The majestic buffalo head dominates the North West Mounted Police’s first official crest. The proud motto: Maintain le droit (Maintain the right) appears in a maple leaf setting. (From The Canadian - Time Life Books 1977)
The Hudson’s Bay Company surrendered their deed of the vast territories and fur trading empire known as Rupert’s Land in 1869 to Britain and Canada. To provide policing services in the newly acquired lands now called North West Territories, a paramilitary force — the North West Mounted Police was created by the new Dominion of Canada’s government under Prime Minister John A. Macdonald in 1873. Recruitment ads read as follows: “Recruitment Between the ages of 18 and 40. Pay is 75c to $1.00 per day. Must read and write English or French. If you love adventure and hard work please apply today.” The Hudson’s Bay Company was bilingual-English and French and their factors in charge at the various forts also came to have knowledge in various First Nations languages. The language of the plains was French because the majority of the fur trading population apart from First Nations was French Canadian or Métis. — More history to come on the North West Mounted Police.
Contact Terri Lefebvre Prince,
Heritage Researcher,
City of Yorkton Archives,
Box 400, 37 Third Avenue North
Yorkton, Sask. S3N 2W3
306-786-1722
heritage@yorkton.ca
