I THE SANTA FEAN MAGAZINEYoL22 No. 10 November 1994

THE SANTA FEAN II|AGAZINE, November 1994,27

Ernest Thompson Seton.

medal for his art, and as a reward his father senthim to the prestigious Royal Academy of Art inLondon.' Seton made use of all the cultural amenitiesof London: the London Zoo, the British Museumand other great institutions, where he studied ani-mal anatomy and the works of pioneer naturalistslike John J. Audubon, Thomas Nuttall, Henry DavidThoreau and others. But he longed for NorthAmerica, and decided to return to Canada shortlythereafter, much to the chagrin of his father.

After his return from England, Seton traveledto western Canada to help one of his brothers builda house on land he had homesteaded. He spent thewinter of 1882-1883 there, experiencing sub-zerotemperatures and learning how to track animalsincluding wolves and foxes.

While he was diligently pursuing his undisci-plined education in natural history, he worked as afine artist, magazine and book illustrator, and as acommercial artist. In addition, he began to writeserious studies and stories about various animaland bird species. Some of these were printed inCanadian periodicals as early as February 1883.During this period of his life he divided his timebetween Manitoba, Toronto and New York. He wasdeeply moved by Indians of various tribal affilia-tions whom he had met in western Canada. He alsodeveloped an affection for the wilderness. For him,it had an innate morality that humankind should

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rnest Thompson Seton was certainly one ofthe most fascinating men in recent New Mex-ico history. He was a man of many rare tal-

ents and causes. An enigmatic figure, Seton was aWestern-styled Renaissance man: a prolific author,artist and illustrator, naturalist, popular lecturerand a firm believer in a Utopian society free of warand technology. He was branded a radical by somepeople, and an eccentric genius by others.

He was born in 1860 in England to wealthyparents who relocated to Canada in 1866. The fam-ily settled in Lindsay, Ontario one of several fron-tier townships established in the 1850s in the outly-ing areas of upper Ontario. In England, Seton'sfather had been a shipowner, but in Canada he envi-sioned himself as a gentleman farmer, so the familymoved onto a pariially cleared 100 acre tract ofland.

As a youngster, Seton was exposed to thewoods and wild things at the farm in Lindsay wherehe collected bird nests and eggs, and kept small ani-mals as pets. He also thrilled to the tales of neigh-bors who related stories of hunting Canadian biggame. After four years the family sold the farm andmoved to Toronto.

Early in his life, Seton decided to become a

naturalist; however, his strict father did notapprove. Consequently, after taking art lessons, heworked as a portraitist's assistant and later enrolledin the Ontario Art School. In 1879 he won a gold

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emulate, not conquer and subjugate.He went to Paris in the summer of 1890

where he attended art school, but again, he wasdrawn baek to the wilds of North America. Hereturned in 1892, with his artistic and writing skillsfurther honed and his years in Paris had shown himhis favorite mammal subject: the wolf.

Seton went to the American Southwest forthe first time in the fall of 1893, at the invitation ofan Englishman who owned a large ranch near Clay-ton, New Mexico Territory. When he stepped offthe train in Clayton, the 33-year-old man began alove affair with New Mexico that would never wane,although he did not know it at the time.

Out on the ranch, Seton set about studying

the terrain and local fauna, and learning the ways ofthe Southwestern cowboy. He had been retained byhis English ranch-owning friend to hunt the wolvesthat were killing the cows and sheep. Seton sawthis as an opportunity to expand his knowledge ofwolves and other wildlife in a region of NorthAmerica that he had never seen.

Soon after his arrival in New Mexico, he heardstories of a wolf pack led by a huge and cunningwolf called Old Lobo by the area cowboys. Therewas a big bounty for Old Lobo: over 1,000 dollars,but all efforts to snare him had been in vain. Setonresolved to be the one who would trap the kingwolf. The story of how he accomplished this, inJanuary 1894, remains one of the classic animaltales of the Southwest. When Seton's narrative was

published in Scribner's Magazine in November1894, it received worldwide attention. Even LeoTolstoy praised the story, as did other leading liter-ary figures of the day.

In the summer of 1894, while on a ship boundfor Paris, Seton met Grace Gallatin, daughter of theCalifornia financier Albert Gallatin. In Paris Setonresumed his art studies and two years later, after hereturned to the United States, he and Grace weremarried. The couple settled down on a counrryestate in New Jersey, then moved to a fashionableapartment on New York's Fifth Avenue. While liv-ing in New York, Seton met Frederick Remington,Theodore Roosevelt and other leading artists, natu-ralists and wilderness advocates of the day.

By 1898 he was also a popular literary figureof New York City, having just published his firstbook, Wild Animals That I Haue Known towidespread critical acclaim. Later that year he andGrace made a trip to the Yellowstone area, where hefamiliarized himself with the animals there.

Back in New York, he published his secondbook in the summer of i899. The couple thenheaded to western Canada. Moving down the westcoast, Seton gave talks in Washington, Oregon andCalifornia, had a meeting with John Muir, visitedthe Grand Canyon in Arizona Territory, thenreturned to New York via Denver.

In 1900 the Setons bought several farms inConnecticut and established an estate on themnamed Wgndygoul, transforming the tract inio alake and woods where birds and animals couldthrive. Here Seton wrote, sketched, painted andobserved the local wildlife.

The first decade of the 2Oth century foundhim at the height of his productive life. He hadwritten and illustrated some 12 major natural his-tory books, had penned introductions and fore-words to others, and had published more than 100natural history articles in various journals andmagazines. He was also much in demand as aspeaker. While he could easily have rested on hislaurels and reaped the benefits of his numerousroyalties, he chose to explore new horizons.

Like his friend Theodore Roosevelt, Setonbelieved that outdoor life built character, and fur-ther, that physical fitness based on sports - butnot team sports, which Seton detesied - and rigor-ous exercise, would revitalize the American charac-ter. The place to start with this philosophy waswith the youth. He decided to teach America'syouth woodcraft skills so that they could learn thepersonal independence of the frontier era, andbecome reacquainted with pioneer ideals.

Seton is credited with having been one of theharbingers of the youth movement in the early 20thcentury. Using the American Indian as a model, heurged in a book published in 1903 that young boysbe encouraged to join in giroups of what he called"Woodcraft Indians." The Woodcraft Indians was

Julia Seton with portrait of Seton.

athe first, and for a time the largest, of several youthorganizations to appear in the United States duringthe Progressive Era designed to better the mental,moral and physical development of boys, increasetheir knowledge of the outdoors, and train them tobecome responsible citizens.

Seton's Woodcraft Indians, later renamed theWoodcraft League of America, never had the same

appeal in England as it did in North America. TheBoy Scout movement of England, founded by SirRbbert S.S. Baden-Powell in 1908, was developed byEnglish veterans of the Boer War. The Boy Scoutmovement subsequently caught on in the UnitedStates, much to the disappointment of Seton, whoconsidered the movement too para-military. At thisjuncture he de€mphasized his youth organizationwork to resume writing, traveling, lecturing andstudying wildlife in various locales.

In late 1929 Seton purchased 2500 acres ofland about 7 miles southeast of downtown SantaFe. Seton chose this land in the hills along ArroyoHondo, for what he planned to be the "primitivespiritual capital of nature in America." The SantaFe area was attractive to him for its special environ-mental qualities, the fact that it was a visible sym-bol of historic continuity and social integration,and because of its proximity to the villages of thePueblo Indians. Here he would build a new centerof "spiritual refreshment for millions between theages of four and ninety-four," and a training centerfor leaders of the outdoor movement.

A series of buildings was soon built around aplaza and was named Seton Village. Several rail-road cars were brought in and converted into guesthouses and the grounds were landscaped. As theGreat Depression settled over the country, this con-struction provided employment for local Spanishand Indian laborers.

Seton had apparently found his true niche inthe hills of Santa Fe. He told an associate that hehad experienced spiritual rejuvenation in Santa Fe

after a long struggle to shake off the early influenceof his strict Calvinist upbringing. Still a Canadiantechnically, on November 6, 1931, he became aUnited States citizen.

The new facilities of Seton's "College of Indi-an Wisdom" were officially opened in the summerof 1932. Twenty-four people attended the first ses-

sion, and were housed in an Indian village Setonhad built consisting of tipis, wickiups and log cab-ins, with a Pueblo kiva, a dining hall and a Navajohogan for an auditorium. Classes for this first insti-tute, and subsequent institutes held over the nextten years, were generally conducted outdoors andincluded field trips. The courses were fully accred-ited by the American Association of Colleges andwere taught by afaculty of 42.

Meanwhile, in late 1934, Seton and Gracewere divorced, and in January 1935, Seton marriedhis secretary of 15 years, Julia Moss Buttree. Julia

THE SANTA FEAN MAGAZINE, November 1994,29

was also a gifted writer and had published TfteRhythm ofthe Redman in 1930, a collection aboutIndian dances from different tribes. Seton wrotethe preface, and illustrated the book. Julia alsowrote three other books and numerous articles. Inaddition, she shared Seton's enthusiasm forwildlife.

By 1940 Seton Village held 30 buildings. One

ofthese was Seton's personal residence. Called "thecastle," it contained 30 rooms in three storieswhich included a library of 70,000 volumes. Con-structed of adobe on a stone foundation, the centralportion of the house ran from east to west. It was

on a hill facing west, and looming over Seton Vil-lage, it must have presented something of a feudalappearance.

Seton's institute was conducted during thesummer months. Seton Village could accommo-date 150 children and adults, providing a uniqueeducational experience in a novel setting for bothyoung and old. One year, 1938, student enrollmentwas 176 with many more turned away.

While running his school, Seton used hisinfluence to advocate federal Indian reform legisla-tion. He urgled his longtime friend John Collier,federal commissioner of Indian affairs, to lobbyCongress to pass the Indian Reorganization Act of1934. The provisions of this act reversed previouslegislation on the liquidation and allotment of Indi-an lands, stressed tribal self-help and self-govern-ment, established the Indian Arts and Crafts Board,and reaffirmed Indian religious freedom, to name afew of the measures contained in this important^^+dLL.

By 1942, the United States had entered WorldWar II; public attention shifted from the Indian loreand harmony with nature messages that weretaught at the Santa Fe College of Indian Wisdomand courses were suspended as the country plungedinto the war effort.

After the war, the Setons resumed their lec-ture tours. His animal tales and Indian legendscaptivated audiences throughout the country, buthe was not getting an), younger, having turned 86years old in 1946. Nevertheless, he and Julia com-memorated his birthday that year by addressing thestudent body of the University of New Mexico onthe subject of the Indians of New Mexico. They alsomade plans for a 10,000 mile speaking tour for thefall and winter, but the tour would never material-ize. Seton died in his castle on October 23,1946.

Seton Village was designated a National His-toric Landmark in 1975. Most of Seton's memora-bilia, artwork, books and natural history collectionswere given by Julia to the Ernest Thompson SetonMemorial Library and Museum, established in 1968

at the Philmont Boy Scout Ranch and ExplorerBase, near Cimarron, New Mexico. This uniqueman, giifted with an unusual strength and under-standing of nature, remains a folk hero to this day.