Indian Posse

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Indian Posse, also known as the IP, is an aboriginal street gang set in Western Canada based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. It is one of the largest street gangs in Canada.^[1]

Criminal Intelligence Service Canada (CISC) has designated the IP as being a member of Aboriginal Based Organized Crime (ABOC), along with Redd Alert and Alberta Warriors. CISC asserts that the Indian Posse, in addition to engaging in marijuana cultivation, auto theft, illegal firearms activities, gambling, and drug trafficking, also supports and facilitates criminal activities for the Hells Angels motorcycle club and Asian-based networks. ^[2]

Stories have been dated back to the inception of the gang around 1990, but members have said that the very first generation of Indian Posse was actually formed in 1988, inside Stony Mountain Institution.^[3]

Members can be Aboriginal, White or Black, and all go by "blood in and blood out" common to many US prison gangs like Bloods. For 18 months and 2 weeks the Indian Posse ran a liquor board in Headingley, controlling the sale of liquor and liquor products.^{[citation needed]}

From news reports describing founding member of the Indian Posse, Richard Wolfe's insight of the Indian Posse gang was that they had a dream of being "proud Indians," who "would join the great Spirit in the sky." According to Richard Wolfe he said, "When you see Red, you see a proud Indian standing tall for what he or she truly believes in... We all have to remember we're in it together & will die together & sometime down the road we will need to be remembered as very proud Indians." Richard Wolfe was eventually convicted of attempted murder, and robbery while using a shotgun in 1996.

The reported recruitment incidents that have been particularly savage, where the initiation included having been forced to endure the 2 to 3 minute beating, that includes punching and kicking. The recruitment is often aggressively fought, which newly admitted prisoners were pressured to receive tattoos with the letters "IP" Indian Posse can also be identified by red bandanas.

[edit] Media appearances

Indian Posse was soon featured in the movie Stryker, Canadian-director Noam Gonick's 2004 movie about the Native street gangs in Canada. The movie Stryker highlights a turf war between the Indian Posse and the Asian Bomb Squad(ABS), a North-Ender Winnipeg street gang, specifically covering lives of each gang's prominent members. Gonick says Native Canadian street gangs are "armies of resistance," and use methods of self-protection for disenfranchised youth that eventually emerge following state-minority uprisings such of which Oka, Quebec in the 1990's. Gonick, in an interview with the Indian Posse members during the filming of Styker, quotes all of them as saying “it is about time some people gave us enough respect to make a movie about us and our gang.” The word "Stryker" is slang for a prospective gang member who is "hustling."