Entertainer, cowgirl, rodeo performer and businesswoman. She grew up on the Hilger Ranch in the Prickly Pear Valley area of Helena, Montana. Her mother taught her to ride a horse almost before she could walk. She started breaking in her own horses as a little girl so she could ride the 11-mile ride to the nearest school. For fun, she and the local kids would participate in competitions to race and round up wild horses. By the age of 16, she had gained the respect of the locals for her dedication, courage, skills, and guts for rounding up, riding, and training wild horses. She made her first professional rodeo appearance in 1904 at the Montana State Fair as a relay racer, followed by rodeos in Butte and Anaconda, Montana. She was signed along with her friend Christine Synness and with several other ladies to ride relays across Montana and the Midwest in 1905. They became very popular as they were known as the "Montana Girls." By 1907, she began participating in the women's bucking horse competitions and won a gold medal in her hometown rodeo. By 1912, she entered the Calgary Stampede Rodeo in Canada and won the title of "Lady Bucking Horse Champion of the World." She took home a trophy, $1,000, a $300 gold belt buckle, and a saddle with hand-tooled roses. She also earned the title the following year in Winnipeg, Canada, the same year that she married the bronc rider and rodeo clown, Bill Steele. The couple traveled the rodeo circuit, and she competed in bronc riding and relay races, winning all over the country. They traveled and performed alongside Buffalo Bill Cody up until his final performance. In 1917, they began operating their own Wild West show and performed with the Miller Brothers' 101 Wild West Show and the Irwin Brothers'. Although she stopped competing in bronc riding in 1925, she kept riding exhibition broncos until she was 50 years old. In 1927, the couple bought a dude ranch near Lincoln, Montana. After her husband died in 1940, she ran their ranch for another 25 years. She was the first woman in Montana to receive a packer's license, and was able to guide hunters on trips up the mountains on her horses. She was inducted into the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in 1975, the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame in 1978, and the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame in 2009.