North-West Mounted Police march west
The force created by Sir John A. Macdonald's government had 50 whites and 150 Metis. All had to be literate in either English or French. In 1874 the first recruits rode west from Dufferin, Manitoba, heading for the junction of the Bow and Belly Rivers in southern Alberta. One Troop soon turned for the Hudson's Bay post at Fort Edmonton. After months of hard travel, the others reached their destination and established the police post of Fort Macleod.
The NWMP force was charged with the duty of serving the nation and treating all equally, "without fear, favour or affection." Their first assignment was to find Fort Whoop-up and rout trouble- making American whiskey traders.
Times were bad for the people of the plains. The buffalo herds on which they had long depended were gone, and the Red River Rebellion had been suppressed. The previous year in the Cypress Hills, a grisly massacre of Assiniboine people had taken place, with both Americans and Canadians among the hunters.
It is widely accepted among non-aboriginal historians that the North-West Mounted Police earned the trust of the native peoples, helping them through some very bad times. Later, the government relied on the Mounties to persuade the native leaders to sign Treaties with the government.
William Henry Walden was born in 1857 in England and joined the new police force as a young man. The CBC digital archives have preserved an interview done with him when he was 109 years old. In it, he recalls his life with the North-West Mounted Police.