Views from Fort Battleford: Constructed Visions of an Anglo-Canadian West

W.J.C. Cherwinski is a history professor at the Memorial University of
Newfoundland and the co-author of Lectures in Canadian Labour and
Working-Class History.

In his second book on the venues associated with the Northwest Rebellion
of 1885, Hildebrandt shows that as the focus for mounted police
activities in the region during the early 1880, Fort Battleford was
extremely significant. There the force tried to duplicate society as
they saw it and, with exhaustive research, the author has attempted to
reconstruct that society. Combining an experienced eye for physical
detail with sensitivity acquired through exposure to the latest
historical literature, he concludes that the Mounties were not the
bearers of order and evenhanded justice, as they traditionally have been
portrayed, but the vehicle for the imposition of an alien upper- and
middle-class Central Canadian culture on the region. This he illustrates
through a detailed description of the physical characteristics of the
fort and the background and behavior of those who frequented it from
both inside and outside its walls.

Anyone familiar with the recent literature on the Northwest Rebellion
period should have no quarrel with Hildebrandt’s hypothesis. In fact,
in the context of the period one would be surprised if NWMP officers had
acted differently. Nevertheless, the book has considerable value for
other reasons. The author’s nose for visual presentation has resulted
in the publication of a number of photos and drawings not widely seen
before, and his consolidation of modern historical interpretation makes
this a useful reference.

The biggest problem with this book is that it lacks cohesion: the
reader has trouble deciding whether it is an account of the
Anglo-Canadian conquest and occupation of the West, a description of the
NWMP presence at Battleford, a catalogue of interesting data on
day-to-day matters at the fort and elsewhere, or a history of historic
site interpretation as it relates to one venue. Consequently, it does
not venture far from the collection of research reports that spawned the
volume in the first place.