Period 1872 – 1882

Period 1872 – 1882 for South-western Canada

• 1872
  Dominion Land Act, Chap. 23, 35 Victoria.
• 1872
  “An Act respecting the Canadian Pacific Railway, 1872,” passed. The railway syndicate granted $30 million, 50 million acres and perpetual tax exemption.
• 1872
  Sanford Fleming declares that the Crowsnest Pass is the preferable railroad route through the Canadian Rockies.
• 1872
  B.C.: Hudson’s Bay Company abandons Fort Hope.
• 1872
  N-WT.: Asa Sample and Howell Harris to establish a trading post on the Highwood River for I.G. Baker and Company.
• 1872
  Chimney Coulee, N-WT: Kainai burn Isaac Cowley’s HBC fort in battle with Assiniboines.
• 1872
  Fort Benton, Montana: 40,000 bison hides collected.
• 1872
  Fort Benton, Montana: Nick Sheran delivers first load of “Belly” River coal.
• 1872
  England: Captain William Francis Butler publishes the Great Lone Land about his expedition into the Prairies of the N-WT.
• 1872
  Canada Political: Dr. Israel Wood Powell appointed as the federal Superintendent of Indian Affairs for B.C. (until 1890)
• 1872
  B.C.: W.H. Lowe leaves his posting at Osoyoos to marry Ella Simpson and take a new posting at the Customs House at New Westminster in 1873.
• 1872
  B.C.: John T. Galbraith pre-empts 320 acres on Joseph’s Prairie.
• 1872 Feb. 23
  Louis Riel and Ambroise Lépine find it advisable to accept $1,000 each to quit Manitoba.
• 1872 Apr. 9
  Francis G. Johnson appointed lieutenant-governor of Manitoba and the North-West Territories. Refused to surrender his judgeship in the Province of Quebec and his appointment was rescinded before comfirmation. Archibald continued as lieutenant-governor of N-WT.
• 1872 May 5
  Charlotte Haynes dies in her mother’s home in New Westminster from complications after giving birth to Fairfax Moresby Haynes on Feb. 10.
• 1872 June 25
  The Right Honourable Earl of Dufferin appointed Canada’s governor-general.
• 1872 July 20
  Federal political: election begins.
• 1872 September
  The Hudson’s Bay Company instructs factor John Tait to close the post near today’s Keremeos and remove himself and his stores to Fort Kamloops.
• 1872 September
  Edgar Dewdney (Conservative) declared elected MP for the District of Yale.
• 1872 Sep. 3
  Macdonald returned to power as Conservative prime minister of Canada.
• 1872 November
  Abandoned Hudson’s Bay Company Fort Shepherd burned.
• 1872 Dec. 2
  Alexander Morris proclaimed lieutenant-governor of Manitoba and Commissioner of the North-West Territories.
• 1872 Dec. 20
  B.C. political: Premier McCreight resigns after non confidence vote.
• 1872 Dec. 23
  B.C. political: Amor de Cosmos (alias William Alexander Smith) replaces McCreight as conservative premier of B.C.
• 1872/3 Winter
  Michael Phillipps builds a federal government cabin on Joseph’s Prairie.
• 1873
  William Fernie appointed gold commissioner for the east Kootenay and the Provincial Constable at Perry Creek gold camp.
• 1873
  Peter Creake Fernie becomes the superintendent of the Walla Walla/Dewdney Trail from Galbraith’s Ferry to the Boundary.
• 1873
  Michael Phillipps and John Collins become the first recorded Caucasians to top the Crowsnest Pass.
• 1873
  First Hutterite evaluation of North America, to USA.
• 1873
  Canadian Militia Lieutenant-Colonel Patrick Robertson-Ross recommends that Canada build a string of seven military posts manned by 500 mounted troops between the Red River and the Rockies.
• 1873
  Manitoba: Stoney Mountain prison built.
• 1873
  Fort Benton, Montana: 40,000 bison hides collected.
• 1873
  Fort Benton, Montana: Charles Edward Conrad and his brother, Wm. G., buy the I.G. Baker and Bro. Company and rename it the I.G. Baker and Company.
• 1873
  N-WT.: B.C.: The Hudson’s Bay Company leases its Keremeos buildings to Barrington Price.
• 1873
  Constantin Scollen and Léon Doucet establish Mission Notre Dame de la Paix on the Swift (Elbow) River in Piikani territory west of present-day Calgary, AB.
• 1873 Mar. 8
  N-WT: Order in Council issued at Fort Garry declares Territories “dry.”
• 1873 Mar. 26
  Barrington Price granted a 356-acre pre-emption in the Keremeos Creek valley near its confluence with the Similkameen, and in July buys another half-section in the Similkameen valley.
• 1873 Apr. 2
  The “Pacific Scandal” breaks. Allegations in Parliament that Hugh Andrew Montagu Allan’s Canadian Pacific Railway Company, at the time competing with the Inter-Ocean Railway Company for the contract to build the Canadian trans-continental railroad, paid illegal contributions into the re-election campaign coffers of the Conservative Party.
• 1873 Spring
  H.E. Seelye arrives as customs officer to occupy the federal cabin on Joseph’s Prairie.
• 1873 May
  Survey of International Boundary westward across the Plains from the Red River begins.
• 1873 May 3
  Assent given to “An Act to establish The Department of the Interior” in Canada, “to oversee the evolution of the North-West Territories” (Titley).
• 1873 May 23
  Act establishing the North-West Mounted Police receives royal assent: introduced May 3 (April 28th?).
• 1873 May 23
  Department of the Interior given responsibility for administering the N-WT. Council of the North-West Territories no longer under the jurisdiction of the lieutenant-governor of Manitoba.
• 1873 May 23
  Fa. Pierre-Jean de Smet dies at St. Louis, Missouri.
• 1873 Summer
  William Samuel Lee “discovers” the cold sulphur springs at present day Frank, AB.
• 1873 June 1(11?)
  A band of “wolfers” styling themselves the “Spitzee Cavalry,” massacre of 22 members of Little Soldier’s band of Nakota (Assiniboine) in the Cypress Hills of the N-WT.
• 1873 July 1
  Honourable Sir Alexander Campbell appointed federal Minister of the Interior.
• 1873 Aug. 30
  Order-in-Council constituting the N-WMP issued by Governor General the Earl of Dufferin.
• 1873 Sep. 18
  Cooke and Company, promoters and financiers of the Northern Pacific Railroad, closes its doors.
• 1873 Sep. 19
  “Black Friday”: Stock prices begin to collapse as “The Great North Amercian Financial Panic” seizes Wall Street when trading suspended on shares of Cooke and Company of Philadelphia.
• 1873 Sep. 25
  First nine officers of N-WMP hired. Lt. Col. W. Osborne Smith appointed first (temporary) Commissioner of the N-WMP (to October 17, 1873).
• 1873 Oct. 3
  Treaty 3 (North-West Angle Treaty) between HRH Victoria and the Saulteaux.
• 1873 Oct. 18
  George Arthur French, C.M.G., appointed second (first permanent) Commissioner of the N-WMP (to July 21, 1876).
• 1873 November
  The Allison family moves from the Similkameen valley to “Sunnyside” at Westbank in the Okanagan valley.
• 1873 November
  Methodists John Chantler McDougall and wife Abagail establish a Mission at what is now Morleyville, AB. Begin a sustenance ranching operation.
• 1873 Nov. 1
  First of N-WM Police begin arriving at Lower Fort Garry, Manitoba.
• 1873 Nov. 5
  The Conservative government of John Macdonald resigns in favour of the Liberals led by Alexander Mackenzie.
• 1873 Nov. 7
  Honourable David Laird appointed Minister of the Interior.
• 1874
  Canadian Pacific Railway Act proclaimed offering $12,000 and 20,000 acres of land for every mile of mainline completed. Minister of Mines portfolio created in B.C. cabinet. John T. Galbraith builds a store near the customs house on Joseph’s Prairie and begins acquiring the surrounding land. John Andrew Mara, M.P. for southern B.C., urges Ottawa to build a military post in Ktunaxa territory. Michael Phillipps, Jim Morrissey, William Sanders blaze a trail up the Elk River, Michel Creek and over the Crowsnest Pass.
• 1874
  James Lenihan appointed a superintendent of Indian Affairs for B.C., stationed in New Westminster. (until 1880) He was junior to Dr. Powell in Victoria.
• 1874
  Lawrence Vankoughnet appointed deputy superintendent-general of Indian Affairs (till 1893).
• 1874
  John McDougall commissioned by the Minister of Justice to visit western Tribes and explain to them the coming of the North-West Mounted Police.
• 1874
  Fathers Scollen and Doucette establish the parish of St. Croix in what is now southern Alberta.
• 1874 January
  The Canadian Pacific Surveys office in Ottawa burns. All contents lost.
• 1874 Jan. 22
  Federal political: Alexander Mackenzie and Liberals elected.
• 1874 Jan. 22
  Edgar Dewdney (Conservative) declared elected as the federal representative for the District of Yale, B.C.
• 1874 Feb. 9
  B.C. political: Premier De Cosmos resigns to contest Federal election.
• 1874 Feb. 11
  B.C. political: George Anthony Boomer Walkem selected conservative premier.
• 1874 June
  N-WT: Nick Sheran has a ferry rigged up on the Belly/Oldman at Whoop-Up.
• 1874 June 19
  Fort Dufferin, Manitoba: Rendezvous of first and second contingents of N-WMP.
• 1874 Summer
  N-WT.: Dr. Geo. Mercer Dawson in employ of Boundary Commission notes petroleum seeps in the Waterton area.
• 1874 July 8
  N-WM Police begin Great March west from Lower Fort Garry and Emerson, Manitoba.
• 1874 September
  Boundary demarcation complete, the Joint Boundary Commission disbands.
• 1874 Sep. 7
  N-WT: N-WMP arrive at Seven Persons Creek.
• 1874 Sep. 15
  N-WT: Treaty 4 (Qu’Appelle Treaty) between HRH Victoria and the Plains Newiyawak/Cree, Saulteaux, and Assiniboines.
• 1874 Autumn
  N-WT: Father Léon M. Fouquet and Brother John Burns arrive on the St. Mary’s River in the Rocky Mountain Trench, acquire property from John Shaw and by October had raised a two-storey log house which they name “Mission de St. Eugene.”
• 1874 Autumn
  Joe Kipp abandons Fort Kipp at the confluence of the Belly and Oldman rivers in what is now southern Alberta.
• 1874 Sep. 22
  N-WT: Col. Geo. French breaks up his N-WM Police command, sending two divisions back to Manitoba and encamping the rest on the Prairies whilst he, Macleod and Brisebois set out for Fort Benton to get supplies and a guide.
• 1874 Sep. 24
  Fort Benton, MT: Jerry Potts begins his association with N-WMP.
• 1874 Oct. 9
  N-WT: N-WMP arrive at Ft. Whoop-Up.
• 1874 Oct. 13
  N-WT: N-WM Police establish Ft. Macleod.
• 1875
  Richard and Martin Fry buy Edwin L. Bonner’s ferry and trading post on what’s now the Idaho reach of the Kootenai River.
• 1875
  Ktunaxa reach an agreement with Niitsitapi permitting the former to hunt bison on the Eastern Slopes of the Rockies.
• 1875
  B.C.: Province funds the improvement of the path up the Elk and over the Crowsnest Pass.
• 1875
  N-WT: Joe McFarland and Henry Olson drive two small herds of dairy cows into the Fort Macleod vicinity.
• 1875
  N-WT: I.G. Baker Co. of Fort Benton, Montana Territory, delivers a herd of cattle to the N-WMP at Forts Macleod and Calgary, N-WT.
• 1875
  John McDougall again commissioned to visit western Tribes and explain the rôle of the N-WM Police.
• 1875 January
  Emily Pittenreigh comes to the Okanagan as J.C. Haynes’ second wife.
• 1875 Feb. 17
  The N-WMP put J.D. Weatherwax, the last whiskey trader in Blackfoot country, out of business.
• 1875 Spring
  The Province of British Columbia petitions Britain’s Colonial Secretary, Lord Carnarvon, to force the Dominion to honour its obligation to build a waggon road or railroad through to the Coast.
• 1875 Apr. 8
  Parliament of Canada enacts 38 Victoria, Chapter 49; the North-West Territories Act. The Territories now separated politically from Manitoba, with their own lieutenant-governor and council.
• 1875 Apr. 10
  Order-in-Council authorizes N-WMP to establish fort at the confluence of the Bow and Elbow Rivers.
• 1875 June
  Father Napoléon Grégoire arrives at “Mission de St. Eugene” in BC.
• 1875 June 1
  At Fort William in Ontario, the sod was turned inaugurating construction of the Canadian trans-continental railroad.
• 1875 July
  N-WMP complete Fort Walsh in the Cypress Hills.
• 1875 Aug. 25
  Approx.: North-West Mounted Police establish Fort Brisebois, N-WT (soon renamed ‘Fort Calgary’).
• 1875 September
  HBC dismantles Bow River Post farther up the Bow and moves it down to Fort Brisebois.
• 1875 September
  The I.G. Baker and Co. build a post on the Elbow River just south of Fort Brisebois.
• 1875 Sep. 11
  B.C. political: G.A. Walkem and conservatives returned to power. Kootenay Electoral District: Arthur Wellesley Vowell, Chas. Gallagher.
• 1875 Sep. 24
  Treaty 5 between HRH Victoria and the Swampy Cree and Saulteaux.
• 1876 Circa
  Barrington Price builds a grist mill by his ranch house, the former Hudson’s Bay Company post in the Keremeos Creek valley.
• 1876 Circa
  Post Office opens bureau in the Allison ranch house near today’s Princeton: S.L. Allison post mistress.
• 1876 Circa
  Alexander Ewan builds first salmon cannery on the Fraser River (near New Westminster).
• 1876
  The governor-general, Lord Dufferin, visits Victoria to dissuade B.C. from seceding from the Dominion.
• 1876
  William Fernie appointed the local Customs Collector in the East Kootenay, BC.
• 1876
  Arthur Wellesley Vowell resigns as MPP for the Kootenay Electoral District in BC. Replaced by Wm. Cosgrove Milby.
• 1876
  The Kainai remember this year as “ikakainiskoy,” “many buffalo.”
• 1876
  Geo. Emerson establishes the first ranching operation in the N-WT around Fort Macleod.
• 1876
  The Rev. Geo. Millward McDougall perished in a blizzard near his mission at Morleyville, on the Bow River in what is now Alberta. His son, John Chandler McDougall, active this year explaining treaty procedures to Natives in what is now southern Alberta.
• 1876 Jan. 27
  B.C. political: G.A.B. Walkem resigns as premier after non-confidence vote.
• 1876 February
  Battleford chosen as capital of the N-WT. Construction begins on administration building.
• 1876 Feb. 1
  B.C. political: Andrew Charles Elliott selected as premier.
• 1876 Mar. 23
  B.C.: H.E. (Thomas?) Seelye died and buried at Joseph’s Prairie in BC. Had been customs officer there since spring, 1873.
• 1876 Apr. 12
  Indian Act (An Act to amend and consolidate the laws respecting Indians) receives royal assent.
• 1876 Apr. 12
  Canadian Parliament enacts 39 Victoria chapter 21, creating the District of Keewatin.
• 1876 June 10
  J.F. Allison appointed Justice of the Peace in Yale District, BC.
• 1876 June 25
  Battle of Greasy Grass (Little Big Horn). Gen’l Geo. Armstrong Custer and elements of his 7th Cavalry annihilated by Sitting Bull and his Lakota and Tsistsistas (Cheyenne) warriors.
• 1876 June 27
  B.C. Political: Honourable A.N. Richards commissioned lieutenant-governor.
• 1876 July 1
  N-WT: Dave Akers buys Fort whoop-Up from J.J. Healy.
• 1876 July 22
  Col. G.A. French fired from N-WMP. James Farquharson Macleod, C.M.G., appointed third Commissioner of the N-WMP (to October 31, 1880).
• 1876 August
  In the Sand Hills Isapo-Muxika (Crowfoot) and Stamiksoopi (Sitting Bull) exchanged tobacco at a friendship dance.
• 1876 Aug. 18 (23?)
  Treaty No. 6 (Part 1) signed at Fort Carlton between HRH Victoria and the Plains Cree, the Woodland Cree, and the Assiniboines.
• 1876 Sep. 9
  Treaty No. 6 (Part 2) signed at Fort Pitt between HRH Victoria and the Plains Cree, the Woodland Cree, and the Assiniboines.
• 1876 Oct. 7
  The North-West Territories Act of 1875 (An Act to amend and consolidate the Laws respecting the North-West Territories) proclaimed. N-WT separated administratively from Manitoba. David Laird appointed lieutenant-governor and “Indian Superintendent” of the North-West Territories.
• 1876 Oct. 24
  Honourable David Mills appointed Minister of the Interior.
• 1876 Nov. 17
  First Sioux appear at Wood Mountain at Jean-Louis Legare’s store.
• 1876 Nov. 27
  Members of the first Territorial Council (appointed) sworn in at Livingstone Barracks (Swan River).
• 1877
  Joseph Whitehead brings the first locomotive into the Canadian West in the Red River valley to build the Dominion government’s “Pembina Branch.”
• 1877
  The North-West Territories Act amended to give French and English equal status in council and in the courts.
• 1877
  Osoyoos, B.C.: Customs House burns.
• 1877
  Coal Banks, N-WT.: Marcella Sheran arrives to help her brother in the mining business.
• 1877
  N-WT.: “Kootenai” and Olivia Brown settle in Waterton area of the N-WT.
• 1877
  Coal Mines Regulation Act passed in B.C.
• 1877 Mar. 8
  Thursday. Commissioner David Laird summons the North-West Council to Livingstone Barracks, Swan River, N-WT.
• 1877 May
  Sitting Bull (Tatanka-Iyotonka) and hundreds of his Hunkpapa Lakota followers arrive at Wood Mountain, N-WT.
• 1877 August
  Lieutenant-Governor David Laird visits Fort Macleod, N-WT.
• 1877 Aug. 1
  N-WT political: Seat of the North-West Territorial government formally transferred to Battleford.
• 1877 Aug. 2
  Sir James Douglas dies in Victoria, BC.
• 1877 Sep. 22
  Treaty No. 7 (Part 1) signed at Blackfoot Crossing, N-WT, between HRH Victoria and the Blackfoot Nations, T’suu Tina (Sarcee) and the Stoneys.
• 1877 October
  William Cosgrove Milby, MPP for the Kootenay Electoral District, dies.
• 1877 Dec. 4
  Treaty No. 7 (Part 2) signed at Fort Maclead, N-WT, by chiefs who could not attend the main signing at Crowsfoot Crossing.
• 1877 Dec. 20
  Robert Leslie Thomas Galbraith elected as MPP for Kootenay District, BC.
• 1878
  Minerals Act of 1878 passed in B.C.
• 1878
  P.R. Neale and S.B. Steele register the first cattle brand in the N-WT: “NWMP.” (!!? See Jan. 29, 1880)
• 1878
  Toronto Stock Exchange incorporated.
• 1878
  U.S. government passes the Bland-Allison Act requiring the mint to buy $2–4 million’s in silver each month. Never more than the minimum purchased, price of silver continues to decline.
• 1878
  The global economy slips into a recession.
• ?1878?
  N-WT.: Marcella Sheran weds Joseph McFarland of the Pioneer Ranch near Fort Macleod.
• 1878
  B.C. Constitutional Act of 1871 amended to give the Kootenay Electoral District but one MPP: Robert Leslie Thomas Galbraith.
• 1878
  U.S. Army blockades the migration of the buffalo in an effort to starve the Sioux into submission. All Plains Indians affected. Few Bison reach Canadian territory.
• 1878
  Norman T. Macleod, brother of Colonel James Macleod of the N-WM Police, appointed Indian Agent for Treaty 7 nations.
• 1878
  James Jerome Hill, general manager of the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad, welcomes George Stephen and Donald Smith to his road’s board of directors.
• 1878
  Dr. Geo. Mercer Dawson of the Geological Survey of Canada examines coal measures in the Crowsnest area.
• 1878
  Frederick Billings, et al, reorganize the Northern Pacific Railroad and begin pushing its railheads west from Bismarck and east from Wallula Junction, Washington Territory, near the confluence of the Snake and Columbia Rivers.
• 1878
  N-WT.: N-WMP establishes its “Remount Station” in the Pincher Creek valley. Police plant oats and supply hay to other posts. Mart Holloway builds shack in the valley, as do Jack Collins and “Mr. Allen.” Wm. Sam’l Lee likely settled at the Creek’s mouth.
• 1878
  N-WT.: N-WMP moves its headquarters from Fort Macleod to Fort Walsh in the Cypress Hills.
• 1878 Feb. 6
  Governor-general in Council approves and accepts Treaty No. 7.
• 1878 Spring
  Macleod Island and Fort Macleod flooded.
• 1878 May 22
  B.C. political: Election unseats A.C. Elliott and supporters. Galbraith and Gallagher returned but amendment to the Constitutional Act of 1871 eliminates Gallagher’s seat.
• 1878 May 25
  England: A.T. Galt promot4ed to Grand-Knight Commander of the Order of St. Michael and St. George.
• 1878 June 25
  B.C. political: C.A. Elliott resigns as premier in favour of G.A.B. Walkem.
• 1878 Aug. 18
  First issue of P.G. Laurie’s Saskatchewan Herald, Battleford, N-WT.
• 1878 September
  Edgar Dewdney (Conservative) declared re-elected as MP for the District of Yale, BC.
• 1878 Sep. 17
  Federal political: Conservatives of J.A. Macdonald elected. Macdonald defeated in home-riding and parachuted in to win a Victoria by-election.
• 1878 Sep. 19
  George Wallace Hall registers a pre-emption near what is today Creston, BC.
• 1878 Autumn
  Mi’kai’stowa (Red Crow) begins negotiations to abandon the original Kainai Reserve in the valley of the Bow River and re-establish it in the present location, west of Lethbridge, AB.
• 1878 Oct. 17
  Right Honourable Sir J.A. Macdonald appointed Minister of the Interior.
• 1878 Nov. 25
  The Most Honourable Marquis of Lorne appointed governor-general of Canada.
• 1878 December
  Begins the bitter winter for hungry western Tribes.
• 1878 Dec. 5
  Last spike driven on the “Pembina Branch” rail line built for Ottawa between St. Boniface and Emerson, Manitoba, by Joseph Whitehead.
• 1879
  The St. Paul, Minnesota and Manitoba Railway reaches Emerson on the Manitoba boundary to connect there with the Canadian government’s “Pembina Branch”: St. Boniface in the old Red River Colony now connected to St. Paul, Minnesota.
• 1879
  Mountain Mill set up on the Castle River in the N-WT by John Kean for the Indian Branch of the Department of the Interior. Built and run by Wm. Shanks Gladstone.
• 1879 (or ’80?)
  Anglican “Rev. Rural Dean” George McKay of the “Society for the Propagation of the Gospel׎ builds a house and a “day school” on the Piikani reserve, N-WT.
• 1879
  William Fernie named coroner and Assistant Commissioner for Lands and Works in the Electoral District of Kootenay, BC.
• 1879
  The Department of the Interior pays I.G. Baker and Co. to deliver 1,000 cattle to the Porcupine Hills near Fort Macleod for the starving Niitsitapi to hunt.
• 1879
  Great Britain embargos American beef in support of the Canadian cattle business.
• 1879
  Niverville, MB.: Wm. Hespeler builds first grain elevator in western Canada. Cylindrical.
• 1879
  Indian Branch sets up two small ranching operations in the N-WT, one on Pincher Creek, one near Calgary.
• 1879
  N-wT: Joshua Watson homesteads at “the bend” of the “Belly” River.
• 1879
  B.C.: Peter Creake Fernie contracted to build two bridges to carry the Crowsnest Pass trail over the Elk River.
• 1879
  N-WT.: A.P. Patrick notes petroleum seeps in Waterton area of the N-WT. Sent a sample to Ottawa.
• 1879 January
  Nicholas Flood Davin appointed to determine the best approach to educating western Natives. Report submitted to Vankoughnet in April.
• 1979 February
  David Laird resigns as “Indian Superintendent.”
• 1879 Spring
  N-WT: Niitsi-tapi and other plains peoples starving with failure of the bison population.
• 1879 May 20
  Canada political: Honourable Sir Charles Tupper appointed Minister of Railways and Canals.
• 1879 May 23
  J.J. Hill, George Stephen, Donald Smith and Norman Kittson form the St. Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba Railroad Company in Minnesota. Leased the Canadian government’s “Pembina Branch” from St. Boniface, Manitoba, to the Boundary.
• 1879 May 30
  Edgar Dewdney appointed Commissioner of Indian Affairs in the N-WT (to 1884).
• 1879 June
  The St. Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba acquires the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad.
• 1879 June 19
  Elliott Torrance Galt confirmed as secreatary and clerk to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Edgar Dewdney.
• 1879 July
  Lawrence Vankoughnet has Thos. Page Wadsworth appointed “inspector of agencies׎ in the N-WT.
• 1879 Summer
  Indian Reserves Nos. 147A and 147B laid out for Piikani in the valley of the Oldman River.
• 1879 Summer
  H.J Taylor established DIA “supply farm” near Pincher Creek, AB. Thos. Wright establishes a second farm near Fort Calgary.
• 1879 Late Summer
  Indian Branch contracts the I.G. Baker Co. of Fort Benton, Montana Territory, to run a herd of cattle into the Porcupine Hills.
• 1879 Sep. 29
  Francis Jones Bernard (Conservative) declared MP for the District of Yale, B.C.
• 1879 End
  Mission St. Eugene comprises 552 acres of the St. Mary’s River valley in B.C.
• 1879 End
  Begins the “Snow Winter” on the Prairies.
• 1880
  Farwell (re-named “Revelstoke” in 1886) established.
• 1880
  N-WT.: Jim Bruneau, Isaac May and A.H. Lynch-Staunton establish a ranch on Pincher Creek. “Jug Handle” Smith upstream. Sam Sharpe and George Ives range government cattle herd nearby.
• 1880
  Norman Thos. Macleod appointed Agent to Treaty 7 tribes.
• 1880
  Under unsupportable hunting pressure, the bison population in the Judith Basin in present-day Montana crashes.
• 1880 Circa
  Farm No. 21 established on Piikani Reserve.
• 1880 Jan. 29
  P.R. Neale and S.B. Steele register the first cattle brand in the N-WT: the “71.” (!!? See 1878)
• 1880 February
  Edgar Dewdney appointed Commissioner of Indian Affairs in the Province of Manitoba (in addition to his duties in the N-WT)
• 1880 Mar. 19
  Wm. Winder registers the “double crank” brand in the N-WT.
• 1880 April
  Contractor D.O. Mills of California sends Andrew Onderdonk to B.C. to start construction of the CPR eastbound.
• 1880 May 7
  Federal political: Assent given to the Indian Act, 1880 – “An Act to amend and consolidate the laws respecting Indians” creates the Department of Indian Affairs under the Minister of the Interior who is the Superintendent of Indian Affairs.
• 1880 May 7
  Federal: Great North Western Telegraph Company incorporated.
• 1880 May 11
  Federal political: Honourable Sir A.T. Galt assumes his duties as High Commissioner for Canada in London (to May 30, 1883).
• 1880 May 14
  B.C.: Andrew Onderdonk commences construction of the Fraser River leg of the CPR at Emory’s Bar.
• 1880 Summer
  B.C.: George Hearst comes to Kootenay Lake to examine “the Ledge.”
• 1880 Summer
  N-WT: New reserve, IR #148, laid out for the Kainai between the Belly and the Waterton rivers in what is now southern Alberta. Ration house built.
• 1880 Summer
  N-WT: Elliott Torrance Galt visits the “coal banks” on the Belly River. Took Samples.
• 1880 Oct. 21
  Syndicate of George Stephen, J.J. Hill, J.S. Kennedy, R.B. Angus and D.A. Smith sign contract with Canadian government to complete the CPR within 10 years.
• 1880 Nov. 1
  Acheson Gosford Irvine appointed fourth Commissioner of the N-WMP (to March 31, 1886).
• 1880 Nov. 13
  Lieutenant-Governor Laird proclaims the Electoral Districts of Salisbury, Lorne and Kimberley in the N-WT.
• 1880 Dec. 6
  Edmonton Bulletin first published.
• 1881
  Allison family returns to the Similkameen region after a sojourn of 8 years in the Okanagan at “Sunnyside.”
• 1881
  N-WT/B.C.: Dr. George Mercer Dawson of the Geological Survey of Canada examines the Crowsnest Pass area and the “coal banks” on the Belly River.
• 1881
  Federal political: Senator Peter McLaren buys Mountain Mill on the Castle River near today’s Cowley, AB, from the Dominion government.
• 1881
  IR 148, N-WT: Cree thieves make off with Kainai horses.
• 1881
  Gretna, MB.: The Ogilvie Milling Co. builds the first classic elevator in western Canada.
• 1881
  The N-WM Police establish a post on Police Flats near present day Bellevue, AB.
• 1881
  Max Brouilette begins stage coach service in N-WT: Coal Banks (now Lethbridge), Fort Macleod, Pincher Creek.
• 1881
  IR 148, N-WT: John Maclean of the Church Missionary Society arrived to proselytize on behalf of the Methodist denomination, and teach.
• 1881
  IR 148, N-WT: Anglican Reverend Samuel Trivett, also sponsored by the Church Missionary Society, arrives to proselytize and teach.
• 1881
  The T.C. Power Co. of Fort Benton, Montana Territory, abandons Fort Macleod, N-WT, to its Fort Benton competitor, the I.G. Baker Co.
• 1881 Feb. 15
  “An Act Respecting the Canadian Pacific Railway, Victoria 41, Chapter 1” (“Pacific Railway bill”) ratified by the Federal parliament. CPR enchartered and given until May 1, 1891, to finish the line.
• 1881 Feb. 16
  Upon the receipt of a $1 million surety bond, Charles Tupper, federal Minister of Railways, signs papers to create the third incarnation of the Canadian Pacific Railway with the CP syndicate of George Stephen, Duncan McIntyre, J.J. Hill, J.S. Kennedy, the Kohn, Reinach and Co. of Paris, and the Morten Rose and Co. of London.
• 1881 Feb. 18
  CPR Company incorporated.
• 1881 Mar. 1
  Hayter Reed appointed Indian Agent at Battleford.
• 1881 Mar. 9
  First member elected to the North-West Council; Lawrence Clarke from the Electoral District of Lorne.
• 1881 April
  The first of some 2500 starving Kainai begin straggling onto Reserve 148.
• 1881 April
  Maj. Albert Bowman Rogers engaged by the CPR to find a route through the southern Rockies.
• 1881 Apr. 21
  Elliott Torrance Galt appointed Assistant Indian Commissioner for Manitoba and the North-West Territories.
• 1881 May
  Senator Matthew Henry Cochrane incorporates the Cochrane Ranche Company and establishes its headquarters some 20 miles up the Bow River west from Calgary, N-WT.
• 1881 May 21
  Maj. “A.B.” Rogers locates a promising pass through the Selkirk Range. Unable to confirm.
• 1881 June 21
  Honourable C.F. (Clement) Cornwall commissioned lieutenant-governor of B.C.
• 1881 Summer
  Robert Evan Sproule locates “the Ledge” on BC’s Kootenay Lake and stakes his dog-legged Bluebell claim.
• 1881 July 19
  Having been starved out of Canada, Sitting Bull surrenders at Fort Buford, Dakota Territory.
• 1881 Aug/Sep
  Sir John Douglas Sutherland Campbell, the Marquis of Lorne, the governor-general of Canada and his entourage tour Canada’s West.
• 1881 Sep. 9
  Marquis of Lorne, et al, at Blackfoot Crossing.
• 1881 Sep.15
  Henry Villard (formerly Ferdinand Heinrich Gustav Hilgard) elected president of the Northern Pacific Railroad.
• 1881 Sep. 17
  Marquis of Lorne, et al, arrive at Fort Macleod.
• 1881 Oct. 3
  David Laird’s term as lietenant-governor of the N-WT ends.
• 1881 Oct. 20
  Fred Stimson registers his “Bar U” brand in the N-WT.
• 1881 December
  The Northern Pacific Railroad reached Pend Oreille Lake in what is now Idaho.
• 1881 Dec. 1
  Andrew Onderdonk awarded the contract to built the CPR Mainline from Emory Bar in the Fraser River canyon to tidewater at Port Moody.
• 1881 Dec. 3
  Edgar Dewdney succeeds as lieutenant-governor of the North-West Territories (to 1888).
• 1881 Dec. 23
  Dominion Lands Regulations, cattle leases defined: 21 years, maximum $10.00 per 1000 acres per year to 100,000 acres; minimum 10 acres per head.
• 1881 Christmas
  A.T. Galt resigns as the Canadian High Commissioner to London. Rejected.