The Whiskey Trade
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- In Ottawa, Prime Minister John A. Macdonald wanted to send out a paramilitary force to secure Canadian sovereignty in the West and prepare the way for settlement. However, it was the whiskey trade that demanded immediate firm action.
- In exchange for buffalo hides from the Métis and Indigenous people, they traded such merchandise as blankets, guns and ammunition. However, their most profitable commodity was alcohol. Nicknamed firewater, their whiskey was a potent concoction adulterated with such ingredients as Jamaica ginger, red peppers, chewing tobacco and laudanum.
- That's enough fur for this bottle of whisky, ain't I right mate.
- Due to alcoholism, many First Nation people suffered malnutrition, diseases and death. Macdonald had received reports of the devastating effect of the whiskey trade on the Blackfoot, Blood, and other First Nations. Lieutenant William F. Butler, a British army officer sent to investigate conditions on the frontier
- On 8 July 1874, 300 officers and men of the NWMP set out from Dufferin, Manitoba, on a gruelling, two-month, 1,300-kilometre march across the untracked prairie. Men and horses endured extreme weather conditions, hunger, foul water, illness, and hordes of mosquitoes and black flies before reaching La Roche Percee in southern Saskatchewan.
- Meanwhile, the French went south to Fort Benton to purchase supplies and fresh horses. Then he and Assistant Commissioner James F. Macleod led “B”, “C”, and “F” Troops, and the remainder of “A” westward. Their objective was Fort Whoop-Up. Métis scout Jerry Potts served as a guide.
- Rats!
- The Fort Whoop-Up outlaws had fled before the police arrived. Indigenous leaders like Blackfoot Chief Crowfoot were pleased when the police arrested a few whiskey traders who were still in the area. The illicit trade had been quashed without a shot being fired.
- Looks like your going to jail!
- It's just our duty!
- Thank you so much!
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