Rocky Mountain Rangers

The deployment of the N.W.M.P. did not bring a total end to the tension between natives and white settlers in western Canada. The tension was at its worst in 1885, when armed conflict broke out between the forces of Louis Riel and the Canadian Government. Riel called for all natives to join the struggle, and his rallying cry instilled fear in the settlers of the Prairies. It also led the federal government to ask retired general Thomas Bland Strange to form a militia unit to protect Alberta from possible native uprisings. Several militia units were brought together as the Alberta Field Force.

P1976023009-GA Forces assembled to fight in the Riel Rebellion, 1885

The Rocky Mountain Rangers were one of the units making up the Alberta Field Force. The unit was made up of retired military men, ex-mounted policemen, ranchers, cowboys, settlers and trappers, and it was lead by ex-army officer Captain John Stewart. The Rangers were a colourful group. Many of the men wore pieces of their former military uniforms from diverse units and branches of service, as well as classic cowboy attire. Possibly the most famous member of the Rangers was its chief scout, the ex British army Lieutenant John George (Kootenai) Brown, who rode forty miles in one day to join the Rangers.

P19860139000-GA This is a leather jacket that is very similar to the type of clothes worn by many members of the Rocky Mountain Rangers.

The force was split into three troops with three separate jobs. One troop stayed behind in Fort Macleod to guard against any attacks by the Bloods. The second was given the job of protecting the employees and property of the North West Coal and Navigation Company's railway which was being built between Lethbridge and Dunmore at the time. The third troop was charged with protecting the new telegraph line between Medicine Hat and Fort Macleod from possible sabotage.

P197602301133-GP Famous Alberta frontiersman and Rocky Mountain Ranger, Kootenai Brown

In the end the Riel Rebellion never reached southern Alberta, and the Rocky Mountain Rangers were disbanded without having faced any conflict. But the Rangers’ spirit of voluntarism would set the tone for southern Alberta’s future military endeavors.

P19931026057-GP General Stewart, who rose to become the highest ranking Lethbridgian in the Canadian Armed Forces.