Blue Jay, Vol.33, Issue 1

THE STORY OF GREY OWL by ALEX ZELLERMEYER* Je was an Indian. He was a ha 1 f- tling into the local office clerk’s ed. Or was he an Englishman? He position he seemed destined to occupy ; an author, a naturalist, a lecturer, encouraged his growing wanderlust. In nan presented to Prime Ministers 1905, Archie Belaney booked passage i Kings. He was a drunkard, on the S.S. Canada from Liverpool, haps a bigamist? arriving in Canada in April of that year.'* A most people of the past and, un- tunately, even the present, he was a At the turn of the century, northern ;stion mark. A man known more by Canada was a country of wildlands, nor than fact — judged more by occasionally broken with mining sip than reality. Where does the towns, lumber camps and train stops th lie? on railroads to places of greater im¬ portance. Into this Ontario northland came Archie Belaney. At a small rail E EARLY YEARS. The story of Grey stop cal led Temiskaming, Archie d began far from Prince Albert made friends with the local Indians, tional Park. It started in 1888 with trappers and guides.4 They were j birth of Archibald Stanfeld mostly of Ojibway origin, a people to laney in the southern English whom Archie would alway credit his istal town of Hastings.' Decades woodland talents. It was here that over uld pass before Grey Owl would the years that Archie Belaney learned erge. the arts of trapping and wilderness life. \rchie’s early childhood was typical In 1910 Archie married his first most English school boys at the end wife, a young Ojibway girl named the 19th century. His education was Angele.4 The marriage was to last tor )ked after by the two maiden aunts only a year. Archie’s restlessness, o had raised him from infancy. Ar- which he felt whenever he became too e was particularly talented on the “settled”, was a personal uneasiness I ino.2 which would haunt him for his entire life. However, the Ojibway customs of Ake most schoolboys of his day, Ar- marriage were simple. A couple le lived a constant daydream of ex- remained together for as long as they riencing the world of the North desired or parted whenever they nerican “Wild West”. These dreams wished.5 Archie was taking on more of becoming an Indian pathfinder — a an Indian identity with each passing 1 nter — were to follow him from year. I ildhood through adolescence and, I sntually, to manhood. Little is known of Archie’s life from the period 1910 to 1915. He spent one 3y the age of 17, Archie was too winter with his second wife, Marie ;tless to remain in Hastings with his Gerard. He worked with the Ontario o aging aunts. The thought of set- Forestry Department near Biscotosing where he had the occasional run-in with the local constabulary." Archie ince Albert National Park, askesiu, Saskatchewan. was fond of “whooping-it-up”. 3 arch, 1975. 33(1) It was here that Archie must hav finally decided that a well-orderei life, especially a rigid English ond could never truly satisfy him. After months, the couple decided to dissolv the union.8 Archie Belaney w a Canada-bound for a second timq When England saw him next it wouh be as the triumphant Grey Owl. GREY OWL. Back in the Ontario north woods near Biscotosing, Archie retur ned to the life of a trapper and guidq It was in 1920 at an Ojibway gatherin that Archibald Belaney gave up hi Christian name. With his hair long am braided, clothed in buckskin, he chos the name Wa-sha-Quon-Asin, the Gre Owl.1’ Not until his death would i emerge that he had ever been know by another name. Now, as Grey Owl, he continued hi trapping. It was circumstance tha returned him in 1920 to th Temiskaming area where he met Ger trude Bernard, a young girl o Iroquois descent. Grey Owl called he Anahareo — her ancestral name. Afte several months of correspondence the were married.8 PILGRIMS OF THE WILD. By the tim Grey Owl had met Anahareo he wa familiar with the value systems of th Ojibway, with their customs, and witi their language. He was, for all intent and purposes, an Indian in bot manner and appearance — especiall in appearance. Even his blue eyes an flawless English did not lessen the im pact of this tall, long-haired man i PRIVATE BELANEY. The onset of World moccasins. With a single eagle' War I saw the first Canadian con¬ feather hanging from his braided hai tingent fighting under their own com¬ and a determined scowl perpetually o mand and colours. Listed with this his face, it appeared as though he ha Canadian Expeditionary Force was stepped from the very pages of thos Private A. Belaney. In France, Archie books he had read long ago i was wounded and subsequently sent to England. England for convalescence.7 Back in his boyhood country, he spent over a These early years with Anahare year renewing old friendships and changed Grey Owl from trapper t memories. One of these was his conservationist. In the overhunte childhood sweetheart Ivy Holmes. In trapping regions of Ontario an 1917 they were married/ Quebec, Grey Owl found it iri! A Blue Ja easingly difficult to trap for a learn more about this eloquent half- /elihood. Since 1670, when the breed from Canada’s backwoods who .B.C. ship Nonsuch sailed from went by the name of Grey Owl. They igland to the new-found fur lands of asked for more. lat was to become Canada, the At the same time. Grey Owl agreed :aver had started a slow buUsteady to lecture to an audience at Metis )pulation decline. Two hundred and Beach.10 By the end of the summer of ty years later, in Grey Owl’s time, it 1927, the attention he had received emed as though the last refuge for convinced Grey Owl that conservation ir national animal was destined to be was to be his life’s work. i the Canadian nickel. One spring, Anahareo found two or- A NATURALIST IN THE NATIONAL laned beaver kittens. Their parents PARKS. Success followed success. Grey id been trapped, and it appeared that Owl completed a series of articles for e fate of these kits was bleak. The Forest and Outdoors while Country Life )ung couple adopted the orphans."’ began negotiations for his first book. The men of the last frontier. Grey Owl was so moved by the in¬ digence and loyalty of these “beaver In 1931, Grey Owl accepted a >ople”, as the Indians called them, position with the National Parks Ser¬ at he became more concerned with vice as a naturalist. His project — to nding measures to protect them, re-establish beaver colonies in areas of ither than better methods to trap the National Parks from which they em. had been long exterminated. It was then that Grey Owl’s fortunes Thus, in April of 1931, Grey Owl iproved. A nature article he had sub- arrived at Riding Mountain National itted to an English journal, Country Park in Manitoba." Unfortunately, the ife, gained immediate recognition.10 local conditions for establishing a he publishers were only too eager to beaver colony didn’t meet Grey Owl's requirements and a transfer was command appearance before Kin 'll requested." It was because of this that George VI and the Royal family.14 Af on October 27, 1931, Grey Owl, with terwards, having been asked for te Anahareo and the two beavers. with the sovereign. Grey Owl bade th Rawhide and Jellyrole, arrived in king goodbye with a “ Fa re we 1 Prince Albert National Park." Here, brother” and a hearty slap on the bac on the seldom visited shoreline of a For the former Hastings resident th small lake called Ajawaan, a cabin was must have been more than built. Grey Owl called it “Beaver memorable occasion. Lodge”. The name was more than ap¬ It is difficult to tell if Grey Owl him propriate. Rawhide and Jellyroll had self realized the following he hac] built their mud lodge against it, and created. His work on beaver conser after a hole had been cut for them vation was continued throughou through the lakeside wall, they com¬ Canada, and because of the attentio pleted the other half of the lodge in¬ he focussed on preservation, a countr; side the cabin itself. whose existence was founded ot It was at Ajawaan that Grey Owl resource extraction was quickly war emerged from relative obscurity to ned that if her successes were to con become the celebrated Indian author tinue, she would have to adopt a mor and conservationist. He wrote articles moderate attitude to the land. As h and answered requests which never put it . seemed to end. Streams of letters from “I think the Canadians take thei the corners of the world flowed to priceless heritage of the Nortl Ajawaan. rather complacently for granted Well, they want to watch it, or the During this period, 1932 to 1934, soon won’t have it. The policy the Grey Owl completed his best known are pursuing in regard to its ex work. Pilgrims of the wild.'1 It was in ploitation and to a very much lesse this book that he told the story of degree, its preservation, is lamen Anahareo and the two orphaned tably short-sighted.15 beaver kits. It was also here that Grey Owl attempted to express his source of inspiration — the Canadian wilder¬ THE PRICE OF FAME.

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