Kootenai Brown: The Unknown Frontiersman

Kootenai Brown's life was a series of adventures, calamities, and accomplishments. Whether as gold seeker or frontier policeman, Pony Express rider or Rocky Mountain Ranger, Kootenai Brown seemed to find trouble at every turn. He was wounded by a Blackfoot arrow on the Canadian prairie and captured by Sitting Bull in the United States. After barely escaping the hangman's noose in Montana for killing a man, he started a reclusive life just north of the 49th parallel. Brown and his Métis wife, Olivia, settled at Waterton and campaigned to protect the area's wilderness and wildlife for the next four decades. Alberta author and former lieutenant-governor Grant MacEwan proclaimed him one of the greatest of heroes. When first published in the 1960s, Kootenai Brown won recognition in both Canada and the United States, and today, in environmental circles on both sides of the border. Kootenai remains a favourite son.