THE SOLDIER POLICE OF THE CANADIAN NORTH-WEST.

Otago Witness, 25 January 1900, Page 63

THE SOLDIER POLICE OF THE CANADIAN NORTH-WEST.

(W. A. Fhashe, in Pearson's Magazine.) In 1873, 150 men were sent to Manitoba from Eastern Canada. That wti=! thfe beginning of the North-west Mounted Police. The following year the force, 300 strong, marched to the Kocky Mountains. That was the beginning of the movement which has culminated in the dominating of the whole of North-west, Territories by the^e men. Within a few shears the force was increased to 500 men, and during the Riel rebellion it nuui bered 1000. It was divided into ten •ivisions, each division being designated by a letter and the depot. In 1894- il was reduced to 750 men. ... - When Piapot — res>tles ? , quarrelsome, drink-loving Piapol — and Ills y.varthy, hawk-faced following of Crees and Saultaux, hundreds of them, spread the circles of their many smoke-tanned tepees near the construction line of the Canadian Pacific railway, beyond Swift Current, there was inaugurated the preliminary ot a massacre, r.n Indian war, the driving out of the rail way hands, or whatever other fanciful form of enterlatinment the fertile brain of Piapot nviv devise. . . . The railway .naiiagenwit sent a remonstrance to the powers. The Lieutenant-governor issued an order, and two policemen — two plain, red-coated, blue-trou-seied policemen — rode forth carrying her Ma-jes-ty'f commards. Not a brigade, nor a resiment, nor a troop ; not even a company. Even the officer bearing the written order was but a ser&eant. With him was one constable. That was the force that was to move this turbulent tribe froir the good huntingground they had struck to a secluded place many miles "aw ay. It was like turning a. kingoff his throne. Piapot refused to move, and treated the bearer of the Pale-face Mother's message as only a blackguard Indian can treat a, man who if> forced to listen to his insults without retaliating. The sergeant calmly g-ave him 15 minutes in which to commenco striking camp. . . . When the fifteen minutes were up, the sergeant threw his picket line to the constable, dismounted, walked over to Chief Piapot's grotesquely painted tepee, and calmly knocked the keypole out. . . . All the warriors rushed for their guns ; but the sergeant continued methodically knocking keypoics out, and Piapot f-aw tho game was up. He had either got .0 kill the sergeant— Ptick his knife into the heart of the whole British nation by the murder of this unruffled soldier — or give in and move away. He chese the latter course, for Piapot had brians. After the killing of Cusler, Sitting Bull became a more or less orderly tenant of her ilajcty the Queen. With 900 lodges ho camped at Wood Mountatin, juM; over the border from Montana. An arrow's flight j from his tepees was the North-west Mounted Police poft. One morning the police discovered six dead Saultaux Indians. They had been killed and scalped in the mo»t oppi oved Sioux fashion* Each tribe has a trade mark of its own in the way of taking scalps ; some are broad, some are long, some round, some elliptical, some more or less square. These srix Indians had besn scalped according to the Sioux design. Also a .seventh Saultaux, a mere lad, and still alive, had seen tho thing done. The police buried the six dead warriors, and took the live one with them to the police post. Sitting Bull's reputation was not founded on his modesty, and with characteristic audacity he came, accompanied by four minor- chiefs and a herd of hoodlum warriors, and mads a demand for the peventh Saultaux — the boy. There were 20 .policemen backing Sergeant M'Donald; with the chief there were at least 500 warriors; so what followed was really an affair of prestige more than of force. When Sitting Bull arrived at the little picket gate of the post, he threw his squat figure from his pony., and in his usual generous, impetuous manner, rushed forward and thrust the muzzle of his gun into Sergeant M'Donald's chest, as though he would blow the whole British nation into smithereens with one pull of his finger. M'Donald was of 'the sort that lake things coolly — he was typical of the force. He quietly pushed the gun to one side, and told the five chiefs to step inpide, as he was receiving that afternoon. When they passed through the little gate, he invited them to stack their arms in tho yard, and come inside the house and pow-wow. They demurred, but the sergeant was firm ; finally, the arms were stacked and the chiefs went inside to djecuss matters with the jiolice. Outside the little stockade it was playday in Bedlam. The young bucks rode and whooped, and fired their" guns ; they disturbed the harmony of the afternoon tea, as the sergeant explained to Sitting Bull. "Send your men away," he told him. The Soiux chief demurred again. "Send them away." repeated the sergeant, "if you have any authority over them." At a sign Sitting Bull and the chiefs made towards the door ; but there were interruptions — red-coated objections. And the rifles of the chiefp were stacked in the yard outside. Sitting Bull, like Piapot, had broins; likewise was he a trood general. He nodded approvinpflv at this coup d'etat, and told one of the chiefs to so out and send the boys away.

When the young bucks had withdrawn to their own camp, the sergeant persuaded Sitting Bull and the others Lo remain still a little longer, chiefly by force of Ihe red-coated arguments he brought to bear upon them. "Tarry here, brothers," he said, until I send Constable Collins and two others of my men to arrest the murderers of the dead Indians. The Saultaux are subjects of the Queen, and \vg cannot allow them to be killed for the fun of the thing. Also has the boy told us who the nuirdcrors are." Then Constable Collins — big Jack Collins, wild Irishman and all the rest of it — went over to the Sioux camp, accompanied by two fellow-policemen, and arrested three of the slavei'9 of the dead Tnclians. It was like going through the Inquisition for the fun of the thing Not a sign of annoyance had e-caped the constables up io tho time a big Indian stepped up directly in front of Jack Collins and spat in his face. Whirra, Whirroo ! A big, mut-ton-legged fist shot through the prairie air, and the Sioux brave, with broken nofe. laj r like a crushed moccasin at Jack's feet. "Take that, ye black baste!" he hissed between his clenched teeth. "An' ye've made me disobey orders, ye foul fiend !" Then 1)9 marched his prisoners into the post, and reported himself for misconduct for striking an Indian. Tho threo prisoners wore sent to Rogina, and tried for the murdei. Ido not know whether Jack was punished for his handiwoik or not, though it is quite likely that he was strongly censured at least.

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