In 1925, then 37-year-old Grey Owl met 19-year-old Gertrude Bernard (aka Anahareo, or Pony), a Mohawk Iroquois woman who was to be very influential in his life. She encouraged him to stop trapping and to publish his writing about the wilderness. They had a passionate eight-year affair, beginning with their Anishinaabe wedding ceremony. Through her influence, he began to think more deeply about conservation. Anahareo encouraged his writing and influenced him by saving and raising a pair of beaver kits.
His first piece, "The Falls of Silence", was published under the name A.S. Belaney in
Country Life, the famous English sporting and society magazine. He also published articles on animal lore as Grey Owl in
Forest & Outdoors, a publication of the Canadian Forestry Association. He became increasingly known in Canada and the United States. In 1928, the National Parks Service made a film,
Beaver People, featuring Grey Owl and Anahareo, which showed them with two beavers which they had taken in as kits and raised after their mother was killed. After his work attracted the attention of the Dominion Parks Service, Grey Owl was invited to join them as a naturalist.
In 1931, Grey Owl and Anahareo moved briefly (with their beavers) to a cabin in Riding Mountain National Park to find a sanctuary for them. The following year, they resettled at Ajawaan Lake in a home provided by the government at Prince Albert National Park, where Grey Owl was made Honorary Warden responsible for protecting beaver. They had a daughter together, Shirley Dawn, who was born August 23, 1932.
Belaney told his publisher and future biographer, Lovat Dickson, the following story about his origins:
He was the son of a Scottish father and Apache mother. He claimed his father was a man named George MacNeil, who had been a scout during the 1870s Indian Wars in the southwestern United States. Grey Owl said his mother was Katherine Cochise of the Apache, Jicarilla band. He further said that both parents had been part of the Wild Bill Hickok Western show that toured England. Grey Owl claimed to have been born in 1888 in Hermosillo, Mexico, while his parents were performing there.
Little of this account was factual.
In his articles, books, and films, Grey Owl promoted the ideas of environmentalism and nature conservation. In the 1930s, he wrote many articles for the Canadian Forestry Association (CFA) publication
Forests and Outdoors, including the following:
- "King of the Beaver People", January 1931
- "A Day in a Hidden Town", April 1931
- "A Mess of Pottage", May 1931
- "The Perils of Woods Travel", September 1931
- "Indian Legends and Lore", October 1931
- "A Philosophy of the Wild", December 1931
His article, "A Description of the Fall Activities of Beaver, with some remarks on Conservation", was collected in Harper Cory's book
Grey Owl and the Beaver (London: Thomas Nelson and Sons Ltd, 1935).
In 1935-36 and 1937—38, Grey Owl toured Canada and England (including Hastings) to promote his books and lecture about conservation. His popularity attracted large, interested audiences, as
Pilgrims in the Wild at one point was selling 5,000 copies a month. Grey Owl appeared in traditional Ojibwa clothing as part of his First Nations identity. Although his aunts recognized him at his 1935 appearance in Hastings, they did not talk about his British origins until 1937. In his later tour, Grey Owl was invited to the court, where he made a presentation to King George VI of the United Kingdom and princesses Elizabeth and Margaret.
During a publication tour of Canada, Grey Owl met Yvonne Perrier, a French Canadian woman. In November 1936 they married.