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Fort Walsh National Historical Park
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July 31, 2015
Maple Creek
by: Timothy W. Shire
images by: Judy and Timothy Shire
Maple Creek
by: Timothy W. Shire
images by: Judy and Timothy Shire
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Everything has to get it’s start somewhere, sometime and the iconic Royal Canadian Mounted Police got their start right here in Saskatchewan. The vast plains of Western British North America had a small population of aboriginal people, who sustained themselves by harvesting some bison each year, Their population was directly related to the number of bison available. The imbalance that came to the west was the introduction of European settlers, who poured out of war torn Eastern United States and into the whole West of the continent.
The end of the civil war had triggered several other events including the formation of a united Dominion of Canada, which saw America as a real and present danger, having already launched an invasion in 1812, it was unlikely, they would respect the new borders. Such was the case in the West, where American traders and renegade unemployed desperate soldiers decided to conquer the West, killing the bison and exterminating the aboriginal population. These people did not respect the border and were carrying on as they had in South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana, in what is today Southwestern Saskatchewan.
Realising that sovereignty would have to be established, the government in Ottawa established a military force they dubbed the Northwest Mounted Police and their first outpost and headquarters was established in the Cypress Hills at the site of an American raid that had killed a significant number of aboriginal people near an American trading post. Fort Walsh, not only served as the headquarters for the Mounties, but was the administrative capital of the territories until that was moved to the fort at Battleford. After the Northwest Territories became Saskatchewan and Alberta the military police force were renamed the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
Historically this site is the defining beginning of a sovereign Dominion of Canada and we had the opportunity to visit the preserved and staffed historical site with the Wheatland Sams group.
Tuesday, July 14 turned out to be a beautiful sunny and hot summer day, a perfect day for such and expedition. We arrived at the park reception centre shortly after noon and then began the tour. This involved a trek of about a quarter mile down hill to the fort. From the top of the hill it is a beautiful sight with a creek, the restored trading post, the fort with its stockade and a few military tents of the era. As I gazed down that hill I realised I could make it down there, but would take several days of rest to be able to climb back up, so I bailed out and found a seat.
My partner discovered that the park service had a shuttle van for people like me and she dispatched the park staff to come and gather me up and bring me down to the fort. Splendid!
I arrived, joining the group as the tour guide was finishing up her opening briefing. The park service people are truly remarkable. Our tour guide is in her eighth year guiding tourists through the site and every question put her was not only concisely answered, but evoked yet another story to illustrate the discussion.
The tour mapped out the reason for the fort and the importance of bringing law and order to Canada, thus avoiding the chaos and slaughter south of the border. One of the main events in the history of the fort involved the slaughter. The battle at the Little Big Horn was a clear act of American genocide and the spiritual leader of the Souix, Chief Sitting Bull, brought 5,000 refugees to Canada to avoid their extermination. The Mounties had met them and they encamped at Wood Mountain, near the early Francophone settlements that were establishing in the area. Remnants of that band of refugees are still here in Saskatchewan at the White Bear, Carry The Kettle and Piapot reserves, but the majority did return to the States where they were further persecuted and their numbers diminished.
One of the highlights of the tour was the remarkable role playing parks worker who was assigned the task of white washing the jail. Throughout her presentation to us she remained in character fielding questions and adding more embellishments to her character.
Most of our group accessed the shuttle service and took the ride back up the hill ,while some of our group went over to the trappers cabin and the trading post right in the setting of the tragic massacre that had initiated the placing of the fort in the first place.
You can share in our visit by looking through the pictures both Judy and I took.
The end of the civil war had triggered several other events including the formation of a united Dominion of Canada, which saw America as a real and present danger, having already launched an invasion in 1812, it was unlikely, they would respect the new borders. Such was the case in the West, where American traders and renegade unemployed desperate soldiers decided to conquer the West, killing the bison and exterminating the aboriginal population. These people did not respect the border and were carrying on as they had in South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana, in what is today Southwestern Saskatchewan.
Realising that sovereignty would have to be established, the government in Ottawa established a military force they dubbed the Northwest Mounted Police and their first outpost and headquarters was established in the Cypress Hills at the site of an American raid that had killed a significant number of aboriginal people near an American trading post. Fort Walsh, not only served as the headquarters for the Mounties, but was the administrative capital of the territories until that was moved to the fort at Battleford. After the Northwest Territories became Saskatchewan and Alberta the military police force were renamed the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
Historically this site is the defining beginning of a sovereign Dominion of Canada and we had the opportunity to visit the preserved and staffed historical site with the Wheatland Sams group.
Tuesday, July 14 turned out to be a beautiful sunny and hot summer day, a perfect day for such and expedition. We arrived at the park reception centre shortly after noon and then began the tour. This involved a trek of about a quarter mile down hill to the fort. From the top of the hill it is a beautiful sight with a creek, the restored trading post, the fort with its stockade and a few military tents of the era. As I gazed down that hill I realised I could make it down there, but would take several days of rest to be able to climb back up, so I bailed out and found a seat.
My partner discovered that the park service had a shuttle van for people like me and she dispatched the park staff to come and gather me up and bring me down to the fort. Splendid!
I arrived, joining the group as the tour guide was finishing up her opening briefing. The park service people are truly remarkable. Our tour guide is in her eighth year guiding tourists through the site and every question put her was not only concisely answered, but evoked yet another story to illustrate the discussion.
The tour mapped out the reason for the fort and the importance of bringing law and order to Canada, thus avoiding the chaos and slaughter south of the border. One of the main events in the history of the fort involved the slaughter. The battle at the Little Big Horn was a clear act of American genocide and the spiritual leader of the Souix, Chief Sitting Bull, brought 5,000 refugees to Canada to avoid their extermination. The Mounties had met them and they encamped at Wood Mountain, near the early Francophone settlements that were establishing in the area. Remnants of that band of refugees are still here in Saskatchewan at the White Bear, Carry The Kettle and Piapot reserves, but the majority did return to the States where they were further persecuted and their numbers diminished.
One of the highlights of the tour was the remarkable role playing parks worker who was assigned the task of white washing the jail. Throughout her presentation to us she remained in character fielding questions and adding more embellishments to her character.
Most of our group accessed the shuttle service and took the ride back up the hill ,while some of our group went over to the trappers cabin and the trading post right in the setting of the tragic massacre that had initiated the placing of the fort in the first place.
You can share in our visit by looking through the pictures both Judy and I took.
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