Jerry Potts

Jerry Potts with some Indigenous and NWMP friends.

Jerry Potts was 36 years old when Commissioner French hired him as a guide for the North-West Mounted Police.

Jerry Potts.

Born of a Blackfoot mother and a Scottish father lured westward by the fur trade, Potts had had a difficult life.

His father was killed when Potts was only two; his step-father was cruel.

When he was seven years old, his mother returned to her own tribe, leaving Potts in the care of the new manager of Fort Benton. Andrew Dawson taught Potts the fur trade.

During their travels, Potts learned several Indigenous languages. When he turned twelve, Potts joined his mother in Alberta, and learned to hunt and track. Potts worked for I. G. Baker and Company at Fort Hamilton, best known as Fort Whoop-Up. He kept the men in meat and translated for the traders and the Indigenous people. After finding his mother and half-brother dead, killed by drunks, Potts quit the whisky trade and moved back to Fort Benton.

Potts worked for the North-West Mounted Police for 22 years. He could track anyone, anytime and had an unerring sense of direction. He taught Macleod Indigenous traditions and helped him greatly in establishing the peace between Indigenous people and whites. He was trusted by both. He was indispensable in negotiations and counselled the Blackfoot to stay out of the 1885 Rebellion.

Potts lived with his family on the Peigan Reserve west of Fort Macleod where he ranched. He still occasionally helped the NWMP when he was needed. In 1896, Potts died at the age of 58.