Battle of Loon Lake

Battle of Loon Lake
Part of the North-West Rebellion
Date June 3, 1885 Location North of Frenchman Butte, Saskatchewan Result Canadian victory
Belligerents
Cree	Canada
Commanders and leaders
Big Bear Wandering Spirit	Sam Steele
Strength
150	75 militia[1]
Casualties and losses
5–12 dead 75-100 wounded at Loon Lake and Frenchman Butte	7 wounded
National Historic Site of Canada
Official name	Steele Narrows National Historic Site of Canada
Designated	1950

Duck Lake

Battleford

Frog Lake

Fort Pitt

Fish Creek

Cut Knife

Batoche

Butte

Loon Lake

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The District of Saskatchewan in 1885 (within the black diamonds) included the central section of Saskatchewan and extended into Alberta and Manitoba.

The Battle of Loon Lake, also known as the Battle of Steele Narrows, concluded the North-West Rebellion on June 3, 1885, and was the last battle fought on Canadian soil. It was fought in what was then the District of Saskatchewan of the North-West Territories,^[2] at what is now known as Steele Narrows at Makwa Lake, in Saskatchewan's Steele Narrows Provincial Park.^[3] Steele Narrows^[4] is a channel that separates Sanderson Bay from Makwa Lake.

Led by Major Sam Steele, a force of North-West Mounted Police, Alberta Mounted Rifles and Steele's Scouts (a body of mounted militia raised by Steele himself) caught up with and dispersed a band of Plains Cree warriors and their white and Métis hostages.

Cree scouts made a determined stand with what was left of their ammunition, but the body of the Cree column, realizing the hopelessness of their situation, released their prisoners and fled. The Cree casualties were four dead and dozens wounded.^[5]

Wandering Spirit, the war chief leading the Cree military campaign, surrendered to authorities at Fort Pitt. Big Bear, the aging peacetime chief of this band of Cree, eluded capture until July 2.