Grey Owl is a Canadian outdoor hero whose name still resonates more than 60 years after his death. With his popularity and eloquent message, Grey Owl captured the attention and imagination of the English speaking world has he fought to make people aware of the destruction of the natural resources in North America.
Born entirely in the fertile imagination of an English schoolboy, Archibald Stansfield Belaney, Grey Owl became the most famous aboriginal of his day. It was a role that Belaney developed, embraced and was consumed by until his death.
In his Grey Owl persona of mixed Apache / Scottish ancestry, Belaney became an internationally famous writer, lecturer, radio broadcaster and film star. He spoke passionately to the world when protecting wild spaces.
Belaney was born in Hastings, England in 1888. As a child he became fascinated by North American Indians (Aboriginals) and came to Canada in 1906.
Much of his time in 1907 to 1931 was spent in northwestern Quebec’s Abitibi region and northeastern Ontario’s Temagami9 and Bicotasing districts. As Belaney, he was a difficult man given in violent outbursts, battles with alcohol and minor brushes with the laws.
But almost from the day of his arrival in Tebagami, he embraced a native lifestyle, learning bush skills, becoming fluent in Ojibway and sliding gradually into the role of Grey Owl.
Be 1910, he had married Angele, young women from Bear Island, which is an Ojibway reserve in Lake Temagami. She was the first of his five wives and bore two of his three children. Belaney suffered from “domestic claustrophobia”, however. Uncomfortable in marriage and prone to disappearing, he was not a factor in the lives of his children.
Perhaps the strongest influence of Belaney in his Grey Owl role was Gertrude Benard, a young Iroquois woman who became famous in Anahareo as Mrs. Grey Owl. She was a driving force behind his writing and his espousal of conservation as a way of life.
In his years with Anaharei Grey Owl write for American and British outdoor magazines, developed his stage personality and published books: The Men of the Last Fronteir, Pilgrims of the Wild, The Adventures of Sajo and the Beaver People and Tales of the Empty Cabin.
In 1931 as his fame soared, he and Anahareo moved first to Riding Mountain National Park in Manitoba, Canada, and then to Saskatchewan Prince Albert National Park. Here he continued writing and assisted in creating films about the beavers with which the couple shared several cabins.
During this time, he was in high demand for speaking engagements around the world. Grey Owl was a smooth and polished performer with a flair for the dramatic gesture.
By the mid 1930’s, Belaney seemed to have completed his transition into Grey Owl in both his public and personal life. But his true identity was well known in the Temagami area. In fact Britt Jessop, a young reporter with the North Bay Nugget, wrote a story revealing Grey Owl’s secret. His editor who was captivated by Grey Owl sat on the story until the day after Belaney’s death in 1938 when the revelation of Grey Owl’s true identity startled the world.
Whatever Belaney’s demons or weaknesses, Grey Owl the man he chose to become successfully created awareness of the conservation movement by giving it focus and celebrity?
Speaking in England Grey Owl said “No democratic race of people can be legislated into a state of mind, whether it be on religion or conservation. Education of the public through the appeal to their sense of justice and economy, giving them a thorough knowledge of conservation by means of lectures, writings, moving pictures and actual demonstrations will accomplish more in one season than the most harshly enforced laws would ever do.” Grey Owl was correct.
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