Manitoba’s Dakota-Ojibway Tribal Police and Alberta’s Blood Tribe Police Force are two of a handful of autonomous police departments run for and by Canada’s First Nations communities. They are also two of the largest. Being a female Aboriginal police officer serving on either detachment goes a long way in dealing with the variety of calls that come in. Having been raised within the community they serve, or around similar circumstances, these women can relate to members of the community in ways non-Aboriginal police officers can’t, and in ways that many male police officers don’t. But regardless of where they’re from, police officers face isolation, and theirs can be a lonely lifestyle. It can also be scary – as when Blood Tribe Police Force member Farica Prince had to choose between using her firearm or engaging in hand-to-hand combat waiting 45 minutes for backup during an arrest, or when troop-mate Hadija Little-Wolf was faced with a similar choice in a showdown with a knife-wielding assailant.