Sitting Bull

[Subdeacon Joe]

https://coolcanadianhistory.com/2019/03/31/s4e14-a-search-for-asylum-sitting-bull-in-canada/

 

Follow the link, play the 17 minute audio file

 

S4E14 A SEARCH FOR ASYLUM – SITTING BULL IN CANADA

By Davborys@Gmail.Com | March 31, 2019 | Comments0 Commen

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

The first commercial is only two minutes

[Buffalo Creek Law Dog]

They estimated that there were approx 5,000 Sioux in Canada during that period.  It took 75 NWMP to keep  the Sioux under control while they were in Canada.   NWMP Superintendent James Walsh told Sitting Bull that the Sioux could stay in Canada as long as they kept the peace and not to use Canada as a safe haven while sending raiding parties back and forth into the U.S.  The Sioux brought a number of 7th Cavalry items with them, some are currently in the RCMP museum at Regina, SK.  

I mentioned the following on another thread a few years back about Supt. Walsh acquiring a 7th Cav horse.  For those that may have missed it, here it is again.  Walsh came across a Metis cabin and there were several horses in the corral.  Walsh was looking them over when he spotted a grey horse that looked like it had breeding compared to the rest of the herd which were mostly Indian ponies. He whistled and it came to him and he then noticed it had 7th Cav markings.  He asked the Meti where he got it and was told the he bought it from a Sioux.  

 

Walsh bought the horse from the Metis and  later wondered if he did the right thing as it was U.S. Govt property.  He wrote a letter to the U.S. Authorities stating that he was in possession of this 7th Cav horse and did they want it back.  They replied that they had written off all the dead and missing 7th Cav horses and that he could keep it.  He ended up naming the horse, Custer.

 

Just as an aside, Walsh always wore his uniform when visiting the Sioux camps, but otherwise when on a regular patrol, he wore Mounted Police boots and trousers with a buckskin jacket and a cowboy style hat.  He also had the big moustache and that little tuft on the lower lip.  In photos, he always reminded me of Custer when wearing that outfit.

[Pat Riot]

Couldn't get past the ad so I bailed...

[Utah Bob #35998]

5 hours ago, Buffalo Creek Law Dog said:

They estimated that there were approx 5,000 Sioux in Canada during that period.  It took 75 NWMP to keep  the Sioux under control while they were in Canada.   NWMP Superintendent James Walsh told Sitting Bull that the Sioux could stay in Canada as long as they kept the peace and not to use Canada as a safe haven while sending raiding parties back and forth into the U.S.  The Sioux brought a number of 7th Cavalry items with them, some are currently in the RCMP museum at Regina, SK.  

I mentioned the following on another thread a few years back about Supt. Walsh acquiring a 7th Cav horse.  For those that may have missed it, here it is again.  Walsh came across a Metis cabin and there were several horses in the corral.  Walsh was looking them over when he spotted a grey horse that looked like it had breeding compared to the rest of the herd which were mostly Indian ponies. He whistled and it came to him and he then noticed it had 7th Cav markings.  He asked the Meti where he got it and was told the he bought it from a Sioux.  

 

Walsh bought the horse from the Metis and  later wondered if he did the right thing as it was U.S. Govt property.  He wrote a letter to the U.S. Authorities stating that he was in possession of this 7th Cav horse and did they want it back.  They replied that they had written off all the dead and missing 7th Cav horses and that he could keep it.  He ended up naming the horse, Custer.

 

Just as an aside, Walsh always wore his uniform when visiting the Sioux camps, but otherwise when on a regular patrol, he wore Mounted Police boots and trousers with a buckskin jacket and a cowboy style hat.  He also had the big moustache and that little tuft on the lower lip.  In photos, he always reminded me of Custer when wearing that outfit.

  If the Sioux had decided to go out of control the NWMP might have needed more than 75.

 

[Buffalo Creek Law Dog]

History shows that the Mounted Police maintained control for the duration.  The key was not to show fear.  When Sitting Bull himself arrived in Canada, Walsh, a Sgt, 3 Constables and an interpreter rode into Sitting Bull's camp and read him the riot act stating, this is what you can and cannot do while in Canada, then they camped within the Sioux lines and left the next morning.  Later, when the CPR was going through what is now Saskatchewan, the Assiniboine Indians pulled out 25 miles of survey stakes and put their camp on the right of way to prevent the CPR from going through and wouldn't move when the train crews asked them to leave.  The NWMP sent a Sgt and 2 Constables who gave the chief 5 minutes to move his tipis off the RR right of way.  They refused. When 5 min were up' the Sgt dismounted and proceeded to knock down the chief's Tipi and moved to kick down the next one and the Indians decided to leave.  And as I mentioned in another post, The newspaper in Fort Benton, Montana wrote that "the Mounted Police don't scare worth a damn."

 

James Walsh was later known as Sitting Bull's boss.  Sitting Bull used to refer to Walsh as, "the Major" as that was Walsh's rank when he was in the military.  At the beginning, the commissioned officers of the NWMP who served in the military prior, didn't like using the police ranks, so they used their former military ranks until it was finally ordered that they had to use, Inspector, superintendent, Assistant Commissioner, etc.

[Rye Miles #13621]

But was Elizabeth Warren there?

[Yul Lose]

20 hours ago, Pat Riot, SASS #13748 said:

Couldn't get past the ad so I bailed...

Same here.

[Nasty Newt # 7365]

The reason the NWMP were easily able to maintain order was because the Sioux didn't want to be kicked across the border.

[Buffalo Creek Law Dog]

3 hours ago, Nasty Newt # 7365 said:

The reason the NWMP were easily able to maintain order was because the Sioux didn't want to be kicked across the border.

 

There is truth to that, Newt.   The Sioux were escaping from the wrath of the U.S. Army.  Canada wanted them to go back to the U.S.,  because it was difficult to feed that many Indians when Canada had its own Indians to look after.  Canada appealed to the U.S. Authorities to come and urge Sitting Bull and his followers to return to the U.S.  They sent General Alfred Terry (of Little Big Horn fame) with a small group including two eastern newspaper reporters to Fort Walsh, with the task of convincing Sitting Bull et al to return to the U.S.   Supt Walsh convinced Sitting Bull and the other chiefs to come to Fort Walsh and meet with General Terry.  They came but would not acknowledge Terry's presence and turned down the offer to return to the U.S.  

 

The Canadian government then decided to starve them out.  The buffalo were pretty well gone and the NWMP were instructed not to feed the Sioux.  Sitting Bull et al reluctantly returned to the U.S. and turned themselves in at Fort Buford, North Dakota.

 

Just as an aside:  A little earlier, when the Nez Perce were escaping to Canada with the U.S. Army on their tail, the Sioux wanted to cross the line to assist the Nez Perce in making it to Canada.  Walsh moved into Sitting Bulls camp with the sole purpose to ensure that Sitting Bull and any of his followers did not cross into the U.S. to help the Nez Perce.  He told Bull that if they crossed back into the U.S.and tangled with the U.S.Army while trying to help the Nez Perce, they would not be allowed back into Canada.  The main party of the Nez Perce were captured by the U.S. Army before they made it to the border however, a few made it across into Canada and the Sioux took them in.