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NWMP Museum is open for the season, with a new exhibit

The Northwest Mounted Police (NWMP) Museum is open for the first time in nearly two years, and it has a new exhibit.
Bud McArthur display
The Bud McArthur display is part of the reopened Northwest Mounted Police Museum in Estevan.

The Northwest Mounted Police (NWMP) Museum is open for the first time in nearly two years, and it has a new exhibit.

Located next to the Estevan Art Gallery and Museum (EAGM), the NWMP building features a variety of exhibits that chronicle the police force’s history and how it was formed. The museum was closed in 2020 due to the pandemic. 

The museum’s building was known as the Wood End Post, and was constructed in 1893, 19 years after the trek west of the NWMP.

“It’s talking about the area and the region, the trek they would have actually went through,” said Amber Andersen, who is the curator-manager of the EAGM.

The museum has a lot of artificats from John Pott, who is a retired RCMP officer, and Dawn Fehr. The upper floor has information related to Indigenous history in the area.

New for this year is an exhibit on Bud McArthur from the Pheasant Rump Nakota First Nations, his familial ties to the NWMP, and oral histories on sacred objects that belong to him.

“We don’t actually have the sacred objects, we just have pictures of them, and then there’s QR codes that people can scan onto their phones, and hear him talk about the objects,” said Andersen.

Bud McArthur has collaborated with the EAGM to re-evaluate historic and current events by focusing on Indigenous peoples’ perspectives and how they were impacted. To accomplish this goal, an ethnohistorical approach is utilized.

In 1873, Bud’s great-grandfather Arthur joined the NWMP in Barrie, Ont. Shortly after joining the force, he was transferred to a post in Wood Mountain – now a historic and archeological site in Saskatchewan – to monitor the whiskey trade in Saskatchewan and establish relations with First Nations people.

Arthur held the position of wagon master, delivering groceries and rations to the Indian bands as the buffalo, a significant resource for their livelihood had been eliminated by settlers.

In 1873, Pheasant Rump (She-ho-nee-tay Oyate), Bud’s great, great grandfather, was leading many Sioux people into Canada as a result of the betrayal of the Treaty of Fort Laramie and the impending violence of General Custer’s 7th Cavalry. The first stop they made on their migratory trail from South Dakota was to Roche Percee due to the fresh spring water source nearby.

Their food supply had begun to run low and shortly after, the NWMP found them and provided them with food and other resources. It was here, at Roche Percee, that Arthur met Marie (Sitting Stone Woman), Pheasant Rump’s daughter.

Arthur and Marie married that same year in 1874, at Wood Mountain.

In 1885, Arthur and Marie moved their expanding family to Warmley, where Bud’s grandfather, John was born.

In 1906, John McArthur and Philomene Rosette, Bud’s grandparents, married and began their large family of 11 children. Three of their children, Edward, Stephen, and Danny, were enlisted in the military and fought in the Second World War. Stephen was the only son to “return to Canada on his feet.”

Bud McArthur was born in 1941 during Stephen’s first marriage. He was born with lactose intolerance and left by his parents to be cared for by his grandfather. Bud lived in the hospital for the first six months of his life with the help of the Indian Agent’s wife to ensure he received treatment. She registered his birth on Oct. 15, 1941, but Bud had been born a number of months prior.

“John McArthur had a wealth of knowledge that he passed down to Bud. He taught him practical skills such as how to trap and sell pelts, train and breed horses, and work as a farm hand. He also taught him the value of a strong work ethic that Bud demonstrated throughout his many occupations.”

Bud began breeding quarter horses for the American Quarter Horse Association. His breed continues to earn a profit for Diamond King Ranch.

Rodeo was a place of refuge for Bud and other Indigenous people in the sport, who could maintain and express their connection to the animals through participation.

As a child, Bud started out riding thoroughbreds that his neighbour and his grandfather were raising, riding in small-town tracks and county fairs. At 14, Bud began riding saddle bronc, launching his career as a professional cowboy.

He worked for Gene Autry’s Wild West Show and rode in several Western films.

Bud obtained a diploma in range management and a diploma in agriculture and first aid for animals. He began his 32-year position within the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration in 1969 as the only First Nation descent to be employed by the PFRA and to graduate from their federal pasture program.

During this time he balanced raising a family, breeding horses, managing his riding stable Elk Hill Riding Stables, and organizing rodeos across Western Canada and parts of the U.S. At the end of his career, Bud’s hard work was recognized with a gold buckle and a gold lifetime membership card from the Canadian Cowboy’s Association. He was also the first Indigenous person to be awarded the Tiny Simpson Memorial Working Cowboy Award in 2014.

The NWMP Museum has undergone a lot of work since it was last open to create a better experience for viewers, Andersen said. 

The NWMP Museum is open Monday-Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday. If somebody wants to see the NWMP Museum, they need to check in at the EAGM.