"Indian uprising!" was a terror which haunted western settlers for long years. In 1885, when a dissatisfied band of Cree Indians attacked the settlers at Frog Lake, the call for volunteers went out and the western districts of Alberta and Saskatchewan were organized for defense against a possible full-scale rebellion.  In Alberta, a rancher living near Calgary took the lead—the "buckskin brigadier", Major-General Tom Strange, whose achievement deserves high rank among the great stories of Canada. He whipped into shape a strangely assorted force of raw Militia, cowboys, and Mounted Police, and led them more than 500 miles in pursuit of Chief Big Bear's war-band. The little Army went through rugged, heavily-wooded country where all the military advantages lay with the Indians. They engaged in many hard-fought encounters and finally compelled the surrender of the Indian leaders and the release of white settlers who were held as hostages. 

Buckskin Brigadier tells the story of that long pursuit and the men who shared it: the colorful Scouts attached to the Mounted Police Force and commanded by the legendary Sam Steele; the inexperienced Militiamen from Montreal and Winnipeg; and the man who dominated the entire campaign against the Northwest Rebellion—brilliant, eccentric and courageous Tom Strange.

From the dust jacket