It is perhaps fitting that the real, fake Grey Owl was referred to as “the New Hiawatha.” After all, Hiawatha was written by Longfellow, another non-Native.

Grey Owl was an Englishman who posed as an Indian and gained fame as a writer and a visionary of environmental protection. He claimed to be a half-breed adopted by the Ojibway. His story can soon be caught on the big screen for all to see.

It is more or less a $45-million documentary that is more or less true. It doesn’t tell that Archibald Stansfeld Belaney, a.k.a. Grey Owl, was a drunk and bigamist having married at least three women, divorcing none and fathering four children in the process.

Instead, it paints a pretty picture of a man who lived among the Indians, said he was one and wrote a series of articles and books culminating in a speaking tour. He was called the greatest Indian spokesman of his time. Therein lies the shame. He merely told what he had been taught by the Native peoples, started an awareness of environmental protection and preservation – only to have it discounted when it was found he was a pretender. In fact this man may have set the environmental movement back decades.

This film is in the same genre as many we have seen over the years. Steven Segal in a fringe jacket playing the rescuer of Native people in Alaska. Then there was Dances With Wolves, another non-Native out desperately trying to save the Native people, just to name a couple.

I feel like an endangered species in that as a Native I have so many rescuers, at least in the movies. Great role models for benighted Indians to emulate or aspire to, it seems. Of course I could be wrong and this is just some horrible turn of events. Where once the myth of the “Noble Red Savage” prevailed, Hollywood is creating the myth of the “Noble Whiteman” so to speak.

Actually though if there is one actor who deserves to be a role model for Native people I think I would pick Marlon Brando. He sent an Aboriginal woman to refuse his Oscar for his role in the Godfather. The reason being he felt there were too many injustices carried out
against First Nations. Quite the shocker at the time but nicely done. I notice Kevin Koster didn’t do the same. It leaves me wondering if he was just trying to cash in on this new fad of Hollywood. As for myself, instead of an equal partnership, I feel like one of them old-time movie Indians with my right hand in the air looking at the settlers greeting them with a guttural “How?”