Statement: Honouring Assiwiyin & The Battle at Duck Lake

For Immediate Release

March 26, 2020

STATEMENT: HONOURING ASSIWIYIN & THE BATTLE AT DUCK LAKE

Beardy’s & Okemasis’ Cree Nation, Treaty 6 –

“On this day exactly 135 years ago, the first shots were fired at the Battle of Duck Lake which claimed the life of Assiwyin, a member of the Okemasis’ Band. The subsequent Battle at Duck Lake led by Gabriel Dumont, would become the birthplace of the Riel Resistance – the Métis struggle for sovereignty, land, rights, and equality. It’s a struggle we share to this day.

Canadian history books regard the Riel Resistance as the “largest military effort undertaken on Canadian soil” and the event is commemorated at a National Historic Site located on the Beardy’s & Okemasis’ Cree Nation.

We have a rich, shared history, and our stories deserve to be told.

Today, I honour and recognize Isidore Dumont and all the lives lost on this day 135 years ago; and specifically, a humble man who was simply providing for his family who inadvertently became the first casualty of the Riel Resistance: Assiwiyin, a warrior of the Beardy’s & Okemasis’ Cree Nation.”

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