Policing the plains : $b being the real-life record of the famous Royal North-West Mounted PoliceMacBeth, R. G. (Roderick George)
History
Policing the plains : $b being the real-life record of the famous Royal North-West Mounted Police
MacBeth, R. G. (Roderick George)
Northwest, Canadian -- History; Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Accordingly, the next day Macdonnell personally accompanied Sitting Bull
to Poplar River, where the Chief handed over his rifle to Major
Brotherton of the United States Army in token of submission. Macdonnell
then arranged that the Sitting Bull band should be supplied with
transportation and food by Mr. Louis Legarre, a trader, at the expense
of the American Government, and thus they all crossed over the line. A
few years later there was some row on Sitting Bull's reserve over there
in connection with arrests, and in the confusion the famous old chief
was shot, it is claimed by mistake and unnecessarily. Thus ended the
stormy career of a man who seems to have been honest according to his
light in fighting for the rights of his people as he understood them.
His methods in war were no doubt barbaric and cruel enough, but some
civilized nations cannot throw stones at pagans in that regard.
I have written Sitting Bull's story as far as it affected Canada in some
detail, because it was in reality a series of events full of dangerous
possibilities. Papers and persons in Eastern Canada were demanding that
regiments should be raised and sent out to the West to cope with the
situation that foreboded war with the Americans, who had thousands of
picked soldiers on the border to keep the Indians down. But to the utter
amazement of Eastern Canadians and to the more profound surprise of the
Americans our handful of Mounted Police, with masterly diplomacy,
endless patience and steady, cool courage were able to handle the whole
situation and solve it without the loss of a single life on either side.
There are few such chapters anywhere in the records of history.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account