The Real Story of the Great March West

 By Clay Yarshenko

Western Canada in the early 1870s was a volatile region. Reports to the Dominion Government from men like Lieutenant William Francis Butler and Lieutenant-Colonel Patrick Robertson-Ross spoke of Native and Métis populations becoming increasingly apprehensive about political developments over which they had no control. Westward expansion in the United States affected people on both sides of the as yet poorly defined international boundary. The North West Territories were a political and legal vacuum, the jurisdictional void contributing to a heightened sense of unease. The buffalo were already in decline. Disease and the whiskey trade represented serious threats to the socio-economic fabric of Plains Native cultures.

Still more worrisome to the Dominion Government were reports from the U.S. of increased agitation in the streets bordering the N.W.T. Certain anti-British interests advocated in the annexation of Canada’s territories by the Union, a proposition that seemed a natural fit to the American concept of “Manifest Destiny.” This thinking threatened to be even more troublesome than the Fenian raids of the 1960s. It was obvious that Canada had to act if it was to preserve its own “National Dream.”

Early in 1873, Manitoba and North West Territories Lieutenant-Governor Alexander Morris, in a letter to John A. Macdonald, informed the Prime Minister; “The most important matter of the future is the preservation of order in the North West and little as Canada may like it she has to stable her elephant.”
On May 3, 1873, Prime Minister Macdonald introduced a Bill in the House of Commons, which called for the creation of a 300-member mounted force to police the N.W.T. and legitimize Canada’s claim to sovereignty over the region. The Bill passed on May 23, 1873.

Police responsibilities were outlined as three basic priorities. They were to suppress the whiskey trade, collect customs duties on goods moving into Canadian Territory from the U.S. and calm the unrest among the Native peoples. This unrest had only escalated with the appearance of the American-Canadian survey parties and their escorts who together made up the International Boundary Commission. By focusing on these three priorities, the N.W.M.P. would bring sovereignty to the West.

The relationship the N.W.M.P. would develop with the Native populations would greatly aid the implementation of Canada’s Indian Policy. Simply put, this policy called for implementation in three stages. In the mind of the Canadian Government the Natives would be first granted protection, second; “civilized,” and third; assimilated into Canadian society. The N.W.M.P. was to play a key role in the first stage of this policy by ending the whiskey trade, and by opening some dialogue regarding Canada’s intentions in the West. The N.W.M.P. would also play key roles in the Treaty making process.

Organization of the N.W.M.P. was slow at first, but with news of the Cypress Hills Massacre, organization and recruitment sped up. Recruitment, training and deployment to Manitoba took place from September 1873 to June 1874. Macdonald’s government, however, would not live to see the Force mobilized. Alexander Mackenzie’s Liberals replaced Macdonald’s Conservatives in November 1873, in the wake of the Pacific Railway Scandal. Matters of personal politics would haunt officers of the N.W.M.P. over the next few years, as succeeding governments continued to regard with suspicion decisions and appointments made under previous administrations. Appointments, promotions and careers would be affected by political considerations and some of the Force’s most talented officers and men would fall victim to political expediency, vindictiveness and petty jealousy.

Late in the afternoon of July 8, 1874, 274 N.W.M.P. commanded by Commissioner George French departed Fort Dufferin, Manitoba. Stringing along behind for several miles were supply and munitions wagons, 114 Red River carts, agricultural implements, field forges and field kitchens and 93 head of cattle with calves.

The six troops of police, labeled A, B, C, D, E and F Divisions, rode horses matched in six colours. They were a glittering, ponderous column that rode west to confront the elephant. Three months later, they would emerge from their confrontation a hungry, tattered, sunburned, straggling band that had seen the elephant in all her might. Those first Mounties learned first hand how terrible was her aspect, and how the ground could shake when the elephant stamped her feet.

For the 1874 Mounties, the elephant turned out to be sparse grass; little water; little wood; little feed for the livestock and half-rations for themselves; contaminated water; diarrhea; dysentery; typhoid; heat; dust; thunderstorms; hail; rain; lightning; fog; cold; wind; runaways; lost horses; stampeding horses; straying horses; straying oxen; sick and dying horses; oxen and cattle; frustrating hard work; poor directions; no directions; no antelope; no buffalo; hardly any people, friendly or hostile; low moral; desertion; insubordination; starvation; snow; prairie fires; lice; mosquitoes; flying ants; huge distances; blisters and grasshoppers.

It must have seemed this elephant could not be corralled, let alone stabled. But once in the West, at least the whiskey traders and their suppliers were kind and co-operative. Of course, the suppliers, I.G. Baker and Company and T.C. Power and Brother, recognized at once a whole new industry. This was the industry of sovereignty, and a Sovereign with no railroad would need a lot of supplies. The whiskey trade was fading as fast as the buffalo, and this new opportunity was legitimate. They would become, by appointment to Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada, Purveyors of All Things to the North West Mounted Police.

The main column ground to a halt at the Sweet Grass Hills on September 19. From there Commissioner French, Assistant Commissioner Macleod and a few men rode to Fort Benton, on the Missouri River, where they secured much-needed supplies, and Jerry Potts. The fresh supplies would ensure the Force would get where it was going, and Jerry Potts would ensure that no Mountie ever got lost again. B, C, F and the remainder of A Division arrived at the location of what would become Fort Macleod on October 13, 1874. The greater part of A Division, who had separated from the main column on July 29, and had left the Souris River August 1, arrived at Edmonton November 1, 1874. D and E Divisions, with the Headquarters Staff, left the Sweet Grass September 21, to be joined by Commissioner French on his return from Fort Benton. On his return trip, French left two men in charge of the first incarnation of Wood Mountain Post, picked up the sick horses and men left behind at Cripple Camp on Moose Jaw Creek, stationed a portion of E Division at the new, but incomplete, Swan River Barracks, and arrived back in Winnipeg with D and the remainder of E Division on November 7, 1874. From Winnipeg, the men returned once more to Fort Dufferin, to spend the winter. The Great March West was over.

Westerners, Natives, Métis and Whites were a little surprised when they saw who had come to save them. But the police were resilient, and once they had themselves been saved, they got right down to the business of saving everyone else right back. The N.W.M.P. was blessed in these early years with some extraordinary men and officers. Officers like Lieutenant-Colonel James F. Macleod, and Major James Morrow Walsh knew how to lead. They worked tirelessly to keep the March together in body by detouring and putting on extra miles themselves to secure supplies for the main column. They kept the March together in soul by rounding up stragglers, and leading by example. Embodying the virtues of fairness, discipline, trustworthiness, tact and fortitude, such officers would never ask their men to do anything they would not do themselves. And the men loved them for it.

Out of the near-disaster of the March West emerged a seasoned, disciplined force of men who believed they were ready for anything, and probably were. Despite inadequate planning, poor intelligence, governmental indecision and interference, the N.W.M.P. would accomplish what they had been sent to do. They peacefully delivered an infant government to the North West.

In the process, they would help civilize and bring order to the American frontier as well. By settling some of the unrest along the international boundary the Mounties made lasting friends, and the good relations enjoyed today between western states and western provinces owe much to the work done by the N.W.M.P. The N.W.M.P. provided the stable, fixed boundary that had been lacking, the wall against which American law and policy could wash its own sea of humanity. The N.W.M.P. filled the jurisdictional void. The Whoop-Up Trail and the Outlaw Trail would be effectively shut. They would no longer carry those without law into the sanctuary of the unknown.

Had not the N.W.M.P. arrived when they did it is likely that our history would have been very different. Then again, perhaps it was inevitable that they would come, for every modern nation aggressively pursues its frontiers. We should as aggressively pursue our history. We should examine it for clues, and look to it for inspiration. If we do so, we will reveal ourselves. We will reveal ourselves not as symbols, or archetypes, but as living, breathing people.

And what of the elephant? The March West and its aftermath changed the face of Canada. Perhaps the elephant was not yet stabled in 1874, but she was being broke to the halter. For those of us who live in the West, the elephant is with us still.