incident |encyclopedia=[[The Canadian Encyclopedia]] |publisher=Historica Canada |edition=online |url-status = dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120616121234/http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/seven-oaks-incident |archive-date=16 June 2012 }}</ref> The Métis people fought for the North West Company, and they called it "the Victory of Frog Plain" (''la Victoire de la Grenouillère'').<ref name="thecanadianencyclopedia.ca">{{Cite web|url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/seven-oaks-incident|title=Battle of Seven Oaks &#124; The Canadian Encyclopedia|website=www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca}}</ref>

==Background==
Miles MacDonell was the governor of the Red River Colony in 1814, the area around Winnipeg, Manitoba. He issued the [[Social:Pemmican Proclamation|Pemmican Proclamation]]<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |first=John E. |last=Foster |date=24 July 2015 |url=http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/pemmican-proclamation |title=Pemmican Proclamation |encyclopedia=[[The Canadian Encyclopedia]] |publisher=Historica Canada |edition=online |url-status = dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120430013310/http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/pemmican-proclamation |archive-date=30 April 2012 }}</ref> which prohibited export of pemmican from the colony for the next year. It was meant to guarantee adequate supplies for the Hudson's Bay Colony, but the North West Company viewed it as a ploy by the Earl of Selkirk to monopolize the commodity, which was important to the North West Company.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Bumsted|first1=J.M.|title=Lord Selkirk: a life|date=2008|publisher=University of Manitoba Press|isbn=9780887553370|page=236}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/macdonell_miles_6E.html|work=Dictionary of Canadian Biography|title=MacDonell, Miles|author=Mays, Herbert|publisher=University of Toronto/Université Laval|year=1987}}</ref> The Métis did not acknowledge the authority of the Red River Settlement, and the Pemmican Proclamation was a blow to both the Métis and North West Company. The North West Company accused the HBC of unfairly monopolizing the fur trade.

MacDonnell resigned as governor of the Red River Colony in 1815, after several conflicts and suffering from "severe emotional instability."<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |first=J.M. |last=Bumsted |date=17 November 2014 |url=http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/miles-macdonell |title=Miles MacDonnell |encyclopedia=The Canadian Encyclopedia |publisher=Historica Canada |edition=online |url-status = dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120920041320/http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/miles-macdonell |archive-date=20 September 2012 }}</ref> He was replaced by Robert Semple, an American businessman with no previous experience in the fur trade.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |first=J.E. |last=Rea |date=17 November 2014 |url=http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/robert-semple |title=Robert Semple |encyclopedia=[[The Canadian Encyclopedia]] |publisher=Historica Canada |edition=online |url-status = dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120920041326/http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/robert-semple |archive-date=20 September 2012 }}</ref>

==Battle==
[[File:Cuthbert Grant.jpg|thumb|upright|In 1816, Cuthbert Grant led a band of North West Company employees to seize a stolen supply of pemmican from the Hudson's Bay Company]]

Cuthbert Grant led a group of North West Company employees in 1816 to seize a supply of pemmican from the Hudson's Bay Company that had been stolen from the Métis.<ref>{{cite book |title=Report of the proceedings connected with the disputes between the Earl of Selkirk and the North West Company: at the assizes, held at York, in Upper Canada, October&nbsp;1818 |publisher=James Lane and Nahum Mower |year=1819 |location=Montreal, Quebec}}</ref>

Grant's group encountered Semple and a group of HBC men and settlers north of Fort Douglas along the Red River at a location known as Seven Oaks, which the Métis called ''la Grenouillière'' (Frog Plain). The North West Company sent François-Firmin Boucher to speak to Semple's men. He and Semple argued, and a gunfight ensued when the settlers tried to arrest Boucher and seize his horse.<ref name=Narratives_1819>{{cite book |title=Narratives of John Pritchard, Pierre Chrysologue Pambrun, and Frederick Damien Heurter, respecting the aggressions of the North West Company, against the Earl of Selkirk's settlement upon Red River |url=https://archive.org/details/cihm_47219 |publisher=John Murray |location=London, England |year=1819|isbn=9780665472190 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=François-Firmin |last=Boucher |title=François-Firmin Boucher à ses Concitoyens |trans-title=François-Firmin Boucher to his Countrymen |publisher=author-published |year=c. 1819}}</ref> Early reports said that the Métis fired the first shot and began the fray, but Royal Commissioner William Bachelor Coltman determined with "next to certainty" that it was one of Semple's men who fired first.<ref name="thecanadianencyclopedia.ca"/><ref>{{cite book |title=The Metis: Memorable Events and Memorable Personalities |first1=George |last1=Goulet  |first2=Terry |last2=Goulet |year=2006 |publisher=FabJob |isbn=978-1-894638-98-2}}</ref> The Métis were skilled sharpshooters and outnumbered Semple's forces by nearly 3&nbsp;to&nbsp;1.  The Metis killed 21&nbsp;men, including Governor Semple, while suffering only one fatality.<ref name="Hargrave1871">{{cite book |first=Joseph James |last=Hargrave |title=Red River |url=https://archive.org/details/redriver00harggoog |year=1871 |publisher=author-published |page=[https://archive.org/details/redriver00harggoog/page/n448 487]}}</ref>

==Aftermath==
[[File:Battle of Seven Oaks Monument3.jpg|thumb|An obelisk monument to commemorate the battle was erected in 1891 at West Kildonan, Winnipeg.]]

The settlers were demoralized from the losses, so they gathered their belongings the day after the battle and sailed north, leaving the Métis in command of the settlement.<ref>{{cite book |last=Friesen |first=Gerald |contribution=Maintaining the Old Order 1805–1844 |title=The Canadian Prairies a History |page=80 |edition=Student |location=Toronto, ON |publisher=University of Toronto Press |year=1987}}</ref> Royal Commissioner W. B. Coltman investigated the incident, and he exonerated the Métis. Lord Selkirk attempted to prosecute several members of the North West Company for murder and kept Boucher in prison for nearly two years without specific charges. All trials ended in acquittals, and the remaining charges were dropped. Members of the North West Company counter-sued Selkirk, whose health and influence subsequently declined. Selkirk died in 1820, and the two companies merged in 1821. The Hudson's Bay Company gave Cuthbert Grant an annual salary in 1828 and the position of "warden of the plains of Red River".<ref>{{DFHD|962|Grant, Cuthbert National Historic Person|9 January 2015}}</ref><ref>{{Cite DCB |first=George |last=Woodcock |title=Grant, Cuthbert |volume=8 |accessdate=12 January 2014 |url=http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/grant_cuthbert_1854_8E.html }}</ref>

The Manitoba Historical Society erected an obelisk monument in 1891 commemorating the battle at the intersection of Main Street and Rupertsland Boulevard in the Winnipeg district of West Kildonan, the approximate centre of the battle site. The site was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1920.<ref>{{CRHP|16005|Battle of Seven Oaks|5 May 2012}}</ref><ref>{{DFHD|149|Battle of Seven Oaks National Historic Site of Canada|8 January 2015}}</ref> Parks Canada installed new interpretive signs as part of their reconciliation with the Métis, and the Seven Oaks Park was re-landscaped. The site was officially reopened on 19 June 2016 to mark the 200th anniversary of the battle.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |first=Lawrence |last=Barkwell |date=7 February 2006 |url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/seven-oaks-incident |title=Battle of Seven Oaks |encyclopedia=[[The Canadian Encyclopedia]] |publisher=Historica Canada |edition=online |url-status =|accessdate=14 February 2021}}</ref>

==References==

{{Reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book |last=Barkwell |first=Lawrence J. |title=The Battle of Seven Oaks: a Métis perspective |location=Winnipeg, Manitoba |publisher=Louis Riel Institute |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-9809912-9-1}}
* Dick, Lyle. "The Seven Oaks Incident and the Construction of a Historical Tradition, 1816 to 1970." ''Journal of the Canadian Historical Association/Revue de la Société historique du Canada'' 2.1 (1991): 91–113. [https://www.erudit.org/en/journals/jcha/1991-v2-n1-jcha998/031029ar.pdf online]
* {{cite web |url=http://www.metisresourcecentre.mb.ca/history/oaks.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080611064456/http://www.metisresourcecentre.mb.ca/history/oaks.htm |archive-date=11 June 2008 |publisher=Metis Culture & Heritage Resource Centre, Inc. |title=Battle of Seven Oaks |series=News Letter Excerpts}}

==External links==

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Seven Oaks 1816}}
[[Category:Economic warfare]]

{{Sourceattribution|Battle of Seven Oaks}}