Grey Owl

 

  The grey owl is an elusive bird. It sits in the shadows then swoops in silently to grab an unsuspecting vole or two. The Native American environmentalist Grey Owl (1888-1938) was somewhat elusive, but he was not silent about the need to change our relationship with nature. 

  Grey Owl made his living as a trapper until he met Anahereo Bernard, a Canadian Mohawk woman who made him see the cruelty of trapping. Grey Owl switched from being a trapper to a writer who in his magazine articles and books stressed the need to protect the environment. Because of the Depression unemployed men were heading to the woods to trap beaver, exterminating them in some areas. Grey Owl saw the beaver as key to the survival of the wilderness and the Canadian identity.

  Grey Owl also campaigned against the forestry corporations who, abetted by the government,  were clear cutting the old-growth forests in the West and replacing them with monoculture plantations.  Grey Owl came to the attention of the parks service and he was made naturalist at Prince Albert National Park in northern Saskatchewan where he lived until his death at age 49.

  Most of us have a secret we keep to ourselves. Grey Owl had a forest full of secrets. Suspicious minds began to inquire into his origins after his death.  He had told his biographer that his father was Scottish and his mother Apache. The part about his father was true enough but his mother was English. His non-native name was Archibald Belaney and he was born in Sussex, England on September 18, 1888.

  Not long after his birth, Archibald's parents took off for the US while he was left in the care of his grandmother and two aunts. Archibald's father disappeared for good in America and his mother returned to England but only visited her son occasionally. Archie did well in school and loved being out in nature. He and a friend practiced knife throwing and marksmanship. 

   Archie was known as a prankster.  In chemistry class he made little explosive packets that he called "Belaney Bombs."  After school he worked as a clerk for a timber company where he continued his pranks. One day he lowered fireworks down the office chimney and nearly destroyed the building. He was let go from the timber company and his aunts sent him to Canada to study agriculture. 

  He immediately took off for the woods of northern Ontario to begin his career as a trapper presenting himself as a Native American. He sincerely wanted to live the life of a native. He met and married an Ojibwa woman named Angele Egwuna (this was several years before he met the Mohawk woman Anahereo).  From Angele he learned the Ojibwa language and the ways of the woods. After spending a winter in the woods trapping, he said the tribe had a adopted him as a Ojibwa trapper.

  When WWI broke out he joined the Canadian Army and served as a sniper. He told his fellow soldiers he was native. After being wounded twice, he was shipped back to Canada where he took to drink. Though his best days as a writer were ahead of him, his alcoholism would lead to his early death. Without letting his first wife know he was back, he partnered with Anahereo. 

  After his death, Grey Owl's first wife Angele got his estate which was substantial  But Anahero did alright for herself. She married a Swedish nobleman and wrote two best-selling books about her life with Grey Owl. In her books she claimed she didn't know he was other than what he said he was. She said she was hurt by the revelation. She remained active in the environmental movement and was elected a Member of the Order of Canada a few years before her death in 1986. She is buried beside Grey Owl in Prince Albert Park.

  It's not right to fabricate our past. Grey Owl's stock went way down after the revelations. His publishers removed his books from their lists. But with the passage of time his reputation has been resuscitated. In 1976 the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation produced a documentary about him directed by David Attenborough and starring Pierce Brosnan as Grey Owl. A plaque has been erected in his honor in his home back in East Sussex. 

  Grey Owl's cabin in Prince Albert Park has been preserved and the public is welcome to visit, though it's a 12 mile hike in. It's only 10 miles by canoe. Grey Owl may have been a bit of a devil, but he did his bit to save the wilderness. Thoreau called the wilderness "the preservation of the world."

Grey Owl with his pet beaver