WSP-81
John Jenkins Designs
James Morrow Walsh (22 May 1840 – 25 July 1905)
Born in Prescott, Ontario, James Walsh was one of the original officers of the NWMP. Superintendent Walsh was assigned in 1875 to establish a post in the Cypress Hills in what is now Saskatchewan. The post was located here because of the 1873 massacre, an atrocity stemming from the illegal American whisky trade.
Walsh’s original role was to shut down this trade, but in June 1876 his position grew in importance when several thousand Sioux crossed the border into Canada, taking refuge there after the Battle of Little Big Horn. Walsh developed a strong friendship with the famous Sioux leader Sitting Bull, and successfully kept peace in the region. Walsh became famous in the American press as “Sitting Bull’s Boss”. In reality Walsh’s orders were to convince Sitting Bull and the Sioux to return to the United States, but the Canadian government decided that Walsh’s friendship with Sitting Bull was an obstacle to the Sioux’s return across the border.
In 1880 Walsh was transferred to Fort Qu’Appelle, Saskatchewan, and soon after he reluctantly resigned his commission.
In August 1897 during the height of the Klondike Gold Rush, Walsh was appointed Commissioner of the newly created Yukon Territory. He resigned in 1898, returning to Ontario where he died in 1905.
Mount Walsh a mountain peak in the Saint Elias Mountains in the Yukon is named after him.