Ric Hall: A Book Of Interest!

Recently we wrote about Inspector Francis Dickens, NWMP.   A friend of the Force from England, Windy Gale, made reference to a book called “Kent 1800-1899 A Chronicle of the Nineteenth Century”(published 2003) and is one of a series by Bob Ogley (a local historian) that mentions Insp. Dickens. CHECK OUR WEBPAGE HISTORICAL ERROR NO DOUBT HERE.

1884 – Photograph of NWMP Inspector Francis Dickens – taken at Fort Pitt (Source of photo – RCMP Historical Collections Unit – “Depot” Division).

Several readers sent me messages that I should try and track down a book called “Blood Red The Sun” written by William Bleasdell Cameron originally published in 1926, who was present at Frog Lake and witnessed the massacre and other events of the NW Rebellion. He and two women were the only three survivors of the massacre and were held prisoner for two months by the Indians.   The circumstances of Inspector Dickens abandonment of Fort Pitt are also described.

If you are at all interested in the early days of the NWMP and Canada, which seems few Canadians are these days, this book is an excellent reference.   To be sure the writing style of William Cameron is nothing like what you read today.   This book was last published in 1977 by Hurtig Publishing of Edmonton, which has gone the way of the Plains Bison. It is one of those books you might find in an old book stores or a garage sale!

I was fortunate enough to have a former work colleague and friend, veteran Fred Macht, send me his copy of the book. It was great fun to read it and hear from a person who had met and talked with many members of the NWMP and famous Indian leaders at the time, Big Bear and Wandering Spirit (there is more admiration than antipathy in Cameron’s description of Wandering Spirit in 1885: Stripped to the skin, wearing breech-clout and moccasins only, Winchester in hand and bands of cartridges encircling his body, astride his tall grey mare, his eyes flashing and black hair tossing in the wind. . .(he) is the living breathing illustration of a vanished type-the Indian warrior on the warpath.) during the crisis that was part of the North West Rebellion.

1885 – Photograph of North West Mounted Police members on parade (Source of photo – Ric Hall’s Photo Collection).

Taken from the book jacket of “Blood Red the Sun“:

“On the morning of April2, 1885, a group of Cree warriors from Big Bear’s camp gathered and killed most of the white residents of the tiny settlement of Frog Lake, Alberta. There were only three survivors.   Two of them were women, and one was a young man of twenty three-three, William Bleasdell Cameron.

Forty-one years after the massacre, Cameron set down his still vivid recollections in a book he called the “The War Trail of Big Bear”. He provided a detail background to the tragic event which occurred that spring morning and followed the story up to the trial at Regina of the Indians involved. But his book more than a chronicle; through Cameron, the reader experiences the haunting terror and sense of inescapable doom of the Frog Lake Massacre.

His portrayal of the Indians is frank in its description of the brutality of some – and the kindness and heroism of others -as epitomized in the persons of Wandering Spirit, the charismatic leader of the massacre, and Big Bear, the aged chief who tried to prevent it; for Cameron makes it clear that he owed his survival to the repeated intervention, at great risk to themselves, of a few Indian friends.

The author delves into the character and motivation of Wandering
Spirit, surely one of the West’s most enigmatic figures, an Indian as remarkable for his savagery as for his pathos; and he records the awesome dignity and eloquence of Big Bear on trial for a crime he had no part of and tried to prevent.   It is a scene as moving today as it was in the courtroom long ago.

The word’s in Cameron’s story are those of a participant and may be read with the knowledge that they are not merely the product of a writer’s imagination. In this, the fifth edition of Cameron’s original book, Blood Red the sun survives as one of the West’s most absorbing true adventures.

After the fateful morning in April 1885, William Bleasdell Cameron was ever after remembered as the only male survivor of the Frog Lake Massacre. He would have preferred to be remembered as a writer and journalist. His life was one of colourful and varied experiences, due chiefly to a rootless nature. He was only fifteen when he left the town of his birth, Trenton, Upper Canada, for the adventure of the Canadian North West. The first stop was Winnipeg, but a clerking job did not satisfy him; he headed further west and 1885 found him in charge of the Hudson’s Bay Company post at Frog Lake.   In later years he travelled widely and contributed short stories to leading British and American magazines. He was the editor of Field and Stream from 1887 to 1898, where he was first to bring national attention of a little known Montana artist, Charles Russell. Cameron lived to the age of eighty-eight.”

William Bleasdell Cameron, dressed in his outfit as guide and scout with the Alberta Field Force, with Horse Child, 12-year-old son of Big Bear. Horse Child was dressed up in Cameron’s collection of Indian regalia for the photo. They were photographed together in Regina in 1885 during the trial of Big Bear. Cameron testified in Big Bear’s defence. (Source of photo – Ric Hall’s Photo Collection).

Interesting to note in 1943-44, he held the position of curator of the RCMP Museum. He resigned his position there to take up mink ranching.

If you have old Force photographs that you like to be included in one of Ric Hall’s forthcoming webpages, please email him at rshall69@shaw.ca.