s they
were human beings of the male persuasion--crossed over from Montana on a
trading expedition. They were white men, but perhaps of various races,
for they were mostly adventurers who had served in the American Civil
War and had not much regard for human life. These men deluged an
Assiniboine Indian Camp with deadly whisky in return for every valuable
thing the Indians had to trade. And when the Indian Camp was ablaze with
the light of campfires and was a mad whirl of dancing drunkenness the
miscreant traders from the South, in a spirit of utter wanton devilry,
got under cover of a cut bank by the creek where the camp was, and
proceeded to shoot the Indians who were defenceless in their orgy. A
volley or two accounted for two score killed and many wounded, only a
few escaping to the hills. And this carnival of bloodshed was witnessed
by an American trader, Abe Farwell, who, being alone, was helpless to
prevent, but who testified as to the frightful occurrence.

Nor was this very far from the general order of the day. Bloods,
Piegans, Blackfeet, Crees, Assiniboines and the other tribes maddened
with doped liquor from outlaw traders, fought each other whenever they
met. And some cases were known where Blackfeet and Crees, implacable
enemies, happening to meet at some trading post, struggled with fierce
brutality, while the Hudson's Bay trader in the fort had to barricade
his gate and let them fight it out amongst themselves. I have myself
seen Indian braves with half a score of scalps dangling from their
belts, and others with no end of nicks in their rifle stocks to indicate
the number they had slain. Buffalo-hunters from the white and half-breed
settlements by the Red and the Assiniboine Rivers only ventured westward
in large companies heavily armed. Explorers ran great risks, and the
famous Captain Palliser had to hunt one whole winter with Old Sun, the
Chief of the Blackfeet, that he might become as one of that fighting
tribe and get leave to draw his maps.

Communication was difficult, but the news of these events of
frightfulness percolated through to Ottawa and the order went out in
September, 1873, that officers already appointed should proceed to
recruit in the Eastern Provinces and rush some part of the force to the
far West, so as to be on the ground by the next spring. The principal
recruiting officer seems to have been Inspector James Morrow Walsh, who
became one of the noted men of the Force in later ye