Dawn Ostrem
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Apr 12/00) - A stone wall containing 52 names of former RCMP members who have died during their stations in the North will be unveiled tomorrow.

At 3 p.m. all Northern detachment commanders and the head of the RCMP, commissioner Phil Murray, and other high-ranking officers from Ottawa will be in Yellowknife to take part in internal meetings and to witness the unveiling of the Wall of Honour.

"We had such a rich and colourful history in the North and through the course of it many fellows died," said Sgt. Phil Johnson, unit commander in charge of G division's community policing.

"Some died of unknown causes. They were in an isolated place and sometimes no one knew what they died from."

But some of the names on the wall, built by local builder John Pistak, are characters in very famous stories and histories that have reached far outside the North. The story of mad trapper Albert Johnson from Rat River, which was made into a film starring Charles Bronson, tells the story of a man gone crazy from living alone in the bush in the 1930s.

After shooting Const. Edgar Millen, who was investigating destroyed traplines, a manhunt lasting months was carried out before Johnson was tracked down and killed.

Millen's name appears on the wall as well as the names of the four RCMP officers who became lost while on dog-sled patrol from Fort McPherson to Dawson City.

"They became lost but their bodies were eventually found," Johnson said.

"They had to eat the dogs to survive as long as they did."

One member currently working at the Yellowknife detachment will be presenting the name of Otto Binder on the Wall of Honour.

The member is the husband of Binder's great granddaughter. In 1922 Otto Binder Sr., a special constable for the RCMP, was shot when he went to investigate a situation at the detachment at Tree River near Coppermine.

"The corporal there had two Inuit prisoners charged with murder but didn't have a cell so had them under house arrest until they were transferred for trial," Johnson explained.

"One shot Cpl. Bill Doak while he was asleep.

"(The prisoner) said he shot him and watched him die over a three-hour period."

When Binder came to investigate he was murdered as well, as his wife watched from her residence.

While doing the research for this project, Johnson discovered that every name has a story.

The wall was erected in November and is only being shown to the public now after research into finding names and the stories behind them has been done.

"By doing research I learned a lot about the RCMP in Canada and by contacting distant relatives I've come to realize the significance this monument has for them," Johnson said.

"They recognize what the company is doing for them years later and that makes them proud, and in some cases, very emotional."

The RCMP have been the only policing service provided in the NWT, Nunavut and the Yukon for the past 100 years and the names include victims of mishaps, accidents, diseases and the violent actions of others.