Wakamow Valley site of outdoor production, The Medicine Line

"One Bull, Tatonka, Terry, Walsh, Irvine."
The names echo through the early evening at Wakamow Valley as Philip Adams, a theatre director, says them through a megaphone.
Five actors take their places on some heaped up dirt serving as a stage.
Soon, a scene takes shape between the characters named by Adams: Tatanka Iyotanke (Sitting Bull), a Lakota Sioux leader; One Bull, Sitting Bull's nephew; Maj. James Walsh, an officer with the North-West Mounted Police (NWMP); A.E. Irvine, assistant commissioner of the NWMP; and Gen. Alfred Terry, a U.S. military commander.
It's clear there's conflict among the characters. Terry is outlining the conditions under which Sitting Bull and the Lakota Sioux, who have taken refuge in the Moose Jaw area, can return to the U.S. They must surrender their guns and horses at the border, and agree to be taken as prisoners of war to Fort Yates in North Dakota.
Sitting Bull is refusing the offer.
"This side of the Medicine Line does not belong to you," says Sitting Bull angrily.
Terry takes a step forward, and Walsh steps between Terry and Sitting Bull, preventing a physical altercation.
The scene is from Ken Mitchell's play, The Medicine Line, which will be performed outdoors in Wakamow Valley on Sunday, Aug. 16, and Monday, Aug. 17.
"The Medicine Line is the U.S./Canadian border," said Mitchell, explaining Sitting Bull's reference in the scene. "To the Sioux, it was a powerful, rather mysterious line that could keep the U.S. away."
The action of the play takes place from 1876 to 1881, beginning with the arrival of the Sioux in the Wood Mountain area near Moose Jaw.
Under the leadership of Sitting Bull, 5,000 Sioux members fled the U.S. after the Battle of the Little Bighorn.
During the battle, the Sioux had annihilated U.S. forces commanded by Lt.-Col. George Armstrong Custer.
"It was a great victory for the Sioux, but it resulted in an incredible uproar from the U.S. public, who demanded the remaining Sioux be hunted down and killed," said Mitchell.
Forced from the U.S., they settled in the Wood Mountain area and stayed for four years, despite mounting pressure on the Canadian government by the U.S. government to "deport" them.
Walsh, sympathetic to their plight, tried to help. He explained to the Sioux what the law was, and, if they obeyed, they could remain.
"It's an amazing story, the relationship between Walsh and the Sioux," said Mitchell. "I think Walsh was quite struck by the leadership of Sitting Bull."
By 1881, though, hunger and cold forced Sitting Bull and nearly 200 of the Sioux to surrender and return to the U.S. One year earlier, Walsh had been reassigned to a NWMP position in Ontario.
The Sioux who stayed behind were known as the Moose Jaw Sioux until 1920, when they were given a reserve at Wood Mountain.
Adams, the director of The Medicine Line production, said he knew the rudimentary parts of the Sioux's settlement in Canada.
"But what really struck me was the character of James Walsh, a great, interesting man who was not a soldier, he was cop.
"He wanted to help so much that he even took half the rations from his officers and gave them to the Sioux."

Where It's At
The Medicine Line
• Sunday, Aug. 16, and Monday, Aug. 17, 8 p.m. each night
•Speed skating oval at Wakamow Valley
Tickets are $10 each and are available at the Moose Jaw Cultural Centre box office, 693-4700, or through Ticketmaster at 1-800-970-7328 or www.ticketmaster.ca. Tickets will also be sold on a cash-only basis on site before each performance.