The Ottawa Citizen from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada • 116

I 4 It "4 'I1 A man. In truth. Archie Belaney had come to Canada to forget his origins and had made himself as much like an Indian as possible. The Ojibwa had named him Wa-Sha-Quon-Asin, "he who walks by night" or Crey OwL Anahareo, accepting him at face value on their first meeting, knew nothing of his English past "To me, he was an Indian, and one of the best men I had ever met" In 1939. she married Eric Moltke Huitfeldt a Swedish count They had a daughter.

Katherine. and later moved to Calgary, then Canmore, where Eric worked in the construction trade Except for the occasional school lecture or TV appearance (admonishing women of the "real cost" of theirfurcoats the trapped animals' suffering). Anahareo faded into obscurity. When Eric died in 1963, she moved closer to her daughters in EC, then settled in Kamloops. She lives in a modest trailer, and the only bush she ever is 26 miles away, at Dawn home.

.4 1 1 r-T Anahareo today. Ta mim aba la too Impractical, an overemotiooal bleeding heart. She replies: "I'm jus! for the beaver, the wildlife, the trees. People should be animals re more huoiaa than a lot of people" Owl had trapped. His general indifference finally crumbled when McCin-nis affectionately staked a claim on him.

He gave up trapping forthwith. Thus deprived of their livelihood, they wereat times near starvation. Crey Owl's, meagre pension cheques from World War I and the goodwill of storekeepers in extending credit barely kept them afloat In the fall of 1928 they moved near Cabana Quebec determined to increase the beaver population that they had for two years done their best to deplete. Late that year, angered by an inaccurate on wolves in a naturalist magazine. Grey Owl began writing from his vast knowledge of the wilderness.

In 1330. the federal government took notice "4 f. and offered him a fob as a naturalist in Manitoba's Riding Mountain National Park. The park was unsuitable for raising a beaver colony, so the government assisted in relocating Crey Owl and Anahareo to Ajawaan Lake in Saskatchewan's Prince Albert National Park. The birth of Dawn in 1932 was one of the highlights of their lives.

The feisty Anahareo wasn't so happy with Crey Owl's constant writing. "It was like living with a zombie. she says. The zombie was grinding out classics like Pilgrims of the Wild and Sajo and The Beaver People. Monotony set in.

No more exciting days on the trail: no new challenges to conquer. Bored and restless, Anahareo packed up, took Dawn, and visited Prince Albert In the spring of 1934, driven by a desire to strike it rich prospecting. Anahareo lef! Dawn with friends, loaded up a 16-foot canoe, charged $900 in supplies, and headed up the Churchill River. For a year and a half she tramped and paddled over 600 often treacherous miles, sometimes sick and always lonely. 1 had to go." she says, then adds quietly, "but you dont leave your child like that" Crey OwL tied down to the beaver colony and his writing, was angry at first, then envious.

"For a week after I heard you had gone I was all worked up," he wrote her. "It stirred the old bush fever up so bad, I could not sleep and hardly was able to eat" His books and articles, capturing worldwide attention, took him on a lecture tour of England in 1935 The binding adventures they once shared were gone; her vitality and youth strained to be free forgood. After 11 years together, they parted friends in November On April 13, 1938. Crey Owl died from a combination of pneumonia and exhaustion from his celebrity tours. The last person he called for was Anahareo.

The next day, scandal erupted in the English press. Crey OwL the famous Indian naturalist was really an English TODAY9.