Sitting Bull's Boss: Above the Medicine Line with James Morrow Walsh [Paperback]

Ian Anderson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2000 | ISBN-10: 1895811635 | ISBN-13: 978-1895811636

James Morrow Walsh can rightfully be called the orginal Mountie. In late 1873 he led the first troop of scarlet-coated policemen toward the great Canadian prarie. In the summer of 1875 he was assigned to construct Fort Walsh in the Cypress Hills above the U.S. border. Below the border, or medicine line as the Sioux Nation knew it, 15,000 Native Americans were drawn a year later to the camp of Sitting Bull on the LIttle Bighorn River. By 1877, newspaper headliners from Chicago to New York tweaked the curiosity of millions by referring to Walsh as "Sitting Bull's Boss." The years leading up to those headlines and the times that followed were the most dramatic era in the history of the west.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Heritage House Publishing (November 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1895811635
• ISBN-13: 978-1895811636
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,675,205 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating look at a Canadian hero, March 6, 2002

By 

Shelley Mckibbon (Halifax, NS) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sitting Bull's Boss: Above the Medicine Line with James Morrow Walsh (Paperback)

Ever wonder where the myth of the stalwart Mountie, righting wrongs and doing good, came from? After reading this book, I am pretty sure it started with the Mounties themselves. When the Canadian government created the North-West Mounted Police to maintain law and order in the largely unsettled West, the call went out for "men of good character." It's clear that James Morrow Walsh was that and more.

This book, written by a former Mountie, follows Walsh's career and Sitting Bull's in parallel tracks. It's a story of deceit and betrayal, and also of honour and decency. The bond between Walsh and Sitting Bull was never broken, and is shown under the most unlikely circumstances. At the same time, the behaviour of the much-maligned Sioux people demonstrates the full injustice of what was done to them by the governments of both the United States and Canada.

There are times when one person, or a very few people, can make a difference just by their own personal qualities. When the NWMP were the only law in the Canadian West, interpreting it as justly and fairly as they knew how, men like Walsh did just that. It's a shame the governments in Ottawa and Washington didn't make more of an effort to do so, too.