Wilderness Man
Lovat Dickson - Wilderness Man
Grey Owl claimed to be Ojibwa halfbreed, hunter of the north born in Mexico from Amerindian parents. In fact, he was Archibald Belaney, British man who had moved to Canada ostensibly to study but ended up joining the Amerindian hunters. He married Amerindian women and became a conservationist (in modern terms) and author writing about the wilderness.
Lovat was originally the British publisher of books written by Grey Owl who started the research to clear the name of a man he believed to have been a genuine Amerindian. In the end he had to admit he'd been fooled but still did not write an angry expose. In my opinion he sometimes makes too many guesses of thinking processes and motivations of a man he knew mainly peripherally. He assumes that Belaney’s British ancentry and British traditional fondness for animals might have clashed with the life of hunter of animals for their pelts. Actually, we don’t really know anything but that Grey Old honestly tried to make a living that way before becoming what we would call now a conservationist.
Still, this is mainly sympathetic approach, a story about a young man who decided to adopt the customs of amerindians out of enthusiasism and tried to live their life with respect of their customs.
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Grey Owl claimed to be Ojibwa halfbreed, hunter of the north born in Mexico from Amerindian parents. In fact, he was Archibald Belaney, British man who had moved to Canada ostensibly to study but ended up joining the Amerindian hunters. He married Amerindian women and became a conservationist (in modern terms) and author writing about the wilderness.
Lovat was originally the British publisher of books written by Grey Owl who started the research to clear the name of a man he believed to have been a genuine Amerindian. In the end he had to admit he'd been fooled but still did not write an angry expose. In my opinion he sometimes makes too many guesses of thinking processes and motivations of a man he knew mainly peripherally. He assumes that Belaney’s British ancentry and British traditional fondness for animals might have clashed with the life of hunter of animals for their pelts. Actually, we don’t really know anything but that Grey Old honestly tried to make a living that way before becoming what we would call now a conservationist.
Still, this is mainly sympathetic approach, a story about a young man who decided to adopt the customs of amerindians out of enthusiasism and tried to live their life with respect of their customs.
This entry was originally posted at http://elfbiter.dreamwidth.org/4159.html. Please comment there using OpenID.