By Melanie Jacob
Journal Editor
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With 2014 marking 100 years since the First World War, it's appropriate that Canadians recognize and commemorate the contributions of military and police everywhere. One of the best ways to do that is by reviewing some of the stories that lay hidden beneath ground level at the Humboldt Royal Canadian Legion museum.
Fortunately, some new items have just come in for visitors to appreciate. Jim Warden has recently relinquished his old uniforms that illustrate a proud 35-year career as an RCMP officer. The crown jewel of his collection is his buffalo skin coat, a garment rarely seen nowadays - even in the closets of old-time Mounties. It was the warmest coat of its time period though, being made from bison fur.
"When the garments became available, I was very excited because we try to tell the whole story," said Al Hingley, president of the Humboldt Royal Canadian Legion museum. "It's our social history - not just when they're overseas, but on the home front as well. The buffalo coat brings the buffalo connection back, which is so integral to the story of Saskatchewan."
Warden retired in 1998 and has held onto the coats for the past 14 years. He planned to give them to his kids, but realized they wouldn't be able to do anything with them. The uniforms span the generations of styles and an era of policing that Warden believes has long passed.
"I wouldn't want to be an RCMP now. I would if I could go back and do it in my time period," he said. "It's not what it was even in 1998. Even younger RCMP officers now have no clue what we went through."
For Warden, these old uniform coats represent a time when the Mounties were seen as wholly respectable, dependable, and trustworthy figures in the community. Their word was trusted in a court of law and public perception wasn't against them.
Now it seems as though those public perspectives have gone the same way as the buffalo skin coat: unfavourably. Many people these days won't hesitate to jump to accusations of police brutality, racial profiling, sexism, etc.
The buffalo coat in particular is a relic simply because it was discontinued by the late 1960s, due in part to conservation efforts to protect the endangered bison. Although some coats were left at the northern detachments for officers' use, production of them had ceased. It was how Warden managed to get and keep one.
Now he's saying goodbye to the coats like he's saying goodbye to the past.
"I was cleaning out our garage and I found this stuff and I knew I had it and it was time to not haul it around anymore and give it a new room," he said. "It loses the sentimentality. Nowadays, I don't think younger generations are into it No sense in throwing it away. I don't believe in throwing that stuff in the garbage if a museum can use it."
For Hingley, it serves a different, but just as fulfilling a purpose as it did on Warden's back. Like Warden, he hopes that people will come to appreciate the history these items carry.
"I'm thankful to Jim for the items," he said. "We never had a buffalo coat because the rarity of it made it unavailable."
