Indian Why Stories: Sparks from War Eagle's Lodge-Fire

Frank Bird Linderman

Frank Bird Linderman 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 for 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.