‘Kootenai’ Brown circa 1895

[Shotgun Steve]

John George 'Kootenai' Brown (1839-1916) was a man of many parts. As a frontiersman of the northern plains and mountain regions, his natural habitat tended to be the international border country extending from the Red River to Victoria, British Columbia. In the fifty years following the publication of "I Remember" in the Farm and Ranch Review of 1919-20, "Kootenai" Brown's legendary qualities grew with steady force. [1] "I Remember" was, in fact, an extended series of memoirs based on William MacDougall Tait's interviews with Brown conducted during his later years. [2] It was not until 1969, when the Royal Rhodes military historian William Rodney published his excellent critical biography, that some of the hoary myths which had grown up around Brown's memory (such as his having been an "Eton Man") were placed under the magnifying glass. This and other questionable bits of lore were put to rest, and it remained only for the producers of a dramatic film in the early 1990s to give many of them a re-birth in ways which even Brown would have found surprising! [3]

John George 'Kootenai' Brown at Red River, circa 1866.

John George Brown was born in County Clare, Ireland in 1839 and died at Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta in 1916, where he had been appointed as the first Park Superintendent in 1911. It is there, near the eastern entrance to the South Kootenay Pass along Pass Creek, that he lies buried, alongside his two wives. His first companion was a Métis woman, Olivia D'Lonais (Lyonnais) who bore him three children before her death in the early 1880s. [4] The second important woman in Brown's life was Isabella or Chee-pay-tha-qua-ka-soon—"The Blue Flash of Lightning"—a Cree woman who became his wife and companion in the Waterton country. She outlived her husband by many years and was buried beside him in 1935. [5]

He was Chief Scout for the Rocky Mountain Rangers. He scouted for both the American and Canadian military.
He served briefly in India with the British Army's Eighth Regiment of Foot before coming to the west. He tried prospecting and served as a peace officer. He was once captured by Sitting Bull and only his wits and luck removed him from this delicate situation. With the end of the North-west troubles, Brown settled once again into his relatively sedentary life at Waterton as trader, wildlife guide and eventually as park guardian. Mr. Brown certainly lived
a full varied life.

[Sir Charles deMouton-Black]

Here's a book.

KOOTENAI BROWN, Canada's Unknown Frontiersman, 1996, William Rodney, Heritage House, Surrey BC, ISBN 1-895811-31-7

The movie, with Tom Berenger, has been released under two names; (Can't locate my copy just now.)
1.  Kootenai Brown
2.  Shootout at Williams Creek

I follows history "reasonably" closely, but dramatizes a conflict that allegedly started at Barkerville on Williams Creek in BC and ended in an acquittal in a murder trial in Fort Benton, years later.

Brown was a BC Provincial in Wildhorse Creek BC and had just jailed three US con men selling counterfeit gold.  Governor James Douglas cut the pay of the BC Constabulary in an economy move.  Brown quit, and his replacement had to suffer the indignity of the escape of Brown's three desperados.

Brown's story is a classic tale of a real western hero.

[John Smith]

The movie starred Tom Burlinson, not Tom Berenger.

[Sir Charles deMouton-Black]

Sorry;  I claim seniors status!  can't find my VHS of the movie, and didn't google-it!

[RattlesnakeJack]

As you may know, my CAS alias/persona is based on a real-life individual - John M. 'Rattlesnake Jack' Robson - who was one of the two other Scouts who served with the Rocky Mountain Rangers under Chief Scout Kootenai Brown ......

No. 1 and No. 2 Troops of the RMR were stationed here at Medicine Hat during the 1885 North West Rebellion, and a number of photos taken at that time feature Brown .....

FWIW,  here are a few of them .......

RMR patrol formed up near Medicine Hat - column headed by Kootenai Brown and Captain Lord Richard Boyle .....


RMR officers at Medicine Hat, Kootenai Brown at right ....


Group shot, Kootenai Brown front and center .....