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The real history of Sam Steele in the Kootenays
By Sean MacPherson
Op-Ed Commentary
Last year was an interesting year for history in Cranbrook. It was a year that marked the end of Sam Steele Days, as the long running festival changed its name to the Spirit of the Rockies. It was a bit of a surprise, as Sam Steele Days had been going on ever since I remember before riding quietly into the sunset.
“It was time to keep up with the times,” the organizers of the Sam Steele Days Society claimed. There was a moderate amount of online outrage, as some community members felt that this was the radical left colluding to woke-wash history. Others felt this was a missed opportunity to discuss the actual reasons for a name change. Most were happy to accept a name change and move on. What struck me the most, was how little is actually known about the history of Sam Steele in the Kootenays.
Sam Steele wasn’t here for long. He was here for about a year in 1887, after which he left and never came back. I’ve always thought it strange that a man who had only been here a short while, and not even here (in Fort Steele or Galbraith’s Ferry as it was known then), had such an impact on the way we remember history. The truth is, we’ve never actually known the full history of Steele. This is no one’s fault really – records were tucked away, the RCMP wrote their own influential histories and later historians worked with the little information they had.
Here’s the thing – a reckoning of Steele was coming whether the Sam Steele Days Society changed the name or not. Ol’ Sam has become a bit of a controversial figure of late, as new historical research has shed light on his tenure as one of the North West Mounted Police’s most celebrated Mounties in the west.
Controversies include the significant role he played in the fighting against Cree and Métis in Canada’s armed conflict with Indigenous peoples, the Northwest Resistance, a struggle that culminated in the largest hanging in Canadian history. Then there is the untold history of what happened during the Boer war.
Most important to us here in Cranbrook, is the story of what happened during his stay in the Kootenays. As a historian from Cranbrook who has been working on this for a while now, I think it is important to share some of my research and talk about the elephant in the forest – that Sam Steele’s arrival in the Kootenays had everything to do with the Ktunaxa being forced from the land where Cranbrook sits today.
The story of Steele’s campaign in the Kootenays begins in Cranbrook. It wasn’t called that then, it was known as Joseph’s Prairie, named after a prominent Ktunaxa family. The area is known to Ktunaxa people as ʔa·kIsk̓ aqⱡiʔit.
It was here that Ktunaxa Chief Isadore (pictured above standing centre) had built a thriving cattle empire, with an operation of at least 500 head of cattle. Isadore had an aptitude for ranching that rivalled cattle ranchers in Montana and Alberta, maybe on his way to compete with the Big Four.
However, what made Joseph’s Prairie ideal for ranching, namely its flatness, attracted the eyes of opportunistic newcomers dreaming of railways.
Col. James Baker, an ambitious British officer new to the region and newly elected to the B.C. government, had his eyes on the flat prairie for a railway station. Baker was an adept politician and opportunist, making alliances with prominent Kootenay elites like William Fernie. He also made a lot of enemies.
Local newspapers like the Fort Steele Prospector often wrote editorials critical of Baker, criticizing his penchant for opportunism and manipulative self-interest, often claiming his ‘Italian hand,’ a derogatory mafia implication, was at work in the region. With his eyes on Chief Isadore’s land, Baker made moves to possess it for himself.
Baker found his opportunity when Chief Isadore broke a Ktunaxa man out of a jail (a man who was pronounced innocent later by Steele). Upon hearing this news, Baker fanned the flames of discontent, writing to John A MacDonald, requesting that a force of NWMP be sent to the Kootenays in order to confront the Ktunaxa.
Baker falsely claimed that an uprising was imminent and if the government did not intervene there would be a ‘massacre of white settlers.’
Meanwhile, Chief Isadore, with the support of local Indian Agent Michael Phillips, made gestures to keep peace with local settlers, holding meetings and making assurances that there was no threat of an uprising. Isadore did not trust the temporary constable, but he agreed to wait for a fair trial for Kapla. He also asked the government to deal with violent miners who had murdered Ktunaxa people and had not been charged.
Local settlers supported Isadore. They saw the jailbreak as an isolated incident and signed a petition on Isadore’s behalf, before the NWMP were dispatched. They claimed Isadore was no threat to peace, that there was no uprising, nor threat to white settlers. In fact, they wrote additional letters on Isadore’s behalf, claiming that he was a pillar of the local ranching community.
The federal government would ignore this petition. They had a force of NWMP nearby, one that had just finished fighting the Cree and Métis across the prairies.
During this conflict, Sam Steele was a military commander in charge of the Alberta Field Force, who led an attack against a beleaguered and retreating Chief Big Bear at Loon Lake in 1885. This was a major turning point in the conflict, leading to the surrender of the Cree/Métis alliance.
Later that year eight Indigenous men involved in the war would be hung in Battleford, the largest mass hanging in Canadian history. Two years later, in 1887, Sam Steele and D Division would enter the Kootenays as experienced and ruthless fighters against Indigenous peoples, a context well known to Chief Isadore and the Ktunaxa.
The desires of Baker and the close proximity of a seasoned NWMP military unit all suited the desires of both the provincial and federal government. The feds wanted treaties and B.C. wanted to maximize land, following policies to shrink reserve sizes in the 1860’s and 70’s. They saw this as an opportunity to finalize a forced relocation to new reserves that surveyors had previously mapped out in recent years (1884-86).
These new reserves had been drawn up when Ktunaxa leaders had gone south for their yearly gatherings. They were created without consent or consultation. All Ktunaxa Chiefs made public statements against them, including Chief David of Tobacco Plains who claimed, ‘his house had been split in half.’ In 1886, Chief Isadore would make a public proclamation that it was not up to the Queen, ‘which lands she would dictate to him.’
This is the context in which Steele comes to the Kootenays. Armed to the teeth with D Division, a heavily armed mixed military/militia, they set up a base at what would become Fort Steele.
Sam Steele forced Isadore to leave the land at Cranbrook and give his ranch to Baker. Steele, according to his own letters, threatened Isadore that if he did not vacate the lands he owned, that Isadore would be, ‘deposed.’ He warned there would be ‘no recourse from the Indian Commissioner,’ that there would be consequences for ‘obstruction’ and that Isadore would be ‘replaced.’ Isadore had little choice but to acquiesce, give up his ranch and leave his lands.
After this mission was accomplished, Steele left the Kootenays, claiming, ‘the problems of the Indians had been dealt with.’
In the following years, Baker would acquire the rights to build his railway, diverting the railway line from its original intended location at Fort Steele, effectively putting the people there out of business. Ironically, those same forces that brought Steele into the region in the first place, namely Baker’s hand, would turn Fort Steele into a ghost town. With Isadore’s ranch and the railway now belonging to him, Baker named the new town ‘Cranbrook.‘
I never learned this history growing up in Cranbrook. I came across it by chance, through a series of letters at the Royal BC Archives. These included a detailed correspondence between Sam Steele, Colonel James Baker and John a. MacDonald, covering all the events that led to Steele’s deployment in the Kootenays. Thanks to the work of Ktunaxa writer Troy Sebastian, those letters were being digitized through the Royal BC archives.
As I read all these letters, it was clear that the whole reason Steele came to the Kootenays was to force the Ktunaxa to give up their land and move to the reserve.
This history was kept secret, or out of sight, I suppose. History books mythologized it, focusing on the murder trial and Sam Steele’s ‘fairness.’ The NWMP perpetuated their own mythologies, as they wrote their own histories and autobiographies. Those myths exist today – Wikipedia and the Canadian encyclopedia still quote the mythologized versions of the story.
The history of Isadore’s forced relocation, the blatant theft of his hard-worked-ranch, was never a secret for Ktunaxa people. I got to hear some of those perspectives, as I was invited to share research with the Ktunaxa Research Council with Dr. Christopher Horsethief and the Ktunaxa Elders Group, including Herman Alpine, Liz Gravelle and Sophie Pierre.
The Ktunaxa have passed down their own stories of Isadore and everything that came from that – from government interference in any chance of Ktunaxa economic success, to a century on the reserve, to the virulent racism and exclusion faced in town and the abuses rampant in residential schools. To many Ktunaxa people, Steele is a symbol of all the traumas caused by colonialism. In a recent op-ed, these sentiments were expressed by Joyce Green.
The Ktunaxa have stories of resilience and of choices made for peace and for survival. The story of Sam Steele could easily have ended in Cranbrook. The history of Steele we tell today could have been the defeat of Steele and D Division. Isadore was ready to go to war. Ktunaxa warriors and their allies to the south, such as the Flathead, had the ability to win a quick victory over Steele (there is even a Ktunaxa story of how their warriors ambushed Steele and his men at night but let them go).
However, Isadore weighed out the consequences and made a decision to keep the peace and protect his people. This is the real reason he chose to relocate to St. Mary’s, where the Ktunaxa community of ʔaq’am resides today. Isadore made a choice for peace.
The late Herman Alpine shared a history of Isadore I might share here. He told me of a dream he had, a dream where Chief Isadore appeared and talked to Herman in Ktunaxa:
“It was back around that time, in the 1880s, when Steele was entering the territory. He was faced with a grave decision, how to respond to this threat. Isadore had to decide whether to lead his people to war, to attack Steele’s militia or try to negotiate….to avoid bloodshed. We (the Ktunaxa) had the numbers, we knew the country and had many allies with the Flathead to the south – we could have easily wiped them out. But Isadore spoke to the Great Nupika in a dream. The Nupika told Isadore that he could kill all of Sam Steele’s men, and all of the settlers if he wished, ridding the country of all of these people. Yet, if he did so, there would be a terrible price. Great sorrow and death would follow and it would be the end of the people. That’s why Isadore decided to negotiate, instead of going to war.”
This is the untold history of Cranbrook, the place where I grew up. Maybe you grew up here too. I hope instead of blaming people for name changes or falling into polarizing comment sections of the internet, we might think about the injustices in our history and our place within that.
Taking a moment to reflect isn’t about an agenda and it doesn’t change any of the good things that happened here. It doesn’t change our love of classic cars, or softball, or my personal favourite – Manwoman as Mr. Death – any of the things we have all enjoyed at Sam Steele Days. It doesn’t change us as Cranbrookians. It doesn’t take away our edge, or our least-gentrified-town-in-the-Kootenays-ness. We keep it real, and I think we should keep our history real too.
As Herman once said to me, ‘it’s time to set the record straight.’
– Sean MacPherson is a historian and part-time skateboarder from Cranbrook. An alumnus of the Cranbrook Community Learning Center (Pathfinders), he has worked on Kootenay history for many years, working collaboratively with Ktunaxa Nation. He received an MA in history at the University of Victoria in 2020. He is currently finishing a PHD in History at UBC and has a book about Sam Steele in the Kootenays coming out in 2025.
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