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Paul Sharp's Whoop-Up Country pulled us quickly from the Southern Plains of Webb to the Northern Plains. The Northern Plains Sharp focused on lay east of the Rockies and mainly in Montana and parts of Alberta and Saskatchewan. The title of the book comes from the Whoop-Up Trail. This trail crossed the forty-ninth parallel and was a trade route between Fort Benson, or the "Chicago of the Plains," and Fort Macleod. According to Sharp, this trail wrote its history in "whisky, guns, furs, freight, and pioneer enterprise." The main trade good that traveled this trail were the buffalo hides. The Americans also sold watered down whiskey to the Native Americans from Whoop-Up. Treatment of the Indians was one thing that set apart the Americans and Canadians. The Canadians tried to treat the Indians fairly and the Mounties helped that. One part of Whoop-Up Country that interested me was when he talked about the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. When the Mounties are portrayed on TV or in the movies they are often shown as very comical characters. Sharp shows them as law abiding good men, while he portrays Americans as lawless men, doing anything to make a dollar.
I enjoyed reading this book (or CD) much more than Webb. Sharp kept my attention and learning some Canadian history was interesting. Before this class, I don't think I've ever learned Canadian history. Also, unlike Webb, Sharp refers to this area as the Northern Plains. He realizes that there is more to the plains than just his area.