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Singly Handily Grey Owl Personified the North American Aborignal First Nations and the Ecological Movement

27 14:30:32
You may have well heard of "Grey Owl" the famous Canadian Aboriginal who imitated ecology and ecological thinking throughout worldwide.

Believe it or not "Grey Owl" was actually an Englishman who was so enamored with the lost innocence of the North American Aboriginals that he adopted their culture and their way of life as his.

Grey Owl captured the interest of the world in the culture and lifestyle of the North American Indian. Single handily Grey Owl made the world aware of the destruction of natural resources in North America and indeed the world and its aboriginal peoples.

The persona of "Grey Owl "was developed quite innocently by an English schoolboy named Archibald Stansfield Belaney. It was in this role that Belaney himself passionately performed these skills. Was he an actor, a concerned citizen, a fraud or a crackpot? Who knows? We will never know. But in this role Grey Owl performed most important functions whose trend setting and benefits persist with us even to today.

Belaney was born in England in 1888. Even as a youngster he was fascinated by the North American Indians (now called First Nations or "Aboriginals"). Belaney was able to immigrate from The United Kingdom to Canada approximately in the early 1900's.

Much of his time was spent in the northwestern region of Canada's French speaking province of Quebec. This was specifically in the Bicotasing and Temagaming districts. Playing the role - Belaney was a most difficult personality - given to violent outburst, fairly minor skirmishes with the law , all along with persistent alcohol abuse.

However, from the day of arrival of Archie Belaney in Tebagami, Archie (now Grey Owl) embraced a native lifestyle, learning the skills of survival in the Canadian outback, becoming most fluent in the First Nations languages - most noticeably Ojibway. The individual and character of Grey Owl began to develop and emerge. Was this a real personality or a stage act? No one knows. However it can never be doubted the positive effects on the real concern for our environment and ecology that resulted- that may never have occurred in the minds of the "civilized "people in the English Empire otherwise.

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?

Whether Grey Owl was a showman, a real ecologist concerned for the environment - who had the most important message to spread, or a person who genuinely adopted the culture and values of the Aboriginal nations we shall never know. However it can never be doubted that in representing the values for concern of our planet and its natural resources and aboriginal First Nations Peoples that Grey Owl had a lasting and profound effect on the very psyche of the peoples of the planet Earth. Look at the effects of Grey Owl popularization of ecology and of ecological values not only in our daily lives but on worldwide important legislations such as the Kyoto Accords.