Gertrude Moltke Bernard, CM, also known as Anahareo, (June 18, 1906 – June 17, 1986) was the Iroquois wife of Grey Owl, born Archibald Belaney, a writer and one of Canada's first conservationists.
Gertrude Bernard, or "Pony" as her friends called her – or "Anahareo" as Grey Owl called her – was born in Mattawa, Ontario to a Native family on June 18, 1906. She grew up a strongly independent woman and something of a tomboy.
When Gertrude was 19, sh...
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Gertrude Moltke Bernard, CM, also known as Anahareo, (June 18, 1906 – June 17, 1986) was the Iroquois wife of Grey Owl, born Archibald Belaney, a writer and one of Canada's first conservationists.
Gertrude Bernard, or "Pony" as her friends called her – or "Anahareo" as Grey Owl called her – was born in Mattawa, Ontario to a Native family on June 18, 1906. She grew up a strongly independent woman and something of a tomboy.
When Gertrude was 19, she met Grey Owl, who occasionally played piano at the lodge, and he invited her to accompany him to his traplines. They married shortly afterwards in an Anishinaabeg ceremony. Anahareo encouraged him to stop trapping and publish his writings about wilderness life. In Pilgrims of the Wild (1934), Grey Owl recounts how his young Iroquois wife, by saving the lives of 2 beaver kits, led him to change his whole way of life and to work for the protection of wildlife. They had a daughter, Shirley Dawn (August 23, 1932 - June 3, 1984) and the couple...
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