North West Mounted Police

The North West Mounted Police, the first authorities in western Canada, served as both a military and a police force. They were sent to southern Alberta for two important reasons. Their first job was to enforce Canadian laws in the area, and their second goal was to stop conflict between natives and white traders.

P19760223048-GP N.W.M.P. officers in front of their barracks at Fort MacLeod, Alberta

The American Midwest had begun to fill following the American Civil War and many Americans had begun to move into western Canada. The Canadian government feared that American ideas about controlling the continent would lead them to see western Canada as part of American territory. They were also worried by the example set in Texas where Americans had settled an area and then claimed it as American territory. Part of the N.W.M.P.’s job in southern Alberta was to enforce Canadian claim in the area.

P19960001000-GA .303 caliber Lee Enfield rifle similar to the regular issue for the N.W.M.P. at the turn of the century.

The N.W.M.P. were also sent to Alberta to end fights between American traders and the natives of southern Alberta. American traders were coming to the region from Fort Benton, Montana in order to trade with local natives. The traders generally gave the natives guns and whiskey in exchange for buffalo robes. Parties of "wolfers" were also coming up from the U.S. with strychnine-laced buffalo carcasses to poison wolves. Native-owned dogs were often poisoned by this bait, and this led the natives to attack wolfers with guns obtained from the whiskey traders. To take care this threat the wolfers formed a militia to drive the whiskey traders out of the area. This put the territory on the edge of war. When a group of Northern Assiniboine were killed by whiskey traders in May 1873, the Government of Canada took action.

P19860112002-GA R.C.M.P. dress uniform jacket

On May 23, 1873 Parliament approved a mounted police force. Three months later the recruitment of a 300 man force began. Sir John A. Macdonald described the new force as a semi-military body whose job would be to stop liquor traffic among the natives, gain their respect and confidence, halt tribal warfare and attacks on white settlers, collect customs dues, and perform the normal duties of a police force. On July 8, 1874 the N.W.M.P. undertook its first major mission. A force of 150 men began an 800 mile march from Fort Dufferin, Manitoba to the legendary Fort Whoop-up. The force, guided by a Peigan scout, named Jerry Potts, arrived at Fort Whoop-up on October 9, 1874. They discovered that the fort was heavily fortified but had been abandoned except for a wounded Civil War veteran and six native women. Assistant Commissioner James F. Macleod, a member of the party which found Fort Whoop-up, moved his troops west along the Oldman River and established Fort Macleod as a permanent barracks. From that time on, the N.W.M.P. and later the R.C.M.P. continued to keep the peace in Alberta.