The doctor suggested to just leave it as it had started to knit together, and it wasn't too bad. When I interviewed James Simpson he was an old man and living for the summer at his son's (David) resort at Ya-ha-Tinda Lake. I was aboard a helicopter, piloted by Jack Lunan, flying up Cline River to Pinto Lake, when on the shoulder of the mountain at the entrance to No. After working him for some time I turned him loose with my other horses but he upset them so much I had trouble catching any of them and eventually I had to shoot him. Apparently the Indian girl was the forerunner of the extensive family of Raines living on the Hobbema Indian Reservation at the present time. When found he was in very bad condition from loss of blood. A moose calf is a most ungainly looking object, only a moose cow could love one. The Stoney Indians, an off-shoot of the Plains Sioux, from their reservation at Morley west of Calgary used the Kootenay Plains for a hunting area and some-time residence for over two hundred and fifty years.

There were many hunters coming into the district. Upper Saskatchewan Ranger Station, 1962. Pemono's Louis the Explorer, better known as Dagwood. The camp crew had made the kitchen garbage pit right beside an outdoor toilet used by the woman cook. We started out at dusk carrying a cot spring (as we lacked a stretcher), ropes, portable radio, gas lanterns and flashlights. When they fell in there was no chance to get them out till the river emerged from the gorge. One day John Abraham, an Indian from Bighorn Reserve, arrived at my station with a copy of a reproduction of an oil painting depicting the signing of the seventh treaty of 1877. He kept repeating, "Not give whiskey, not give whiskey." The St. Bernards were slower but better for heavy work.

They saved me a lot of work and were great companions. Theirs was a feast or famine sort of existence.

This did not make sense to me as I knew the Stonies were Methodist.

I led the way picking a trail and carrying the radio, heading for a little meadow I knew, and had arranged for the helicopter to pick us up there.

As we traveled I could see Frenchie was ill at ease, sitting on seat-edge, and kept looking back through the back window.

On another occasion I saw this protective instinct in a manner I would not have believed, except I saw it for myself. There was a goodly number of derelict abandoned Indian cabins on the plains when I took charge of the district, and I had the job of cleaning them up. The waterfall may be its main attraction, but the park has plenty of other things to do and see, like hiking, fishing, and camping. Not that I think they should lose their culture, but it is a pity they have no written history, because they have some very interesting stories handed down by word of mouth in legends.

The Kootenay Plains was where fur traders from the fort at Rocky Mountain House met the Kootenay Indians from the west to trade for furs. With a hand axe from his tool kit he proceeded to chop down trees, and by the time we reached him he had a circle cut around him. The Saskatchewan River system is the largest shared between the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. I bred St. Bernards and Samoyeds for work dogs and high-standard show dogs. When I pulled the tail rope slip knot they would shut up and take off like a shot. For a time they are pathetic, lonesome young bears, till they learn to fend for themselves. I cast around looking for a foreground focal point and found two Indian graves on the edge of the river bank. It was an unlucky location, as just after they set the mill up the sawyer sawed his thumb off, sawing right down the side of his hand. Recognising this, I spent twenty years in the bush without any trouble from them. The black bears caused some trouble around camp grounds if they found garbage.

They were in poor condition for traveling as they had been drinking, and when they came into the house one of them, Frenchie, stumbled as he passed Kathleen, who was presiding at the table. While looking for the horses he unknowingly came between a black bear and its kill. With the stretcher loaded in the back of my truck, Frenchie volunteered to ride with me.