the great Irish
diplomat realized what such men had done to make the great North-West
peacefully into being a part of Canada.

Soon after these treaties, the headquarters of the Mounted Police were
moved from Swan River, which had never been satisfactory, to Fort
MacLeod, where they arrived on October 22. Apart from Swan River being
unsuitable, it was evident that the centre of interest was gravitating
towards that part of the territories where the names of Forts MacLeod
and Walsh, Wood Mountain and Cypress Hills and other points were being
printed indelibly on the map of Western history. This portion of the
territory was close up against the international boundary line across
which might be heard the roar of fighting between the Sioux Indians and
the United States soldiery. To discuss that is not part of our story,
but the Indians there vehemently declared that they had been for years
robbed by swindling government agents and driven off their land by
unscrupulous gold-hunters and lawless speculators. And, as in many other
cases, soldiers who were themselves innocent of these things had to be
called on to fight the Indians who had grown savage under a sense of
wrong and who, savage-like, had taken revenge by killing whenever they
could. That very year, only a few months before the headquarters of the
Police were moved to Fort MacLeod, occurred the tragedy of the "Custer
Massacre," when that gallant soldier and his no less gallant men,
attempting the impossible, were wiped out completely by superior numbers
of Sioux under the redoubtable chiefs Sitting Bull and Spotted Eagle.
"The Long Hair," as General Custer was called by the Indians who always
admired his dash and courage, fought desperately to the end, and was
said to be the last man to fall. Only the arrival later of General
Terry, with whom Custer was to have co-operated, prevented still greater
disaster to the balance of the American force.

All this had its effect on our side of the border. It made our Indians,
Blackfeet, Bloods, Piegans and others, restless, and it became known
that the Sioux on the south of the line were making overtures to the
Indians on the Canadian side either to go over and fight the Americans
or to join with the Indians in the United States to drive all the whites
out of the country on both sides. Inspector Denny, who did much valuable
work in those early days and who made an arrest in a Blackfoot camp,
reported in August of 1876 that he