My history professor kept talking about how natives who lived in proximity to European settlements had access to steel items and typically repurposed it for their own weapons but couldn't say for certain whether or not any native tribes were able to learn the methods of acquiring iron and turning it into steel.
To my knowledge, there were no New World native people who developed smelting technology or knowledge for making steel, or iron for that matter. Steel was acquired by natives via trade with white traders and settlers or scavenging from shipwrecks and other sites.