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Whoop Up Country: Paul F. Sharp

Not quite a picture of a "book," I guess, but nevertheless, this was a pretty good read. Sharp does a much better job of writing than Webb did hands down. This book kept my attention.

Sharp starts off defining the whoop up country. It lies east of the Rockies and into Montana, as well as stretching north into Canada. Sharp briefly points out some previous history, but quickly gets going. The Whoop Up Country got its name from the Whoop Up Trail, which ran north and south across the 49th parallel and served as a way to trade American whiskey for Canadian furs and buffalo products. Most of the trading took place at the biggest fort on the trail, Fort Benton. Sharp compares Fort Benton to Chicago in that it was thee economic location in the area. During the trading, we see how the Americans weren't being honest with the Indians. They would dilute their whiskey to waterlike proportions, and still make a bundle off the addicted Indians. It surprised me that the Indians could still get drunk off near water! This treatment led to bad relations and violent outbursts.

Since the area was becoming hostile, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police were created and sent out to restore justice. Before reading this book, I had a comic view of the Mounties, but afterward, I respected them and saw them in a new light. They upheld their values and sought out ferverently for lawbreakers while keeping to the laws of the government. Sharp's description of the Americans during this time was that of wild, lawless men, while the Canadians were gentile and quite 'English' in nature. Things remained the same in the area for a long time based on transportation. In was a long time before railroads breached the whoop up country, and Sharp talked about it's importance and how it contributed to Fort Benton's decline.

We still saw the difference on both sides of the 49th parallel. It surprised me that the thing connecting the two countries would cause them to drift further apart and be a center for bad relations among Americans and Indians. You would think commerece would bring groups together.

I enjoyed this CD (book). There were a lot of similarities between this and topics we have recently covered in the lectures, so it makes sense this book was assigned.