Of the 7 significant ones: Éphrem-A. Brisebois
Éphrem-A. Brisebois was born in South Durham, Lower Canada in 1850. His family was well-educated, bilingual and deeply committed to the Catholic religion.
Although he was an excellent pupil, he left school at the age of 15 to enlist in the Northern Army in the last phase of the American Civil War.
His skills as a soldier earned him the designation as one of the first officers of the new North West Mounted Police on September 25, 1873. At the age of 23, Ephrem-A. Brisebois became the only francophone and perfectly bilingual commanding officer to participate in the Great March West of this new police force in 1874.
In April 1875, Brisebois received the order to establish an outpost (Fort Brisebois) near the Bow River, now the site of the city of Calgary. Father Léon Doucet is known as the first white man to have welcomed Inspector Brisebois and his troop upon their arrival.
In a de facto relationship with a Métis woman, he was also concerned about the disappearance of the buffalo. He saw it as a cause of famine for the PlainsIndigenous peoples and made an effort to enforce strict hunting regulations during his stay at the fort.
In 1875, he warned that unless these regulations were enforced, "the Buffalo will disappear in less than 10 years. These Indians will then be in a starving condition and entirely dependent upon the Canadian Government for subsistence.”The government was obliged to feed the Indigenous peoples before five years had passed.
Source: Dictionary of Canadian Biography; Suzanne de Courville Nicol - President of Bureau de Visibilité de Calgary; Denis Perreaux - Historian and Director of Société Historique Francophone de l'Alberta. Photo: Glenbow Archives (NA-828-1, 1876) Captain Éphrem-A. Brisebois, North West Mounted Police.