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Grey Owl was the First Nations name of Archibald (Archie)Stansfeld Belaney (1888 - 1938). He was a Canadian environmentalist who wrote and gave lectures about wildlife. He was also a forest ranger and a guide. Belaney started using the name Grey Owl in the 1930s. He chose the name because of his ability to hoot like an owl. Belaney also took on the identity of a First Nations person. He dyed his hair black and coloured his skin brown. When he died, people were surprised to learn that he was a white man.

Early life

Belaney was born in England in 1888. He was raised by two aunts, Ada and Carrie. His father, George Belaney, left for Mexico when Archie was two years old and never returned. Belaney was interested in nature even as a boy. He liked to put live small animals in his pockets and bring them to school. He became fascinated with Canada in his teens. He wanted to go to Canada and live among the First Nations peoples (who were called Indians at that time).

First years in Canada

Belaney came Canada in 1906, against the wishes of his aunts. He told them that he was going to study farming. He worked briefly in Toronto before going to live in a small Ojibwa village on Lake Temagami in Northern Ontario. He made friends with the family of John Egwuna. They taught him how to canoe and how to live in the woods. Belaney married Angele Egwuna (the niece of John Egwuna)in 1910. They had a daughter named Agnes. Belaney abandonned his wife and daughter in 1911.

Belaney went to live in a lumbering town called Bisco. He worked as a trapper, forest ranger and guide. He was also known for his knife-throwing skill, his ability to play the piano and his heavy drinking. He no longer had an English accent and started telling people that his father was a Scot and his mother was an Apache. He was in a relationship with a Métis woman named Marie Girard but they separated in the winter of 1914 - 1915. Belaney did not know that Girard was pregnant. She gave birth to their child, John, in 1915 before she died of tuberculosis in the same year.

First World War

Canada entered the World War I in 1914 and Belaney joined the Canadian military in May 1915. He had excellent aim with a rifle and served as a sniper. He was shot in the right foot and seriously injured in 1916. He was sent to England to recover.