| Established in 1875 Fort Walsh would quickly become the most important, largest and most heavily armed fort the North West Mounted Police garrisoned during their early years in the West. In their time at Fort Walsh the mounties would chase whiskey traders and horse thieves; counsel and control desperate Native peoples dispirited by the disappearance of the buffalo, and supervise the thousands of Lakota refugees whose influx from the United States during the Great Sioux War of 1876-1877 would stretch their resources, and the fragile resources of the Canadian prairies, to the point of crisis. The story of Fort Walsh is one of fascinating detail and larger-than-life characters. Jerry Potts; Sitting Bull; James Walsh; Big Bear; James Macleod; Alfred Terry; White Bird; Little Pine; Sam Steele; Spotted Eagle; Rain-in-the-Face; Gall; Nelson Miles; Chief Joseph; Lief Crozier; John A. Macdonald; George Armstrong Custer; all these and more are part of the story of Fort Walsh. |
