The excitement was especially high in the Qu'Appelle district, some three hundred miles west of Red River.
As the spring of 1815 opened, all eyes were looking to the action of the "New Nation" on the Qu'Appelle River as the Bois-brules under Cuthbert Grant called themselves.

As the whole of these events were afterwards investigated by the law courts of Upper Canada, there is substantial agreement about the facts.

The first violence of the season is described by Lieutenant Pambrun, a most accurate writer.

He had served in the war of 1812 and gained distinction.

On entering the Hudson's Bay Company service he was sent to Qu'Appelle district.