Frank Bird Linderman
Frank Bird Linderman (September 25, 1869 – May 12, 1938) was a Montana writer, politician, Native American ally and ethnographer. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, he went West as a young man and became enamored of life on the Montana frontier. While workin
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Frank Bird Linderman (September 25, 1869 – May 12, 1938) was a Montana writer, politician, Native American ally and ethnographer. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, he went West as a young man and became enamored of life on the Montana frontier. While working as a trapper for several years, he lived with the Salish and Blackfeet tribes, learning their cultures. He later became an advocate for them and other northern Plains Indians. He wrote about their cultures, and worked to help them survive pressure from European Americans. For instance, he supported establishment of the Rocky Boy Indian Reservation in 1916 in Montana for landless Ojibwe (Chippewa) and Cree, and continued as an advocate for Native Americans to his death.
He also was active in business, working as an assayer, and later as an agent for Guardian Insurance of America. He later had a hotel for two years. Linderman published his first collection of Native American tribal stories in 1915, and wrote several books over the next two decades - both about Native American cultures and collections of their traditional stories. His friend Charles M. Russell, noted painter, illustrated many of these books.
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