JJ-WSP-61 - Jeremiah “Jerry” Potts

Jeremiah “Jerry” Potts (1840 – July 14, 1896),

Jerry Potts also known as “Bear Child” was a half-blood Indian, half Scottish scout. In 1871, Potts' mother was murdered by a man drunk on "firewater." So, Potts declared his own personal war on the whiskey runners. By the time Potts was 36, he had killed at least 40 men, mostly whiskey runners.

In September 1874, Potts was trading horses in Fort Benton, Montana, when he was hired as a guide, interpreter and scout by the North West Mounted Police. Potts was already a legend in this part of the world, and became an extremely important part of the NWMP in his diplomatic communications between the police and the various native American tribes. His contract as a guide was to last twenty two years. He was paid three times a police constables salery. He ceased working at the age of fifty eight because of the pain from throat cancer, and was to die a year later on 14th July 1896 at Fort Macleod.

The Macleod Gazette and Alberta Livestock Record paid tribute to the man who “made it possible for a small and utterly insufficient force to occupy and gradually dominate what might so easily, under other circumstances, have been a hostile and difficult country. . . . Had he been other than he was . . . it is not too much to say that the history of the North West would have been vastly different to what it is.”

Jerry Potts was buried at Fort Macleod with the rank of Special Constable in the North West Mounted Police.

Scale: 1/30
Material: Pewter alloy and synthetic fibers
Released Date: May 2023