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EDMONTON - Famous a century ago but largely unknown to the public today, a movie is in the works on the life of Sir Samuel Steele - a Canadian icon who through force of character helped put down rebellion in the West, brought law to the Yukon gold rush and led a volunteer calvary regiment during the Boer War in South Africa.
Details of the development of the TV movie on Steele’s life are to be released Thursday by the Alberta government, the CBC and an independent producer.
Admirers of Steele, whose exploits paralleled key events in the first decades of Confederation, are heartened that Canadians will get to learn about a man who would be a household name if he had lived in the U.S.
"At one time he loomed very large in Canadian legend and popular culture but he has been dead for 90 years. And memories fade," said Merrill Distad, associate director of libraries at the University of Alberta.
"A more worthy subject for an historical film it would be harder to imagine than Sam Steele."
As a teenager, Steele joined the Canadian militia in Ontario in 1866 to help fight off armed cross-border incursions by the Fenians, a group of Irish-Americans who were trying to put pressure on Britain to grant Ireland its independence.
A few years later Steele was one of the first people to join the newly formed North-West Mounted Police, serving in dusty, forlorn outposts in what is now Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
One of his assignments was to meet with Chief Sitting Bull when the Sioux leader and his band fled to Canada after massacring U.S. Lt.-Col. George Custer and his troops at the Little Bighorn.
Steele and his troops had no problems with the Sioux, and the warriors eventually returned peacefully to the U.S.
During the Louis Riel Rebellion in 1885, Steele formed a calvary unit that was known as "Steele’s Scouts" that tracked down and arrested Big Bear, a Cree leader whose followers were involved in the Frog Lake Massacre.
Steele became internationally famous. When he was on his honeymoon in the U.S., firefighters in New York City held a special parade in his honour. Frank Baum, the author of The Wizard of Oz, wrote a series of novels about the adventures of a character named Sam Steele.
"He was a larger than life figure," said Distad, who will be on hand Thursday in Calgary with officials from the Glenbow Museum for the movie announcement. The university and the museum last year obtained an extensive collection of Steele’s papers and memorabilia from England.
"The hardest part of doing a screenplay is how to compress this and knowing what to leave out, because there are so many phases of his career."
During his time out West, Steele was responsible for keeping peace among the workers who built the Canadian Pacific Railway, dealing with whisky traders, prostitutes and ruffians from the U.S.
In late 1898, Steele became police commissioner in the Yukon during the gold rush, keeping order in the rowdy mining camps.
When war broke out in 1900 between Great Britain and the Boer Republics in South Africa, Steele recruited and lead a volunteer cavalry regiment known as Lord Strathcona’s Horse.
Steele and the regiment took part in campaigns that involved moving Boer civilians into what became the world’s first concentration camps. There were allegations that he covered up the execution of some Boer fighters by some of his troops.
During the First World War, Steele served as a general, training Canadian troops in England. After surviving years of violence and conflicts he died of the Spanish flu during the great pandemic.
Maj. John Cochrane, a squadron commander in Lord Strathcona’s Horse (Royal Canadians), will also be on hand Thursday for the announcement about the movie.
Back home in Alberta from a tour of duty in Afghanistan, Cochrane said he is pleased that people will get the chance to learn about Steele’s life.
"We have a tendency as Canadians to understate ourselves. We have remarkable people, but we downplay their contributions," Cochrane said.
"The qualities this man exhibited one hundred years ago are still sought after today. He was a disciplinarian. He was a professional. Incredibly dedicated. And a leader of men."
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