PRINT SOURCE: Thomas Raddall Fonds, Correspondence. From Thomas Raddall to Margaret Vollmer, 19 July 1947. MS-2-202 48.45.
Subject HeadingsIn his response to a query about the factual elements in his short story, "Bald Eagle", from the research assistant to John Fisher, a CBC commentator, T. H. Raddall informs her that libel law forces him to say his work was not the life story of Grey Owl, alias Archibald Belaney. Raddall gives a summary of his research on Archibald Belaney, an Englishman who posed as a Native Canadian. Raddall points out that Belaney lived with the Mi'kmaq for a short time before World War I. Raddall concludes with praise for John Fisher's work.
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July 19th, 1947 Miss Margaret Vollmer,End House, 112 Yates St., St.Catharines, Ont. Dear Miss Vollmer, The law of libel, which places an author utterly at the mercy of anyone, scrupulous or otherwise, who chooses to identify himself or herself with a supposedly fictitious character, forces me to deny that "Bald Eagle" has anything whatever to do with "Grey Owl". "Grey Owl" is dead of course,1 but as he went through the form of marriage with at least one woman in Canada, quite apart from his English relationships, you will understand my attitude. I can give you some brief facts about "Grey Owl". His real name was Archibald Stansfield Belaney and his mother was still living in England in 1940, a widow for the second time. Her first husband, Belaney, went to the United States many years ago, and married her at Palatka, Florida, where the record of their marriage is still preserved in the courthouse. Apparently they travelled about the south and west of the United States for some time. Archie was born somewhere on these travels but he came to England as a boy and was brought up by a maiden aunt and went to a school, I think at Hastings, Sussex. At the age of seventeen he came to Nova Scotia, took to the Indian life, and was living amongst the Micmacs near Bear River when the First World War broke out. He went to Digby,N.S. and enlisted in the Canadian army under his own name. The doctor who examined him for army service was still living in Digby at the time of Archie's death and remembered him well. His career after leaving the Canadian army you know. I believe he told his English publishers that his mother was an Apache of the Jacarilla tribe, named Kitty Cachise, and that he was himself born in Hermosilla, Mexico. All of which was a figment of his very lively imagination. For some reason the notion of living amongst Indians and posing as one of them seems to have a peculiar appeal for a certain type of Englishman. Apart from "Grey Owl" I know of two who have done it quite successfully. Please give my regards to John Fisher -- he is doing a grand job for Canada2 and deserves every bit of his success. |
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