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The North-West Mounted Police (NWMP) was a Canadian paramilitary police force, established in 1873, to maintain order in the new Canadian North-West Territories (NWT) following the 1870 transfer of Rupert's Land and North-Western Territory to Canada from the Hudson's Bay Company, the Red River Rebellion and in response to lawlessness, demonstrated by the subsequent Cypress Hills Massacre and ...
- Origins
- First Recruits
- The March West
- First Nations Relations
- North-West Resistance
- Law and Order
- Klondike and Arctic Expansion
- RCMP Established
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On 23 May 1873, the Canadian Parliament passed an act to establish “a Mounted Police Force for the North-West Territories.” Formerly known as Rupert’s Land, the domain of the Hudson’s Bay Company, the North-West Territories had been purchased by Canada in 1870. It included all of present-day Manitoba, and parts of Saskatchewan, Alberta and Canada’s...
The North-West Mounted Police (NWMP) was modelled after the Royal Irish Constabulary. Macdonald initially called it the North-West Mounted Rifles, but changed Rifles to Police to avoid arousing American suspicions. Reports from the West had stressed the symbolic importance of the traditional British army uniform among First Nations, so the NWMP ado...
On 8 July 1874, 300 officers and men of the NWMP set out from Dufferin, Manitoba, on a gruelling, two-month, 1,300-kilometre march across untracked prairie. Men and horses endured extreme weather conditions, hunger, foul water, illness, and hordes of mosquitoes and black flies before reaching La Roche Percee in southern Saskatchewan. There, the con...
For a decade and a half, the NWMP concentrated on building close relations with First Nations – ones that were complex, and not always beneficial to Indigenous people. The police forged diplomatic links with the Blackfoot Confederacy, which included a friendship between James Macleod and Isapo-muxika. Such relations allowed the NWMP to play an esse...
In the early 1880s, unrest smoldered among the Métis and on reserves due to the disappearance of the bison herds, crop failures, the overbearing manner of Canadian Pacific Railway surveyors, and disenchantment with the government in Ottawa. NWMP strength was increased to 500 men, but that was insufficient for growing responsibilities, which now inc...
After the resistance, the government increased the NWMP to 1,000 men and appointed Commissioner Lawrence Herchmerto modernize the force. Herchmer improved training and enhanced methods of crime prevention, therefore preparing the police to cope with the coming waves of settlers. The police performed a wide array of civic duties, from serving as pos...
Inspector Charles Constantine had already established an NWMP post near the Yukon community of Forty Mile, when, in 1896, news of a major gold strike on the Klondike River touched off a stampede of fortune seekers to the North. The NWMP quickly set up checkpoints on the routes to Dawson City, the gold rush capital. Their strict enforcement of regul...
During the First World War, members of the RNWMP were exempted from military service because they were needed on the home front to discourage acts of enemy sabotage. In 1920, the RNWMP merged with the Dominion Police to form the Royal Canadian Mounted Police(RCMP).
Learn about the history and role of the NWMP, the forerunner of the RCMP, in policing the Canadian West from 1873 to 1920. Find out how they ended the whiskey trade, suppressed the North-West Resistance and explored the Arctic.
Dec 10, 2019 · The North West Mounted Police enthralled a nation and the world. The symbol of a police officer clad in red serge, riding a horse to "always get his man", is one of Canada's most recognizable symbols. The NWMP, and now the RCMP, stand for honesty, courage, impartiality, tenacity and a job.
Learn about the early development of Canada's celebrated national police force, which began as the North-West Mounted Police (NWMP), through the historic places associated with this organization created to maintain law and order in Canada's West.
Search the database for names of North-West Mounted Police (NWMP) who served and were discharged between 1873 and 1904, and some members of the Dominion Police who also served with the NWMP. Find details such as physical description, age, former occupation, religion, postings, promotions, conduct, and more.
On 3 May 1873, Sir John A. Macdonald introduced a bill to establish a police force, para-military in nature, in the Northwest Territories. On 23 May the bill was passed; and, after receiving royal assent, the North West Mounted Police came into being.
In the Canadian Northwest near a settlement fort, Sgt. Jim Brent (Preston Foster) and Ranger Dusty Rivers (Gary Cooper) vie for the attention of government nurse April Logan (Madeleine Carroll ...
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