3. North West Mounted Police

From Canadian History Portal - HCO

B. All Aboard for the West →→ 1. Red River Settlement and Insurrection → 2. National Policy and the CPR → 3. North West Mounted Police → 4. Aboriginal Treaties → 5. North West Rebellion → 6. British Columbia → 7. A Western Home →→ C. Demand for Change

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The Enduring Canadian Symbol

Like so much in Canadian history, the creation of the Mounted Police was largely a response to American pressure. The Americans cast a greedy eye northward, hoping eventually to fly the Stars and Stripes over the vast area west of Manitoba. They simply saw it as part of their "manifest destiny" - their God-given right to control all of North America.

The North West had fewer than 50 000 people, mostly aboriginal, scattered over an area about a quarter the size of the entire continent. It was was ripe for a take-over, and unscrupulous American fur traders added to the chaos by freely - and illegally - trading whisky for furs. The Aboriginal People were forced to move further and further west in pursuit of the diminishing buffalo herds. As they did, hundreds were killed in an intense territorial warfare waged between the Cree and Blackfoot. Smallpox epidemics in the 1870s added to the looming crisis, although some HBC posts provided vaccinations.

The American Spirit of Manifest Destiny, 1872

The Canadian government was responsible for maintaining law and order in this vast territory. Manitoba Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba, Alexander Morris, had already convinced Macdonald to move forward with a police force for the West, and on May 23, 1873 the Act Establishing the North-West Mounted Rifles received Royal Assent. The act provided for a mounted police force, similar to the Irish Mounted Constabulary who would be armed, but would act as a civil force to administer law and order in the Territories. Still, the government moved slowly in setting up the force.

The Cypress Hills Massacre

As the buffalo herds thinned out and disappeared in the late 1860s, the Plains Aboriginal people were forced to move further and further west to hunt for game. As they did, an intense territorial warfare waged between the Cree and Blackfoot led to hundreds of deaths. Smallpox epidemics in the 1870s added to the looming crisis, although some HBC posts provided vaccinations.

After 1870, Canada's North West had fewer than 50 000 people, mostly aboriginal, scattered over an area about a quarter the size of the entire continent. It was ripe for a take-over by the US, and unscrupulous American fur traders added to the chaos by freely - and illegally - trading whisky for furs.

In the late spring of 1873, a ragged band of about 250 Nakota (Assiniboine) people were camped at a bend in Battle Creek in the Cypress Hills, near Abe Farwell's trading post 64 km south of Medicine Hat. The buffalo had gone, they had lost their horses and they had spent a grueling winter, with bitter weather. But there were plentiful antelope and deer in the hills.

Fort Whoop-up Before Arrival of Law & Order

Unfortunately for them, there were also whiskey posts in the area - thirteen within a 5 km radius of their camp - and there were bands of American "wolfers", who made their living by poisoning the carcasses of buffalo left behind by robe traders, and then harvesting the furs from the dead wolves and coyotes that ate the tainted meat.

On May 31, 1873, about a dozen wolfers passed by looking for a band of Cree who had stolen some horses from them. Farwell had told them the Assiniboine weren't horse thieves, but one of the wolfers got drunk and lost his horse. He and his fellows went into a rage, grabbed their guns and made for one of the Assiniboine camps on the other side of the creek to teach them a lesson.

Farwell tried to keep the peace, but the wolfers started firing, killing up to 36 members of Little Soldier's band, men, women and children. One elder was clubbed to death and his severed head mounted on a lodge-pole. The bodies were left to rot in the sun. The only wolfer killed, Ed Legrace, was buried under the floor of one of the whiskey posts.

The wolfers bragged about their feat, saying they had done everyone a service by teaching the Indians a lesson and keeping them in line. But Farwell reported the massacre to American authorities, who passed on the information to Ottawa in late August. But it would take two years before Canada could take any action.

Canadians were outraged, and demanded a swift response to curb this lawlessness, so the creation of the force was put on the front burner. The name of the new body, the North-West Mounted Rifles, sounded too much like a military force. "Rifles" was changed to "Police" so as not to anger Americans. The NWMP was empowered with a wide-ranging mandate. It was to preserve law and order, maintain peace and security, end the illegal whisky trade, patrol the border, end smuggling, and gain the trust and confidence of the Aboriginal peoples.

The Mounties March West

James Macleod

The Mounties March West

In the fall of 1873, the first hundred and fifty recruits of the NWMP gathered in Collingwood, Ontario to train and get equipped. Then they journeyed 1400 kilometers west, by lake boat and sled and by foot, to winter at Lower Fort Garry and continue their preparations.

In early July 1874, a contingent of three hundred men began "the Great March" westward under the command of George Arthur French. After only 430 kilometers (of the 1600 km. trek), French decided to break the company into two, with the healthiest group continuing on to Fort Whoop-Up, while the other traveled north-west to Fort Edmonton.

RESOURCE: You can read an account of the trek in The Diary of Henry Julien, an illustrator from the Canadian Illustrated News who travelled with the party.

On October 9, Assistant NWMP Commissioner James Macleod arrived at Fort Whoop-Up with a North West Mounted Police troop, guided by Métis scout Jerry Potts. They found the whisky trading post empty, but built a fort nearby on an island in the Oldman River. Made of cottonwood logs plastered with clay, it had a barracks, stables, a hospital and a smithy. It was the first police post in Alberta. The first arrest came shortly after with the capture of five whiskey traders with two wagon loads of buffalo robes, rifles and fire water (a nasty concoction of brandy and pepper).

NWMP Post at Fort Walsh

Sun Dance - The Making of a Brave

The Mounties performed invaluable services with efficiency. They stopped smuggling and drove out the whisky traders . They also provided a number of key services (medical, mail delivery, and census taking) for the native population. They patrolled on horseback and integrated themselves into the community. They helped resolve domestic and community disputes, fought prairie fires, drove rustlers out of the region, and delivered emergency supplies to starving Aboriginal bands.

Canada Post

The native people slowly began to trust and respect the men in the scarlet tunics, even though they were the agents of a harsh government that moved to ban the Sun Dance and other ceremonies.

The Mounties evolved and their name changed ("Royal" was added in 1904). They consistently reinvented themselves to remain relevant to the changing times. But their role and reputation remained stellar and sterling. In the 1920s, Hollywood movies like Rose Marie started featuring the image of the stalwart Mountie, always courageously getting his man and maintaining his glistening character.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police became the local police force in most provinces of Canada. Their Musical Ride is world famous as is their appearance at ceremonial functions. They now include women and members of visible minorities in their ranks. Their contemporary functions - drug enforcement, computer crimes and other white-collar crime - are vastly different from their original job description. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, however, remain the quintessential symbol of Canada, inside the country and out.

NWMP Establish Fort Calgary

North-West Mounted Police, Fort Calgary, 1878

On April 10, 1875, Ottawa sent an order to the North West Mounted Police to force out whiskey traders from the Bow River area of the Northwest Territory. In mid-August, 1875, Colonel James MacLeod ordered Inspector Éphrem Brisebois to take "F" Troop north from Fort Macleod to find a suitable spot on the Bow River for a new fort.

On August 25, 1875, Brisebois led the scarlet jacketed troop up to the confluence of the Bow River and Elbow River on the site of present-day Calgary, Alberta. They made a makeshift boat with a wagon box and tarpaulins to cross the river, and Corporal George Clift King was the first member of the troop to set foot on the location - he is sometimes cited as Calgary's first citizen. Construction of Fort Brisebois was started on September 10, 1875, once pine logs were floated down the Bow from the west.

As Sub-Inspector Denny recalled: "in trenches three feet deep we set upright 12 foot pine logs side by side .... the pole roofs were covered with earth and the log walls mudded with clay." The fort was hastily completed in about six weeks, in time to host Christmas dinner for the local residents.

Buildings included men's quarters, a guard room, stables and storage facilities. Shortly after the erection of the fort, two businesses set up operation in the vicinity; I. G. Baker Company and the Hudson's Bay Company.

Captain Éphrem Brisebois originally named the fort after himself, but due to his unpopularity, it was renamed Fort Calgary in 1876 by James MacLeod, after Calgary House, an estate on Calgary Bay on the Isle of Mull, Scotland. Calgary means 'bay farm' in Gaelic.

Fort Calgary from Space

Living conditions were hard in the new buildings. Visiting NWMP surgeon R.B. Nevitt reported "...we found ... the water just pouring into the rooms and all the mudding falling out of the chinks... in fact the condition of things was quite deplorable."

In 1882, the NWMP tore down the fort palisade and built the Calgary Barracks. A two-storey building that could house 100 men was built in 1888, since a fire in 1884 had destroyed one of the barracks.

The Deane House was built nearby in 1906 for the Superintendent of Fort Calgary, Captain Richard Deane. It was originally constructed near 9th Ave and 6th St SE, facing east towards the Barracks. Deane felt the previous superintendent's house was not good enough for his wife Martha.

The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway bought the land in 1914 for use as a rail terminal. They demolished all the fort buildings except Superintendent Deane’s house, which was moved nearby.

In 1969, an archaeological dig was started, which discovered hundreds of artifacts from the old fort. On the fort's centennial in 1975, Calgary reclaimed the land, and it was designated a National and Provincial Historic Site. Since 1994, volunteers have rebuilt the 1875 Fort using period tools and techniques on the very location where the original North West Mounted Police post once stood. The site was opened on May 18, 1978.

Pallisades and a replica of the two storey 1888 Men’s Barracks were completed in 2000. The site is now a National and Provincial Historic Site operated by the Fort Calgary Preservation Society. It incorporates Mounted Police exhibits from 1888 to 1914, historically decorated private function spaces, a travelling exhibit gallery, Learning Centre and a Mess Kitchen.