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The March West
On July 8, 1874, the small force of NWMP moved out of Dufferin, Manitoba,
and headed west toward the junction of the Bow and Belly Rivers over 800
miles away, in what is today southern Alberta. Their objective was to
locate Fort Whoop-up, notorious stronghold of the whiskey traders, and
destroy the whiskey trade. For two months the cavalcade of ox carts, wagons,
cattle, field pieces and agricultural equipment crawled steadily westward.
At La Roche Perce, the contingent split. The greater part of "A"
6 Troop proceeded northwestward via Fort Ellice, to establish itself at
the Hudson's Bay Company post, Fort Edmonton. The remainder of the force,
ragged and weary, its horses starved and parched, toiled on in pitiable
condition to the Sweet Grass Hills, near the International Boundary. There,
the Commissioner and the Assistant Commissioner led a small party south
to Fort Benton, Montana, to replenish exhausted stocks of food and purchase
fresh horses.
On his return from Fort Benton, the Commissioner set out with two troops
for Swan River, the newly appointed headquarters of the Force. Assistant
Commissioner James F. Macleod, commanding "B", "C"
and "F" Troops and the remainder of "A", continued
westward to the foothills. Macleod, with the assistance of Métis
scout Jerry Potts, located Fort Whoop-up, but the whiskey traders had
fled. The column finally halted on the banks of the Old Man River, where
in October 1874, they began building the first police outpost in the far
west. It was named Fort Macleod.
In the months that followed, the whiskey trade was smashed and lawlessness
sharply declined. By 1875, the police had erected additional posts at
Fort Saskatchewan, Fort Calgary and Fort Walsh. Law and order was firmly
established on Canada's western frontier.
The NWMP's main task between 1874-85 was to establish and maintain amicable
relations with the native peoples of the Northwest Territories. One of
the Canadian Government's main concerns during this period was to avoid
the American experience of frontier wars. Fortunately, the Canadian situation
was different from that below the border. Miners and settlers had still
not arrived in the Canadian west in sufficient numbers to challenge the
warlike tribes for their hunting lands.
By the time substantial settlement did get underway on the Canadian prairies,
the Indians' way of life had already changed dramatically, with the rapid
disappearance of the buffalo herds. In the Spring of 1876, hostilities
between the American Sioux and the United States Army made Canadian authorities
anxious to peacefully acquire title to most of the territory held by the
Saskatchewan First Nations and the Blackfoot Confederacy. In the same
year, Treaty No. 6 was concluded between the Canadian Government and the
Cree and Assiniboine. The Crees and Assiniboine surrendered their title
to 120,000 square miles of central Saskatchewan and Alberta by agreeing
to this treaty. The presence of the NWMP in their scarlet tunics played
an important calming role in the negotiations of Treaty No. 6.
In September 1877, at Blackfoot Crossing on the Bow River, tribes of the
Blackfoot Confederacy met with the two Canadian commissioners appointed
to treaty with them: the Honourable David Laird, Lieutenant Governor of
the Northwest Territories; and Commissioner J.F. Macleod of the North-West
Mounted Police. The bond of trust which had developed between Commissioner
Macleod and the two most prominent Indian Chiefs, Crowfoot and Red Crow,
was the key to the successful signing of Treaty No. 7. In accepting the
"Blackfoot Treaty," Crowfoot said: "The advice given me
and my people has proven to be very good. If the police had not come to
this country, where would we all be now? Bad men and whiskey were killing
us so fast that very few of us would have been left today. The Mounted
Police have protected us as the feathers of the bird protect it from the
frosts of winter."
On September 22, amid pomp and ceremony, the Chiefs of the Blackfoot Confederacy
signed Treaty No. 7, surrendering their title to what is today Southern
Alberta. At last, the way was clear for plains' settlement and the building
of a transcontinental railway which Canadians hoped would bring a new
and prosperous future to their young nation.
next: The American Sioux
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