Celebrate Waverley: North West Mounted Police Trail

In 1875 the NWMP established Fort Walsh to maintain peace in the Cypress Hills region and to express sovereignty over the newly acquired North West Territory.

A year later, in 1876 Sitting Bull and about 5000 Lakota Sioux sought refuge from the U.S Army in the Wood Mountain region following the Battle of the Little Bighorn in Montana.

Sitting Bull

General George Custer and his seventh Cavalry were badly defeated after a careless attack on the Sioux and the Canadian government were concerned that Sitting Bull might be dangerous to the Canadians. Superintendent James Morrow Walsh rode into the Sitting Bull Camp with only a handful of constables set on laying down the laws to the Sioux and Sitting Bull agreed to respect them.

Fort Walsh was made a headquarters of the NWMP and a former Boundary Commission depot at Wood Mountain became a crucial outpost of Fort Walsh. Superintendent Walsh and the NWMP stationed at Fort Walsh and Wood Mountain were in charge of maintaining peaceful relations with the Lakota people.

Superintendent James Morrow Walsh

The Lakota Sioux respected the laws throughout their stay but the Canadian Government never granted them permanent status and by 1879 they were beginning to starve due to fires set in the U.S that prevented the Buffalo to come north. The U.S Government offered them amnesty and food so many of them left, leaving Sitting Bull and only a few hundred of his followers behind in Canada.

A trader from Willow Bunch, Jean-Louis Legare tried his best to provide food to the remaining starving Sioux but could only do so much. Sitting Bull excepted defeat and returned to the U.S with a few of his people. Sitting Bull was promised not to be harmed upon his return to the U.S but in 1890 he was arrested on a bogus charge. His followers tried to rescue him and a fight ensued and Sitting Bull was killed by soldiers and police.

Between 1959 and 1964 markers were set up to mark the route the NWMP took between Fort Walsh and Wood Mountain Posts. The markers are white with a metal plaque on the top that points in the directions of the trail. Several of these markers are located in the RM of Waverley #44.