In 1887, disputes which arose between white settlers and local Ktunaxa people over land ownership in the Kootenay region caused alarm among the white residents of the region. The settlers had always been highly outnumbered by Ktunaxa in the Kootenays, but a particularly serious dispute with Colonel James Baker inflamed the Ktunaxa in the late 1880's. The disagreement between Baker and the Ktunaxa regarded ownership of Joesph's Prairie, which was a very important Ktunaxa gathering place and the site of present-day Cranbrook. The quarrel over ownership of Joseph's Prairie, however, was simply one of many long-standing grievances regarding the injustice of pre-emptions and other dealings between whites and the Ktunaxa.

Nervous settlers, believing the threat of an Indian uprising to be quite real, made petitions to the federal and provincial governments for protection. This action resulted in 'D' Division of the North-West Mounted Police being assigned to the Kootenay region. In the late summer of 1887, Superintendent Samuel Benfield Steele with three officers and 75 men marched into British Columbia to establish the NWMP's first post west of the Rocky Mountains.

Superintendent Steele stated: I then learned the reason for my being in the Kootenays. It was this: the [Provincial] Constable at Wildhorse Creek had, the previous winter ... on hearsay evidence of a rather slim description, arrested two young Indians of Chief Isidore's band ... for the murder of two white miners at Dead Man's Creek in 1884 ... whereupon Chief Isidore, infuriated at what he believed to be an injustice, proceeded at once with his warriors, broke open the gaol, liberated the prisoners and turned all the Government Officers, except the Collector of Customs, out of the District. After resolving the criminal charges and mediating the land problems between whites and Ktunaxa bands, the North-West Mounted Police departed Kootenay Post in 1888. The residents of the area, in recognition of the services rendered them, petitioned the Dominion Government to change the postal address from Galbraith's Ferry to Fort Steele in honour of the Superintendent of 'D' Division.