The Carter Report
Hidden for 90 Years But Coming Soon
The Carter Report
Update: The Carter Report appears to be a confidential document, and not just lost in the RCMP Johnson File at the LAC (Library and Archives Canada).
My researcher suspects author Barbara Smith made an ATIP (Access To Information and Privacy, equivalent to American FOIA) Request for all the documents in that file and eventually found this report by accident. Then she and/or the document was probably subject to some sort of censoring. Smith showed the report to author Ed O'Loughlin who wrote a fictionalized version in Minds Of Winter. I'm waiting to see if the Canada Archives will get back to us about this.
Here's what we've cobbled together so far from author Barbara Smith, who "Unearthed" it when they were unearthing the Trapper.
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RCMP Constable William Carter's Confidential "Albert Johnson" Report
(Snippet View)
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I found an entirely different story. Evidently, Johnson had roughly told them to take off and had even pointed a gun at them, when they came a-visiting at Johnson’s cabin.
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Knowing Indians very well, I can imagine they were curious about Johnson and wanted to know what he was doing in their trap area. Also, it is customary to give an Indian a drink of tea and something to eat. With repeated visits, Johnson’s food supply would soon be depleted, so he was stopping the visits in the bud.
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Retaliating, the Indians had decided to complain about Johnson to drive him out of the country, and this was what started the long series of 'hunts' which terminated in his death.
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... the dynamite did practically no damage to the cabin, and it wasn't until after Johnson had escaped the cabin was destroyed by manual labour, so that Johnson could not return and again use it as a so-called fort.
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...a piece of crusty snow had been placed near the fire on a twig, evidently so that it would melt into a cup. All of the utensils had been damaged by rifle fire... the imprint of the tin cup was in the snow...
Johnson carreid a bos of .22 amunition in his hip pocket. It was later determined that someone had hit the ammunition with a... bullet making quite a mess of his hip.
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...the official report... is lax in detailing some of the incidents, and covers up many blunders. Inspector Eames, Corporal Wilde and myself held a lengthy conference sometime after the conclusion of the case and, I presume, before the official report was forwarded 'outside. East even was discussed and the 'version' to be adhered to when discussing the case with the public was impressed upon me. I was also informed that it would not be necessary to report on my part in the matter as Inspector Eames would cover the entire case. At that time I did not inform inspector Eames that my instructions were to report personally to the Officer Commanding in Edmonton, who was also in command of the Mackenzie area; I was to provide a verbal account of the affair, as he suspected some inefficiencies of organization and co-ordination of personnel employed in the 'hunt'.