RECONSTRUCTION
In writing these chapters it is necessary to throw in a story or
incident here and there out of the regular sequence in time, so as to
relate cognate subjects to each other. Hence, as their names have all
been already mentioned, it may be well here to indicate the terms of
office occupied by the several Commissioners who have directed the
destinies of the famous corps. With all of these, except Colonel French,
who was the first in order, I have had some personal contact. The office
of Commissioner has been held by Colonel G. A. (later Sir George) French
from 1873 to 1876, by Colonel James F. McLeod from 1876 to 1880, by
Lieut.-Colonel A. G. Irvine from 1880 to 1886, by Colonel Lawrence W.
Herchmer from 1886 to 1900, and from 1900 up to date by the present
Officer Commanding in the person of Colonel A. Bowen Perry, C.M.G. These
all had their distinctive traits of character and each had his own
speciality--foundation building, discipline, organization and so on--but
they all meet on a common plane as soldiers and gentlemen without fear
and without reproach. Of Colonel French we have already written--he was
the layer of the corner-stone--and the after-history of the Police as a
spirit level proves that it was well and truly laid. Colonel McLeod came
into the command when the Indians, under changing conditions at home and
amidst perplexing problems born of the Indian situation south of the
boundary, had to be handled with unusual discreetness and care. And
MacLeod was distinctly the man for such a period, of wide human
sympathies, absolutely impartial and even-handed in his magisterial
decisions and inflexibly courageous, he became to Indian and white man
alike a sort of embodiment of the highest ideals of British
administration.
Colonel Irvine had served with credit under Wolseley and was highly
esteemed by his men. His commissionership fell within the stormy time of
the second Riel rebellion, and despite the fact that he was not
generously treated by the Commander of the Militia forces during that
period, he emerged from it with an enhanced reputation and with the
respect not only of his own men, but of all who knew how difficult and
important his task had been.
Colonel Lawrence W. Herchmer, besides some service with Imperial forces,
had been through some especially important work in connection with the
Frontier Boundary Commission. This experience proved of much value to
the Force and the country when he became Commissioner. Coming in the
restless period succeeding the rebellion, Colonel Herchmer's
contribution to Police history was his extension of the patrol system
all over the vast territory under his oversight. A man of fine
appearance and courteous bearing he was well liked and popular with the
men and the community during his term of office.
Colonel Perry, the present Commissioner, has had the longest term of
service in the supreme command. As his name will come up frequently in
the remaining chapters of this story, we need not make special note of
his work here. But it is not too much to say that owing to his
outstanding ability and his wide range of general knowledge, as well as
his keen perception, he has during his long term of office practically
recreated the Force in many particulars. He has unusual power for
getting to the heart of a situation by a sort of intuitive insight. He
has the reputation of being able to grasp and analyse the contents of
documents almost at a glance and seize their salient points for action.
His decisions are thus made after rapid assimilation of the facts, and
he expects his orders to be carried out with exactness and dispatch. In
this he is not disappointed, as the officers and men under his command
have such confidence in his judgment that they work out his plans with
enthusiasm. He is fair to all classes, but will not tolerate movements
that make for the subversion of the constitution or the wanton
disturbance of law and order. Intensely Canadian, he is not insular, for
few men in his line have read more extensively in the fields of history.
Having made these notes on the men who have guided the Force, we can
take up the story again where we ended the last chapter with the close
of the second Riel rebellion.
As intimated at that point, the Militia Forces were withdrawn and the
Mounted Police were left alone to deal with the problems of
reconstruction and peace. Certain of the rebels who had been specially
seditious and murderous had to be rounded up and dealt with by process
of law in order that such unseemly doings should not again menace the
safety of the settler and the march of civilization. It fell to the lot
of the Police to gather the evidence, to secure the presence of
witnesses, to furnish guards, and at headquarters in Regina the duties
were very heavy. But these trained men worked with steady precision, for
the lesson had to be taught that insurrection and murder were not to be
tolerated under our flag. The men in the scarlet would see that whatever
had been true of other frontiers, Canada was not to have a wild west or
a wild north either. So the rebels suffered the due reward of their
deeds. Louis Riel was tried and, despite the efforts of his lawyers,
Lemieux and Fitzpatrick, brilliant men who came from Quebec to defend
him and whose conflict with the Crown lawyers, B. B. Osler and
Christopher Robinson, afforded a consummate spectacle of dialectic
sword-play, this leader of two rebellions was executed at Regina.
Several Indians, notably Wandering Spirit, who was the evil genius of
the Big Bear revolt, were also visited with capital punishment. Big Bear
himself, who had become decrepit, and the lordly Poundmaker, who
sturdily maintained that he had only defended himself when attacked at
Cutknife, were confined to the Stony Mountain penitentiary for a time,
but released when a medical board decided that the change from out of
doors would soon end their lives. Poundmaker was a splendid-looking man,
stately and grave in manner, and his chivalry at Cutknife, where he
ordered the "cease firing" when Otter was withdrawing, entitled him to
consideration. I recall his pride in the long pleats of glossy black
hair that adorned his handsome head. It was a graceful recognition of
his gallantry that the authorities at the penitentiary, at the instance
of the Department, left the fine locks of their captive unshorn during
his prison term. At the suggestion of the Mounted Police officers many
of the chiefs who had remained loyal were taken on a tour of the east,
where they received many tokens of the kindly attitude of Canadians
towards them.
[Illustration: INDIAN TEPEE.]
[Illustration: DOG-TRAIN.]
I recall a story in that connection--a missionary story. It is in place
here because no one knew so well as the Police what a large part in
preserving peace in the rebellion time was played by missionaries like
John McKay, of the Mistawasis Reserve near Carlton, John McDougall, of
Morley, George McKay, of Prince Albert, Père Lacombe and others. In the
partnership of the Police and the missionaries the law and the gospel
wrought together for good ends. The story was told a group of us by John
McKay, to whose influence over Chief Mistawasis was largely due the fact
that that powerful Cree chief, whose reserve was almost within sound of
the guns of Duck Lake, did not join in with Chief Beardy and Dumont.
After the rebellion, Mistawasis was one of the chiefs taken east as a
reward for his loyalty. I recall seeing some of them being driven around
eastern cities in cabs to see the sights. They preserved the usual
stoical silence and evinced no surprise, but they missed nothing and
when they got back home their tongues were loosed and for many a day
they recited their experiences and told the story of the white man's
great cities and manifest power.
Mistawasis, on his way home, met John McKay on the plains, and they sat
around the camp fire late that night as the chief poured out his
recollections of what he had seen. One thing had puzzled the Indian,
though he had thought much over it. "The strangest thing that happened,"
said Mistawasis, "was in Ottawa, where some good people had a missionary
meeting at a house, and they were singing songs, and a lady played on
the singing machine (piano). At last they asked me and Star Blanket to
sing. We both were ashamed, because we could not sing much. But I told
Star Blanket I would sing what the missionary taught us out on the
plains and I began, and all of a sudden the lady ran to the singing
machine and began to play and then they all joined in and I was leading
the whole band." "Now," continued the Chief, "how did they know in
Ottawa the same thing you taught us out at the reserve in Saskatchewan?"
And then John McKay told him the tune was "Old Hundred," which all good
people knew, and that the company sang it in English words while he sang
in Cree, but that they were singing the same thing. This delighted
Mistawasis, who felt that he and the white people there were really one
in the deep experiences of life. And that meant brotherhood to him.
But all the Indians were not like "Big Child," as this chief's name
meant, and so the Mounted Police had strenuous work for some years after
the rebellion, when scarcely a thousand of them had to patrol and guard
a territory twenty times as large as some European kingdoms.
From the ably written and graphic Police reports for the years following
the rebellion, one can visualize the changing conditions of the country.
The outbreak had undesignedly advertised the wide West. The thousands of
men who had come out on military duty, having spied out the wondrous
fatness of the land, had gone back to the east to become unofficial
immigration agents by telling what they had beheld. And so the tide of
humanity began to flow over the plains towards the setting sun. This
means that the buffalo were gone for all time and that game generally
would become a precarious means of existence, that the ranch and the
farm would supersede the open plain, that settlers would need much
guidance as well as protection, that the Indians would have to be taught
to stay on their reserves and make a living there, and that the
half-breeds, who were no lovers of agriculture, would have to be weaned
from their nomadic inclinations. In some parts of the vast country, as
at Prince Albert, Superintendent A. B. Perry, who took charge there
after the rebellion, states, "The general attitude of the half-breeds
and Indians was one of regret for what had happened." All was going
well, but in some other quarters there was a sort of sullenly defiant
spirit abroad which took all the tact and the courage of the Police to
overcome. It was fortunate that the officers and men of the Police had
from the beginning so commended themselves to the Indians and
half-breeds as exponents of fair play that these natives of the country
never seemed to hold the Police responsible for the errors, delays or
mistakes of any government.
In speaking of Police reports I would like the reader to bear in mind
that, in addition to the reports furnished by the combatant officers
generally so classified, commissioners, superintendents, inspectors and
others, some of the most remarkable and important documents sent forward
to the proper authorities, through the usual channels, were written by
the surgeons and their assistants, and also by the veterinary surgeons.
Men and their troop horses were companions on the long trails, and they
both had to be cared for by sympathetic experts in each line. It was
vastly important that both should be kept fit if the work was to be
done, and of the two the men themselves were always more anxious about
their horses than about their own comfort. Hence these health-preserving
specialists were of peculiar value for the efficiency of the corps. And
as they were men of education as well as keen observers, their reports
bore the evidences of research, which made them treasuries of
information.
As an indication of the way in which the Police showed that they were in
the country not only to preserve law and order but to guide settlers in
the interests of the country's development as well as for their own
welfare, I quote from one of Commissioner Lawrence Herchmer's annual
reports this valuable statement in 1886: "As a rule too little fall
ploughing is done in the North-West, and there is consequently too much
hurry amongst the farmers in the spring and large tracts of land are
sown, but not sufficiently worked--nearly all the farmers work too much
land for their strength. Very few of them made any use of the manure
from their farmyards, and although at nearly all Police posts, farms are
quite close, I am not aware that any manure is drawn from our stables by
any farmers." This statement was amply justified and very much needed,
as those of us who knew the country then can affirm. Many had rushed
west with the idea of getting rich "quick." They spread themselves over
too much land, they neglected fall ploughing and ran the risk of getting
caught with frost next season, and they thought they could save
themselves time and money by doing without a fertilizer and taking all
they could get out of the land. No doubt Herchmer and his thousand men
preached the gospel of good farming with effect, for not many years
passed before the flagrant mistakes he pointed out were remedied, to the
great benefit of the country which has become in large measure the
granary of the Empire.
In patrol work the following from Superintendent Neale throws a little
side-light on some of the frequent experiences of the Force in that
period. The reference is to the "Old Man's River" in the foothill
country in December. Neale says: "I had gone ahead to try the ice and
found it unsafe. The saddle horses were then crossed, followed by the
wagons, one of which, the hospital spring wagon, came to grief by the
horses refusing to face the wind, trying to get on the ice and breaking
the pole. Both men and horses were covered with ice, as the wind was
very strong and bitterly cold. The stopping place at Kipp being only in
course of erection, there was no place to go into, and the raising of a
tent was an impossibility. However, the horses were placed in the
shelter afforded by some haystacks, and after being dried and fed the
men managed to get a cup of tea and then turned in with their horses."
There is not much detail here, but one who knows that country at that
season reads between the lines and shivers. And that the conditions
might crop up at other dates is evident by a line in the same report
which says that "Inspector Sanders travelled the whole distance from
Lethbridge to Bull's Head _coulée_ in a driving snowstorm." That would
be a dangerous outing.
That others of the Police were taking note of new conditions for the
benefit of the country, as Lawrence Herchmer did in his remarks on
farming above quoted, is evidenced by a recommendation by Superintendent
Steele, who says in 1886: "I wish to call your attention to the quality
of wood used last winter for fuel, causing large fatigues, much waste
and consequently great expense. This could be avoided by entering into
coal contracts with people residing near the coal beds on the North
Saskatchewan, who would be able to supply at low rates." Thus were these
guardians of the peace keeping their eyes open and urging forward the
proper industrial development of the country.
There is a striking and characteristic passage in a later report from
Superintendent Perry, the general truth of which is just as vital to the
well-being of the State to-day as it was when written not long after the
rebellion. It appears that Perry and his men had traced and brought for
trial a good many cattle-killers, mail-robbers and others, but found
much difficulty in getting convictions in local court where jurymen and
others seemed to have more sympathy with the accused than necessary.
Perry sees the far-reaching danger of this attitude, and refers to it as
follows: "I regret that convictions for the serious crimes were not
secured against the guilty parties. Evidence was produced for the
defence which could well be doubted. Not only has this case produced
sympathy for crime, but in other cases, it has been plainly manifested.
Petitions have been forwarded to lessen the penalties where laws of the
country have wilfully and knowingly been broken. So notorious has this
become, that it has disheartened us in attempting to secure criminal
convictions. There seems to be an absurd idea that the dismissal of a
charge means a snub to the Mounted Police, whereas it strikes home at
the root of society and threatens the lives and property of the very men
who jeer and flaunt." The frontier was fortunate in having men who saw
and pointed out this tendency in time. There is the ring of a statesman
in that declaration.
But Perry and his men were by no means deterred, even if feeling
disheartened by that state of apparent sympathy with law-breakers. This
is attested by the fact that when the first stage robbery ever
accomplished in the territories took place by the holding up of the
Prince Albert mail near Humboldt, Perry and his detachments under
Inspectors Begin and Guthbert so combed the whole country in search of
the perpetrators that this attempt to introduce the Jesse-James
programme into Canadian territory was effectually discouraged. It took
some time to land the robber, a man named Garnett, in the north country,
who was given a long term sentence in the penitentiary.
The Police were always on active service, but the service was very
varied in character. It is interesting to find this note in one of the
reports of that period written by Superintendent Deane, then in command
of the Headquarters District at Regina. "On the 15th of August it was
reported to me that a child about two and a half years old, the daughter
of Mr. and Mrs. Pringle, of Regina, had strayed from her mother, who was
on a visit to Pense. A Police party was dispatched to search the
neighbourhood. The child was lost on the evening of the 15th, but the
loss was not reported to me till the following afternoon. The child was
found on the evening of the 17th in some bushes a mile or two away from
the house from which it had strayed, and beyond being somewhat
frightened, was little the worse for the exposure." One can quite
imagine the concern of these red-coated knights of the saddle for the
lost child. They would not say much, but thoughts of food and sleep
would be put aside till the child was found. What plan they employed is
not stated, but I have seen men under similar conditions, mounted or
dismounted, holding hands and swinging in compass circles on the plain
so as not to leave a foot of ground unsearched. Deane's report is as
above, but again those who know the country and the men will read
between the lines and see these uniformed athletes quieting the fears of
the little one and then going away to some other duty glad with the
remembrance of the child and the rejoicing parents.
For a few years after the Riel outbreak there was a lot of unrest
amongst the Blood Indians down to the south, where the proximity of the
boundary line gave much opportunity to horse-thieves, cattle-killers and
smugglers of whisky, but the watchfulness of Superintendents Neale and
MacDonnell, Inspectors Howe, Sanders, Wattam, Sergt.-Major Lake and
others checkmated every effort at lawlessness. Inspector Sanders made a
clever capture of two Bloods, "The Dog" and "Big Rib," who were tried
and sentenced, but who escaped to the other side of the line from the
sheriff. This escape led some of the Bloods to think they could get
ahead of the Police. In fact one of the chiefs, "Calf Shirt," brought in
liquor from Montana and said he would defy the Police, while another
Indian, "Good Rider," tried cattle-killing on the Cochrane Ranch. But
the Police took a hand at this point. Superintendent Neale wired
Superintendent MacDonnell for a detachment of officers and men, and
MacDonnell sent Inspector Howe with twenty men to meet Neale with a like
number at Stand Off. The result was that both "Calf Shirt" and "Good
Rider" were arrested at two different camps, and each was duly tried and
sentenced to a term with hard labour. This nipped the law-breaking in
the bud. That was the Mounted Police way.
After this experience it is not surprising to read in Commissioner
Herchmer's report for 1888, "There has been a remarkable absence of
crime during the past year and, outside arrests of criminals from the
United States, we have made no important arrests in our territory." This
was the gratifying result of the thoroughness of the Police patrol
system, and the natural sequence to the fact that there was not much use
or profit in trying to thwart the law when these red-coated guardians of
the peace were around, and as the Indians found that law-breaking did
not pay, they turned to more profitable pursuits, in which they were
encouraged and helped by the Government and the Police. Hence this
observant Commissioner is able to say that "in all quarters of the
territories the Indians are making rapid strides towards self-support."
The day was coming when, under the same paternal encouragement, the
Indians would be the prize-winners at the fairs on the plains where they
had once hunted buffalo--a very remarkable transformation.
In the same year Herchmer calls attention to the highly pleasing fact
that the introduction of the telephone would lead to an enormous saving
of men and horses, and notes the able and diplomatic way in which
Superintendent Steele, assisted by Inspectors Wood, Huot and Surgeon
Powell, had quieted matters in the Kootenay country where Chief
Isadore's attitude had discouraged settlement. With his usual social
insight, Herchmer indicates that the Mormon settlement in southern
Alberta, with its possible polygamy, will be the better of some
oversight in the interests of British law. This latter was a wise
decision, and led at least to the practical abandonment of a doctrine
that had brought much odium upon that sect.
It is interesting to find in that period of the late eighties a letter
to Superintendent Deane, at Lethbridge, from the Montana Stock Growers'
Association conveying a resolution of "thanks to the officers and men of
the North-West Mounted Police and also to the Canadian authorities
generally for assistance given to many of the citizens of Montana in
recovering horses stolen from our territory." And that the Police were
just as ready and willing to see the Indians got their dues either way
is evidenced by another entry in which Deane pithily says, "A Blood
Indian named 'Mike' laid an information against a Blackfoot for stealing
his horse. 'Mike' recovered his horse and the Blackfoot is now serving
three months' imprisonment here." Touching on the question of smuggling
near the boundary, Deane tells of a patrol consisting of Constables
Campbell and Chapman who, between Pendant d'Oreille (evidently a place
where people should step lively, for the Superintendent says it
"bristles with rattlesnakes") and Writing-on-Stone. These constables
came across a man named Berube with five horses and a wagon. His story
did not sound well to them, and so they asked him to come to camp. He
agreed with evident reluctance, and when he said he was hungry and his
team tired, the Police told him to unhitch the team, mount one of them
and come along to camp for breakfast. Then Berube wished to get his
pocket-book out of the wagon, but instead he fished out a revolver and
galloped away saying he would riddle them if they followed. Of course
they followed. With the usual Police restraint they forbore to shoot.
Campbell overtook the smuggler, but just as he ranged alongside the
policeman's horse stumbled and fell, Campbell, leaping off as the horse
fell and grabbing at the halter of Berube's horse, but failing to hold
him owing to the speed. Berube again threatened the riddling process,
but the constables chased him to a slough, where the smuggler's horse
got mired, but Berube tried to lead him out. Campbell fired in the air,
but Berube kept going, whereupon Campbell shot the smuggler's horse, and
the patrol took Berube and his four horses into camp. Deane says that as
the horses appeared to be glandered, he wired for Veterinary Surgeon
Wroughton (now the able Assistant Commissioner), who declared the case
virulent, and ordered everything destroyed. This was done, and Deane
adds, "The slaughter and destruction were carried out by the Police,
some of whose clothes suffered destruction in the process for which
they, not unreasonably, look for some compensation." And we hope they
got it. Handling glanders was almost as dangerous as either the bullets
or the rattlesnakes.
Superintendent Perry, who with the good assistance of Inspector Cuthbert
commanded in the Prince Albert district in 1888, made some specially
valuable recommendations as to the future care of the Indians, and
praised the work of the missionaries amongst them. He said, "The hope of
improvement in the Indian lies in the training of the rising generation,
and it is to be hoped that before long the children will be taken in
hand." And Perry's recommendation then made as to Industrial Schools
bore fruit not many years later to the great advantage of the Indian and
the country as well. Thus were the Police doing social service work as
their duties proceeded.
An interesting side-light is thrown on the changing conditions of the
West by our finding that in the late eighties a detachment of Police was
sent by request from that Province into southern Manitoba. This
detachment, under Inspector J. A. McGibbon (recently Assistant
Commissioner at Regina, now retired), who had done important work at
Moose Mountain and other far western points, had headquarters at Morden.
The business of this detachment was to patrol the whole country near the
boundary line, to grant special "Let Passes" to people who were entitled
to cross backwards and forwards, to prevent wood being taken from the
Canadian side by Dakota settlers, and generally to stand for law and
order. In connection with other work I was up and down that region a
good deal in those days, and recall the sense of general security the
scattered settlers had because of the presence of McGibbon and his men.
After five years in command of the Prince Albert district, which had
been the critical storm centre around which the winds of the Riel
rebellion had beaten fiercely, Inspector A. B. Perry, before changing to
another command, makes another valuable contribution to the development
of Western history when he writes some special paragraphs in regard to
the future of the half-breeds. Game was disappearing and the occupation
of freighting on the prairie was being rendered useless by the incoming
of railways. Perry says, "The mass of the half-breed population must
therefore turn their attention to other methods of making a living. They
have no alternative: farming must become their occupation in earnest.
The English and Scotch half-breeds have already done this successfully;
but very few of French descent have yet made any real attempt at it."
Perry was right. These people had the blood of the nomad and the
volatile in their veins. Perry continues, "As farming is the inevitable
pursuit of the French half-breeds, all who are friendly to them should
agree in urging and encouraging them to remain on their present
holdings, so that they may at once face their destiny and ultimately
obtain the position of a self-supporting people. They should be treated
with patience and aided generously, remembering that it is not easy for
white men possessing all the advantages of education and civilization to
change their occupation. Can the half-breed hunter or freighter be
expected to be more apt in adapting himself to change? It would be an
astonishing thing if they quietly and quickly adapted themselves to the
work of a farm on which success is only obtained by hard, patient and
continuous labour." And Perry goes on to advise special instruction for
these people. And he concludes, "There is a tendency on the part of some
to regard the problem of the future of these people as insolvable.
Knowing their many sterling qualities I cannot despair, but believe
their descendants will be prosperous and desirable citizens of our
North-West Territory." Words like these could not be written by a man
who contented himself with the routine duty of a policeman, but by a
wide-awake Canadian who was anxious for the future of his country and
his fellow-citizens, and it is because there were so many in the Force
who saw these questions in the light of Canada's future that we have
always placed the Mounted Police amongst the real nation-builders of
this new Dominion.
And the decade which ended with 1890 finds one of the new pages in the
story of the Police in the patrol by Inspector J. V. Begin across the
stormy waters of Lake Winnipeg up to the bleak shores of Hudson Bay at
the famous old post of York Factory. This patrol involved much hardship
and danger, but it stabilized conditions in that remote Keewatin area.
In this regard Inspector Begin's trip was successful, but during his
absence in the north there occurred the wreck of the Police boat on Lake
Winnipeg, taking down with it Corporal Morphy and Constable Beaujeu, to
both of whom the Inspector was warmly attached. They were splendid young
men, full of gallantry and courage, but they answered the last roll-call
while in the discharge of duty in a Force that has always been on active
service.