From a small town First Nations girl to an international  celebrity and promoter of wilderness conservation, Anahareo was someone who  followed her own mind.  
 
Growing up Gertrude Bernard, an Algonquin/Mohawk girl in a  small Ontario town in the time around the First World War, Anahareo was more at home climbing trees and swimming in the river than playing with dolls or sewing  samplers. When she was nineteen she convinced her father to let her go and work  at Camp Wabikon, a vacation spot for wealthy New Yorkers hoping to experience the wilderness first hand.   There she met the handsome and magnetic trail guide, Archie Belaney, who with his long hair, buckskin pants and Hudson’s Bay belt, symbolized everything she desired--an adventurous man of the wilderness.  The attraction was mutual and Archie wasted no time in inviting the young Gertrude to visit him at his traplines in the bush. Her decision would change her life. 

The essay Kristin wrote on Anahareo, "Blazing Her Own Trail: Anahareo's Rejection of Euro-Canadian Stereotypes" appears in Recollecting: Lives of  Aboriginal Women of the Canadian Northwest and Borderlands, edited by Sarah  Carter and Patricia McCormack and published by Athabasca University Press. The  publication has won the Canadian Historical Association's  Aboriginal history book prize for 2011 and three other prizes. 
www.aupress.ca/index.php/books/120181

Published by Fireship Press.
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Excerpt: 
The rivers and lakes of the Quebec bush were frozen over and the snow was thick on the ground.   Clad in snowshoes and breeches, her parka hood pulled up over her  stylishly bobbed hair, Anahareo, an Aboriginal woman, strode behind Grey Owl in  the wintry landscape with confidence, determined to maintain the silence he required. Eventually the pair arrived at an ice-covered creek.   Knowing that any current makes ice dangerous, Grey Owl cut a pole to test
its firmness. With the snow on the ice only a few inches deep both he and Anahareo removed their snowshoes and Anahareo carried them, leaving Grey Owl free to take the axe and the test
pole.   In a firm voice Grey Owl instructed Anahareo to keep some distance behind him so that the areas of ice would not have to bear both their weights at once, then slowly he led the
way, lifting the pole and letting it fall while he listened intently for the hollow sound that would indicate the ice was too thin for walking.   The cautious tapping slowed their pace and appeared entirely unnecessary to an impatient Anahareo.  After  what seemed an age just creeping forward Anahareo could contain herself no  longer and strode out to pass Grey Owl, who shouted at her furiously.  Suddenly, the ice broke under her and she fell into the frigid water.  
         
Grey Owl sprung into action and dropped to the ice, then carefully, with  the pole outreached, he crawled towards Anahareo until she could grasp it.   Once she had a firm grip, Grey Owl pulled her slowly out of the water to safety.  Quickly he led her into the woods and set about felling a tree to make a  fire. After a time spent warming  herself before the crackling flames, Anahareo felt she was dry enough to make it  back to camp as she was.  Grey Owl  agreed but told her to run fast to keep warm.  She strapped on her snowshoes and off she went at a rapid pace, certain she would make it without a problem.  When she emerged from the woods out  into the open, however, a strong wind cut through her and caused a thin layer of ice to form on her clothes.  She struggled on but the ice only thickened everywhere, including the knees.  All ability to run had vanished and she  could only manage a stiff-legged shuffle as she made her way back. 
She finally arrived at the cabin door, tripped over the threshold and  fell headlong inside.   With
some effort she gathered herself up and started to strip off her clothes.  She began with her moccasins but  discovered that they were frozen solid and impossible to remove, a problem that
only standing in a pail of cold water could resolve.  

The rest of her clothes presented a similar difficulty.   After a heroic struggle out of her parka that found her once again on the  floor with the bucket of water upturned, she attempted to pull off her breeches  and saw that some of her skin came off with them.  After more struggle she was able to remove her remaining clothes and wrap  herself in blankets.