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
never be able to repay him for his brave conduct." Thus did the Police
make the settlers' work possible, that they in turn might make the
railway a reasonably safe investment. Then, when the Indians became
awkward and threatened to stop the progress of the transcontinental
railway across the prairie, it was the Mounted Police that stepped in to
see that the road was not blocked. Eastern contractors and workmen, who
had not been used to seeing war-paint, were somewhat alarmed when a band
of Indians would swoop down with the air of people who owned the earth,
and in all such cases the Police were quickly called by wire or
otherwise. Superintendent Shurtcliffe tells of a rather odd case in
which an Indian chief with the appropriate name of "Front Man" stopped a
railway contractor from getting out ties and caused the whole outfit to
leave the bush in a good deal of panic. Shurtcliffe, a capable officer,
immediately sent for "Front Man" and told him how dangerous a thing it
was to interfere with the progress of work authorized by Canada. "Front
Man" realized that he had rushed in where he had no business, and on his
promising Shurtcliffe that he would behave himself, the contractor and
his men went back to their peaceable but very important tie business.
Then there was the case of Pie-a-Pot, who from the earliest days of
treaty-making was crochety and rather defiantly opposed to the incoming
of anything or anybody that would interfere with his nomadic habits and
general inclination to please himself. He showed a disagreeable tendency
to leave his reserve and wander with his camp following and general
entourage, much to the discomfort of others who were not desirous of his
presence. One day this chief took it into his head that he would wander
on to the right-of-way being mapped out for the Canadian Pacific, and by
spreading his camp across it put a damper on the enterprise. And he
succeeded up to a certain point. The engineers worked up to his camp and
politely asked him to move, but he laughed at them, enjoyed their
discomfiture, while his braves circled around with their ponies and kept
up a rifle fire to indicate what they could do to the engineers in case
of emergency. Of course, the engineers were glad to retire as gracefully
as possible, but they wired the Lieutenant-Governor that they were at a
standstill. The Governor sent word to Police headquarters, whence a
telegram went to the nearest Police post: "Trouble on railway. Tell
Indians to move on." There were only two men there, a sergeant and a
constable. They rode off at once, and when they arrived at the camp of
the Indians and delivered the order, Pie-a-Pot and his chief men, who
had not been much in contact with the Police, only laughed, while the
braves performed their usual firearm feats and the squaws jeered. Then
the sergeant indicated by showing his watch that he would give fifteen
minutes for them to start moving. At this the braves on signal circled
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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