Role of Rangers and Mounties Examined in Great Plains Quarterly

Lincoln, Neb., July 2nd, 2004 — In the 1870s, North American Indians fiercely defended the dwindling bison herds that still roamed in Texas and western Canada.

In the spring issue of Great Plains Quarterly, Andrew R. Graybill, assistant professor of history at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, writes that "Native efforts at self-preservation posed a significant threat to Euro-American plans for the frontier." The Canadian North-West Mounted Police and the Texas Rangers were created or reorganized in the 1870s in large part to control indigenous peoples. His study differs from other scholars who have regarded the post-Civil War anti-Indian vigilance of the Rangers as an inevitable conflict between cultures or who have insisted on the benevolence of the Mounties in executing Ottawa's Indian policy. Graybill asserts that the two rural police forces managed indigenous populations facing societal collapse by controlling or denying them access to bison.

In Texas, the U.S. Army was in charge of removing and controlling the remaining Comanche and Kiowa bands. However, the increased violence encountered by Texas residents from Natives searching for subsistence prompted the state to restore the Rangers, who were revered within Texas as experienced Indian fighters, Graybill notes.

In the late 1870s, the U.S. Army, escorting Kiowa and Comanche bands in search of food, sometimes found themselves facing the Texas Rangers, whom General John W. Davidson called "an armed mob" who killed "without any provocation." This continuing violence prompted Congress to pass a bill preventing reservation Indians from entering any part of Texas.

In contrast, Graybill notes that "Canadian officials in the early 1870s did not face the same troubling reality of Indian-white conflict that their Austin counterparts did." However, Ottawa wanted assurance that white settlers would suffer no harm from potentially defensive Natives and turned to the North-West Mounted Police for help. Their mission was essentially a nonviolent one designed to give confidence to Indians and settlers through negotiation.

The Mounties initiated the treaty processes that would obtain title to every acre of the prairies for Canada. Eventually the Cree and Blackfoot found maintaining access to hunting grounds was of little consequence if there were no bison on the prairies to hunt.

Graybill asserts that despite the difference between Ranger brutality and Mountie nonviolence, the constabularies still accomplished the same basic result - removing Indians to reservations by denying them access to the bison.

"Great Plains Quarterly" is edited by Charles Braithwaite and published by the Center for Great Plains Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The journal can be purchased from local bookstores and from the center at (402) 472-3082.

CONTACTS: Andrew Graybill, Assistant Professor of History (402) 472-3251 or Charles Braithwaite, Editor, Great Plains Quarterly, (402) 472-6178