Five hundred civilians began moving into the nearby North-West Mounted Police post, Fort Battleford, for protection against the Cree raids.

[8] Middleton was also under pressure from Canadian Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald to end the rebellion as quickly as possible.

He sent a large group under Lieutenant-Colonel William Dillon Otter north from a second railhead at Swift Current to relieve Battleford and lift the siege.

The Indigenous force had enormous advantages of terrain, virtually surrounding Otter's troops on an inclined, triangular plain.

Casualties would have been very high as the militia re-crossed the creek, had not Chief Poundmaker persuaded the Indigenous warriors not to pursue the government troops.

Historian Douglas Hill characterized the Cree in his book, The Opening of the Canadian West, as a "war party ... ready to take revenge for a winter of incalculable suffering" who "swooped on Battleford, killing six whites".

[15] Canadian historian George Stanley writing on the event indicated that the Cree were not murderous but more haphazard and bumbling stating "they did not appear to have in mind an attack upon the town but were content with prowling around the neighbourhood".

In October 2010, Parks Canada stated that they stop using the word "siege" in its posters and programming to describe the "sometimes violent, sometimes tragic events at the frontier community during the Northwest Rebellion.