Grey Owl - Englishman turned Native American conservationist
'Grey Owl' was an Englishman, who created a new life for himself as a prominent Native American writer and conservationist in Canada in the 1930s. Upon his death, it was discovered that he was, in fact, from Hastings in East Sussex, and had concealed his true identity for many years.
Archibald Stansfeld Belaney was born in 1888 in Hastings. Raised by his aunts, he was fascinated by Native Americans and their culture as a child, reading about them and drawing them in the margins of his school books. He emigrated to Canada in 1906, working in Northern Ontario as a fur trapper, a wilderness guide, and a forest ranger. He then fabricated a Native American origin and identity, though the details of his new parentage would vary, at times telling people that he was the child of a Scottish father and Apache mother.
He married and had relationships with several Native American women, taking a great interest in learning more about their communities, culture and traditional skills. His second wife, Anahareo, was a Mohawk Iroquois teenager who Belaney married bigamously.
Belaney's interest in conservation began when he and Anahareo raised two beaver kits, whose mother Belaney had killed for its pelt. From this point, Belaney began to write articles for English and Canadian magazines, under the guise of 'Grey Owl', a Native American. His first book, The Men of the Last Frontier, attracted favourable reviews and his fame began. Published in 1931, it is partly memoir and partly about the vanishing Canadian wilderness.
The popularity of his books led to Grey Owl being invited to carry out lecture tours of Canada, England and the United States in the 1930s and he became arguably the first celebrity conservationist.
In the mid 1930's, Grey Owl toured Canada and Britain to promote his books and lecture about wildlife and its conservation. Appearing in traditional Ojibwa clothing, his talks attracted large, interested audiences. Although his aunts recognised him at his 1935 appearance in Hastings, they did not talk about his true, British origins until he had gone back to Canada in 1937.
He fell ill and died of pneumonia in Prince Albert on 13 April 1938 at the age of 49. Immediately after his death, the truth of his identity was revealed. Though this tarnished his message with some people, he continued to influence later conservationists, and attract followers for his endeavours.
His story was turned into a 1999 film by the director Richard Attenborough, who had attended a lecture by Grey Owl as a boy in Leicester in the 1930s with his brother David, who would himself would go on to become one of Britain's most famous wildlife experts.
Further reading
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