Lieut.-Colonel Sam B. Steele

Portrait of Samuel Benfield Steele wearing a military uniform and holding a sword. Caption: "Sam Steele from the mounted police and a small force surprised the retreating Indians at Loon Lake." From the book Loyal till Death: Indians and the North-West Rebellion by Blair Stonechild and Bill Waiser. During the North-West Rebellion Samuel Benfield Steele (1849-1919) was dispatched with a small force. Missing the Battle of Batoche the Mounties were sent to move against the last rebel force led by Big Bear. He was present at the Battle of Frenchman's Butte, where Big Bear's warriors defeated the Canadian forces under General Thomas Bland Strange. Two weeks later, Steele and his two dozen Mounties defeated Big Bear's force at Loon Lake in the last battle ever fought on Canadian territory.