Schultz was born August 26, 1859, in
Boonville, New York43°29′01″N075°20′12″W / 43.48361°N 75.33667°W / 43.48361; -75.33667 (Boonville, NY) to well-to-do parents, Frances and Philander Bushrod Schults [as they spelled it]. The house where he was born is marked with a plaque as a New York State Historic Landmark.[1] Young James enjoyed the outdoors and his father ensured he was mentored by experienced outdoorsmen and hunters in the
Adirondacks during camping and hunting trips. He became an experienced shooter at an early age.
Early years in Montana
As a young adult, Schultz moved to
Fort Conrad,
Montana, on the
Marias River. He worked at various trading posts as a clerk for fur trader James Kipp,[2] and he established a trading post at Fort Conrad in 1880. During that time he traded with the
Pikuni and the Bloods and established another trading post at
Carroll, Montana, on the
Missouri River, where he also traded with the
Cree.[3]
Glacier National Park
In the mid-1880s, Schultz began to spend more time in the
Two Medicine and
Saint Mary Lakes region of what is now Glacier National Park guiding and outfitting local hunters. In late 1884 he sent an article entitled "To Chief Mountain" to Forest and Stream, one of his first literary efforts. The article was published in 1885. At the time
George Bird Grinnell was the magazine's editor, and he became intrigued with Schultz and the Glacier region. Grinnell solicited Schultz to outfit and guide him on a hunting trip in Glacier in September 1885. Although the trip was not a great success for Grinnell, he did kill a
Bighorn ram on a mountain near the Upper
Saint Mary Lake with a single shot.
Schultz promptly named the mountain
Singleshot Mountain to honor Grinnell's feat. Thus began decades of Schultz naming features in the Glacier regions for clients and friends, and to honor traditional Indian names.[1]Montana State University Library has a
digital library of papers and photographs documenting Schultz's time in Montana and Glacier National Park, as well as the physical materials that are part of James Willard Schultz's collection, which are held at the
Montana State University's Archives and Special Collections.[4]
Grinnell Glacier was named by Lt. John H. Beacom of the USGS in 1887. This fact is verifiable in both journals kept by George Bird Grinnell and John H. Beacom. Schultz was in the group that first heard the name.
Schultz first visited Arizona in 1906–07, during which time he assisted
J. Walter Fewkes in the excavation and restoration of the pueblo ruins at
Casa Grande.[12] Due to his success as a writer and explorer, in 1913 he became the first non-resident to build a cabin in the remote
White Mountains, near
Greer, Arizona.[13] He would use the cabin as a seasonal retreat for decades.[12]
Author
James Willard Schultz started writing at the age of 21, publishing articles and stories in Forest and Stream for 15 years. He did not write his first book until 1907 at age 48. The memoir My Life as an Indian tells the story of his first year living with the Pikuni tribe of Blackfeet Indians east of Glacier. In 1911, he associated himself with publishers
Houghton Mifflin; the firm published Schultz's subsequent books for the next 30 years. In 1918 he authored Bird Woman, a novel about
Sacajawea.[14] His son, Lone Wolf, provided the illustrations for the novel, and Schultz dedicated the book to him: "Born near the close of the buffalo days he was, and ever since with his baby hands he began to model statuettes of horses and buffalo and deer with clay from the river banks, his one object has been the world of art."[15][16]
In all, Schultz wrote and published 37 fiction and non-fiction books dealing with the Blackfeet,
Kootenai, and
FlatheadIndians. His works received critical literary acclaim from the general media as well as academia for his story telling and contributions to ethnology. Sometime after 1902, while living in Southern California, Schultz worked for a while as the literary editor of the Los Angeles Times.[1]
Family
Schultz's first marriage in 1879 was to Natahki (meaning 'Fine Shield Woman'), a Piegan Blackfeet. Natahki was a survivor of the
Baker massacre in 1870.[17] They had a son named
Hart Merriam Schultz, or Lone Wolf (1882–1965). He was named after Schultz's boyhood friend
Clinton Hart Merriam.[18] Natahki died in 1903.[19]
In 1907 while Schultz was living in Los Angeles as the literary editor for the Los Angeles Times, he married Celia Hawkins of Highland Park, IL (b. 1865, d. 1960) . It is believed that she went to Los Angeles in response to his advertisement for a wife. Some time thereafter, they resumed his life with the Indians. They lived in Butterfly Lodge in Greer, occupying the cabin starting in 1914 . The dedication of his book With the Indians in the Rockies (published in 1912) reads: "This book is affectionately dedicated to my wife Celia Hawkins Schultz whose good comradeship and sympathy have been my greatest help in writing this tale". The Blackfoot gave her the name "No-Coward Woman" after she had an encounter with a grizzly bear.
She lived with Schultz from their marriage in 1907 until she left him in 1928. This period marks the time of his most extensive literary output as he wrote the majority of his books during this time. Their divorce was made final in 1930, and in 1932 a settlement was finalized in which she received half of the royalties from his works published before 1930. Celia Hawkins Schultz died in 1960 in Highland Park, IL, one month shy of her 95th birthday.
Schultz married again, to
Jessica 'Jessie' Schultz. (Jessica Louise Donaldson had been a teacher in a one-room schoolhouse in Grayling, Montana, and later earned an MA in Anthropology from the University of CA. In 1926-7, as a professor of English at Montana State College, now Montana State University-Bozeman, she helped write and produce a play/pageant entitled 'The Masque of the Absaroka'. It focused on Absaroka (Crow) culture, featuring numerous Native Americans from the Crow Nation. She was a lifelong advocate for Northern Plains Indian culture, and particularly for the welfare of women, assisting with the development of markets for the sale of bead and leather goods.) Jessie made arrangements to publish some of Schultz's works posthumously, such as Bear Chief's War Shirt. She married again after his death, to Henry Graham.[20]
Death
James Schultz suffered from ill health for most of his last 30 years. Guiding in the rugged Glacier area took its toll physically. He suffered from incapacitating lung and heart infections. In 1931 he injured his spine. In 1942 he fell, breaking his left leg and right arm. In September 1944, a fall at his home in Denver broke his hip and required major surgery to repair. His deteriorating health severely reduced his ability to write and concentrate. After moving to the
Wind River Reservation in Wyoming to be close to the Native American tribes he grew up with, he suffered a fatal heart attack and died on June 11, 1947. He wanted to be buried in Montana and was laid to rest on the
Blackfeet Reservation48°39′31″N112°52′18″W / 48.65861°N 112.87167°W / 48.65861; -112.87167 (Blackfeet Indian Reservation) near
Browning, Montana, in the old burial ground of the family of Natahki, his first wife.[1]
Schultz, James Willard (1940). Short Bow's Big Medicine. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co.
Schultz, James Willard (1961). Blackfeet Man: Stories of the Famous Montana Indian Story Writer and an Original Map and Guide to the Beautiful Region He Loved (Montana Heritage Series). Helena, MT: Montana Historical Society. (published
posthumously)
Schultz, James Willard (1962). Blackfeet and Buffalo: Memories of My Life among the Indians. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. (published
posthumously)
Notes
^
abcdefHanna, Warren L. (1988). "James Willard Schultz-The Pikuni Storyteller". Stars over Montana-Men Who Made Glacier National Park History. West Glacier, MT: Glacier Natural History Association. pp. 95–111.
ISBN978-0-09-167906-4.
^Holterman, Jack (1985). Place Names of Glacier/Waterton National Parks. West Glacier, Montana: Glacier Natural History Association. pp. 13–14.
ISBN0-916792-02-1.