On January 8, 1814, Miles MacDonell, in the name of Lord Selkirk, forbade anyone, “the Northwest Company or any persons whatsoever,” taking provisions, dried meat, food of any sort by land or water from Assiniboia, except what might be needed for traveling, and this only by license. This meant the stoppage of all hunting in a region as large as the British Isles. It meant more. All the Northwest brigades depended on the buffalo meat of Red River for their food. It meant the crippling of the Northwest Company. MacDonell averred that he issued the proclamation to prevent starvation. This was nonsense. If he feared starvation, his Hudson’s Bay hunters could have killed enough buffalo in three months to support five thousand colonists as the Northwesters supported five thousand men--let alone a sparse settlement of three hundred souls. The Nor’Westers declared that McDonell had issued the order because he knew the War of 1812 had cut off their Montreal supplies and they were dependent solely on Red River. Proofs seemed to justify the charge, for Peter Fidler, the Hudson’s Bay man, writing in his diary on June 21, 1814, bewails “if the Captain (MacDonell) had only persevered, he could have starved them (the Nor’Westers) out.” The Nor’Westers ignored the order with the indifference of supreme contempt. Not so the Half-breeds and Indians! What meant this taking of their lands by a great Over-lord beyond the seas? Since time immemorial had the Indians wandered free as wind over the plains. Who was this “chief of the land workers,” “governor of the gardeners,” that he should interdict their hunts? “You are to enforce these orders wherever you have the physical means,” Selkirk instructed MacDonell. It will be remembered that the buffalo hunter between Pembina and the Missouri came back to Red River by two trails, (1) west to Pembina, (2) north to Souris. A party of armed Hudson’s Bay men led by John Warren came on the Northwest hunters west of Pembina--in American territory--and at bayonet point seized the pemmican stores of those Plain Rangers who had helped the wandering colonists. Then John Spencer with more men ascended the Assiniboine armed with a sheriff’s warrant and demanded admittance to the Northwest fort of Souris. Pritchard, the Nor’Wester inside, bolted the gates fast and asked what in thunder such impertinence meant. Spencer passed his warrant in through the wicket. Pritchard called back a very candid and disrespectful opinion of such a warrant, adding if they wanted in, they would have to break in; he would not open. The warrant authorizing Spencer “to break open posts, locks and doors,” his men at once hacked down palisades and drew the staples of the iron bolts. Six hundred bags of pemmican were seized and only enough returned to convey the Nor’Westers beyond the limits of Selkirk’s domain.