The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1920-03-18
Northwest Mounted Police Loses
Identity as Civilization
Lessons Its Need.
BODY HAS STIRRING HISTORY
Ranged Far Into Arctic Wastes to Pun
ISL Crime, Maintain Order and Ex-
tend ReIief-Won the Conf
dence of the Indian.

Ottawa.-That famous corps, the
Royal Northwest Mounted Police, has
ceased to exist. 1t is now merged
with the Canadian mounted police.
For half century ''the scarlet and
gold' of the riders Of the plains had
been the symbol of law and order in
territory as vast as the United States
west of the Mississippi. From Hud-
son bay to the Rockies, from the Inter-
national Doun',ry to and beyond the
arctic circle Ley carried security to
the lav-ablding and terror to the law
breaking. On tn vast prairies, in
mountains and forest, through the ice
bound reaches of the arctic coast they
made 1.-THE long PATROL" protecting the
settler, succoring the weak and adj
ministering justice with relentless
hand to white and red, to British and
alien.
The march of civilization has
brought into ills vast territory pros
porous settlers, where the Royal North
west Mounted Police found the Indian
of the sun dance and scalp knife, the
excitab1e Metis (the French half-breed
Of the plains), and the outlaw who
sought this mo mans land" to escape
JUST and continue in crime. Tie In
dian and Metis are now peaceful farm
ers, the ranch has been replaced by
the farm, and railways now cover the
country as thick as the Indian trails
of the seventies. Only In the far north
is any of the original work of the po-
lice left. Here in the Great Barrens,
along lie desolate shores of Hudson
bay and the Arctic ocean, through the
Rockies to Dawson will "the scarlet
and gold' do the long patrol. The ia
nous corps has done it's work and has
lost it's identity in the new national
force. The uniform has been pre-
served; the romance and esprit dc
corps have gone.
Origin of the Corps.
For nearly two centuries the Hud-
son Bay company had ruled that vast
territory between Tudson bay and the
Rockies, when in 1870 the Dominion Of
Canada acquired possession. The great
company had been a guardian to the
warlike Blackfeet, Assiniboines and
Cree Indians an kept in a fashion law
and order. The hardy Scotch factors
had in many instances married into
the tribes and their influence was pow
erful and firm. Then came the change
in control. 1t became mo mans lcnd''
with the great company without au-
thority and the dominion government
withc It any machinery to enforce it's
edicts.
1t was dangerous period. The Unit
ed States government was seeking to
curb the fierce Sioux. They, in turn,
were making overtures to the Cana
dian Indians to join them. The whisky
runner was unchecked in his debauch-
cry of the Indian. 1t was at this pc
road that the Royal Northwest Mount
ed Police came into existence, and
since then have been the most potent
influence in preserving order in this
vast territory. Three companies were
modified at Winnipeg, or, as it was
then known, ''Fort Garry" Three other
companies came through the United
States and joined them, and in all 500
men restored and preserved order in
a territory as large as Europe, without
railway and peopled with nearly
100000 Indians rent with tribal wars
and embittered against the whites by
the depletion of the buffalo herds, the
almost sole source of their existence.
1t was then that the famous Scarlet
and gold" uniform was adopted. To
the Ir dian the fred" coat symbolized
the power of "the great white mother, ;
and Colonel Robertson-Ross organizer
of the force, suggested this uniform in
his report.
During my inspection In the north
west ascertained that some prejudice