MOHAWK ANAHAREO (GERTRUDE MOLTKE BERNARD) BORN—CONSERVATIONIST & AUTHOR
Born at Mattawa, Ontario, of Mohawk and Algonquin parents, she married Archibald Belaney, an English trapper, who falsely claimed to be part-Apache and called himself “Grey Owl.” Belaney, who became a noted writer, claimed that Anahareo converted him into becoming a dedicated conservationist. In Pilgrims of the Wild (1934), he writes how she was appalled at his trapping practices and saved the lives of 2 beaver kits which changed his thinking. After the couple split up in 1936, Anahareo continued to champion the rights of wild animals. Considering Belaney’s book as depicting her stereotypically, she authored an autobiography, Devil in Deerskins (1972). Anahareo was admitted into the Order of Nature of the Paris-based International League of Animal Rights in 1979 and made a member of the Order of Canada in 1983. She died in Kamloops, British Columbia, on June 17, 1986.
Source: Donald B. Smith, “Anahareo,” The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved 5/17/2020, https://web.archive.org/web/20060912141306/http://thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0000193 Photo: Author unknown, 1925. Public Domain.
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