Kerry Geroux, left, says she wants to know why the RCMP handcuffed and detained her 11-year-old daughter Morgan. (CBC)

A complaint has been filed against the RCMP after an 11-year-old girl in Fort Resolution, N.W.T., was handcuffed and put in a jail cell, according to the girl's mother.

Kerry Geroux said her daughter Morgan was visiting relatives in Fort Resolution, N.W.T., when RCMP and N.W.T. social services workers came to their home following a report that drinking was going on while children were in the house.

"I have never been handcuffed. I don't even know what the inside of a jail cell looks like. And to have my 11-year-old daughter go through that is just crazy, you know? It makes me angry," Geroux, a resident of Hay River, N.W.T., told CBC News in an interview.

"From my understanding, the police went into the home and they kicked in the door. They went into the bedroom, found my daughter, my cousin and my … six-month-old niece. The police went in there and they were pointing handguns at the girls."

Geroux said she was never notified by the RCMP or social services officials that Morgan had been picked up by police.

"After the social worker had transported her here, Morgan, like, when she saw me, she told me what had happened to her right away," she said.

"I then confronted the social worker about the guns and the handcuffs and she claimed that she wasn't aware of anything."

RCMP Sgt. Brad Kaeding told CBC News that two officers went to the house to help a local social worker with a call she had received that day.

Kaeting said despite the 11-year-old girl's diminutive size, the officers' response was standard procedure.

"I'm not saying that the 11-year-old in this case was any threat, but until you can determine what that threat is, you have to treat everybody in a very similar fashion," he said.

RCMP also said that at the time, there were people in the home known to police for violent behaviour. However, those people were gone by the time the officers arrived.

No charges were ever laid against anyone in the incident.

Geroux said she wants to know why the RCMP handcuffed her daughter and treated her like a criminal.

The RCMP said they are conducting an internal investigation into the allegations.

Tu Nedhe MLA Tom Beaulieu, whose constituency includes Fort Resolution, told CBC News he is concerned by the case and with similar complaints coming from that community.

With files from the CBC's Jennifer Hunt