A BRIEF HISTORY

• Sir John A. MacDonald ( Prime Minister ) wanted to create a mounted police force to maintain law and order in the west and to encourage settlement.
• Some traders were trading whiskey, guns and ammunition with the Indian people for furs.
• Large numbers of bison were being killed and the Indian people feared that their way of life was changing.
• There was fighting between the Indian people and the whiskey traders and fur traders.
• An Act of Parliament was passed in 1873 to set up the North West Mounted Police force.
• The police force marched west and established Fort Walsh in the Cypress Hills ( Saskatchewan ) in 1875.
• Forts and posts were built as the force spread across the west.
• A post was built in Regina, Saskatchewan in 1882. It became the headquarters of the NWMP.
• In 1904 the name was changed to Royal Mounted Police, then to Royal Canadian Mounted Police in 1920.
• Since 1885 Regina has been the training center for the RCMP.