What are the Mounties today?

In 1869 the Hudson's Bay Company gave up the huge northwest to Canada. For the 200 years leading up to Confederation, the Company's flag had flown over Western Canada. Nobody asked the 12,000 Métis living at Red River what they thought. Louis Riel answered with an armed uprising and took Fort Garry, the capital of the territory. The country's future was now at risk: without the interior, no Dominion could stretch from sea to sea. Troops from Ottawa won Fort Garry back in 1870. Riel escaped to the United States, and a new province, Manitoba, was created.

A seat in Parliament was won by Riel, yet he never sat in it. Westward settlement soon put Métis and Indian rights in danger once more. That brought a second rebellion in 1885, on land that is now Saskatchewan. The finest military commander the Métis had was Gabriel Dumont. Riel stood trial after the rebellion and was executed for high treason. Quebec objected to that decision very strongly. To many Canadians he remains a hero: the father of Manitoba and a defender of Métis rights.

The first Métis uprising pushed Prime Minister Macdonald to create the North West Mounted Police in 1873. Two jobs were given to the new force: bring calm to the West, and help with talks involving the Indians. Fort Calgary, Fort MacLeod and other posts it built have grown into today's cities and towns. Headquarters went to Regina. The force is now the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the RCMP or "the Mounties" — Canada's national police and one of its most famous symbols. Major General Sir Sam Steele was one of the colourful heroes to come from its ranks.