March of the Mounties

Louis A. Knafla is a history professor at the University of Calgary.

The great march of the North West Mounted Police (NWMP) from Dufferin to
Fort Whoop-Up, between July 14 and October 10, 1874, began with 300 men,
310 horses, 142 oxen, 114 carts, 73 wagons, and 33 cattle. Over the
course of the 800-mile trek, the Mounties were greeted with rain,
storms, locusts, and a tornado. Cecil Denny’s The Law Marches West
(1939) is one of the significant original sources on that march and on
the establishment of Fort Macleod. In March of the Mounties there is no
editorial note stating what has been included or excluded from his
original publication, or any indication as to who did the excerpting.

Denny, an Englishman, was considerably successful in the many ventures
in which he participated, which included assisting in the construction
of Fort Macleod and Fort Calgary, serving as an Indian agent, ranching
in southern Alberta, serving as a police magistrate, and, finally,
serving as archivist for the Province of Alberta (1922-27).

The excerpts in this edition cover in some detail the march to Fort
Whoop-Up, the building of forts in southern Alberta, Native-white
relations, the Blackfoot treaty of 1877, cattle ranching and the early
cattle drives, the coming of the CPR, the early coal industry, problems
of law and order, and the North-West Rebellion of 1885. Denny saw the
establishment of a settled society as fraught with discord, from
systemic drunkenness to horse theft, murder, and failed government
promises. To the end, he remained a friend of Native Canadians, and a
vocal opponent of injustice.