Shaman-Chief Kitpou -- a Kandalore legend

The following is a compilation of news articles featuring the late Shaman-Chief Kitpou who walked on the shores of Lake Kabakwa at Camp Kandalore back in the heady '60s during the founding of the Frontier '67 and Kanawa canoe museums by Kirk Wipper.

(Originally printed in The Toronto Star -- Copied from The Virtual Reference Library)

Formal call on the Haida; A Haida Indian canoe made in British Columbia carries Shaman-Chief Kitpou of the Algonquins to the destroyer HMCS Haida yesterday for a ceremonial visit. The braves are from the camp that owns the canoe.

The following is reprinted from several issues in the LYTTON MUSEUM & ARCHIVES  

Do you remember - Lobsang Rampa, who claimed to be a Tibetan monk, author of The Third Eye? He turned out to be Cyril Henry Hoskin, an Englishman, a plumber from Plimpton, Devon. 

Grey Owl, born in England as Archibald Stansfeld Belaney, who adopted his Indian persona after coming to Canada? 

The Great Impostor, Ferdinand Waldo Demara, Jr., who masqueraded as many people from monk to surgeon to prison warden? A movie was made about him with Tony Curtis in the starring role. 

Shaman Chief Kitpou 1912-1988

He and his version of his background are best described by a 1967 write-up in the Ottawa Journal : Blue eyed Indian Chief Wobay Kitpou, an Indian medicine man from Bear River, Nova Scotia, arrived in Ottawa Thursday to promote his "Rolling Reserve" an 11 ton bus crammed full of Indian artifacts. Travelling from the Maritimes to Vancouver, Chief Kitpou of the Algonquin Related Tribes has planned the bus Another “Great Impostor ” ? tour to give Canadians an insight into Indian culture. "Everything in the bus is made by Maritime Indians,” he says, "the work of Indians from the Micmac and Maliseet tribes and some from those of the Penobsequts and Pasamaqooddy tribes, too." Hundreds of items are crammed into the bus; Indian blankets, jewelery, pottery, furs, moccasins, totem poles, headdresses, ceremonial clothes, tomahawks. But the most spectacular of all is the chief himself. Naked to the waist, dressed in decorated Indian flaps and leggings, which leave him bare-buttocked at the sides, beads, bangles, and medallions around his neck, he makes an imposing figure.His costume is topped by a fur head-piece, the crown of which is raccoon "the mother that looks after her young the longest”. The forepart is fox "for cunning and wisdom." It is lined with beaver, "the lodge of the family". One of the three medallions hanging from his neck was given to him by President Johnson in memory of North American Chiefs attending the funeral of President Kennedy. Another, of silver, was given to him by Walking Buffalo at the Calgary Stampede; the third belongs to the Algonquin Related Tribes ... “It is a relic from Custer's last Stand at the Little Big Horn," says Chief Kitpou, “A Stan chief gave it to me.” But for all his splendid regalia, there are those who doubt the authenticity of the blue-eyed chief. He says he is the son of John Picton, Micmac of Bear River, but this is hard to prove by documentation. .."My mother and father FITZGERALD, WILLIAM H. 1862/63 - chief constable; "steady character, efficient, courteous, extensive knowledge of languages" COCHRANE, W.N. PAGE 6 1863-66 - constable at Lytton, promoted to chief constable in 1863; "pre-eminent qualities as a public servant". travelled a great deal and I was born in Ontario," the Chief explains. “My mother died in childbirth and my father couldn't look after me alone; so I ended up in the Orangemen's Foster Home in Toronto.” The chief says he was adopted by an English - Canadian family and moved to Quebec. “But I always felt I was an Indian and as a young boy ran away three times to live with my people.” When he was of age he left his foster home and went to live on the Bear River Reserve . . leaving only during the war to become a lieutenant commander in the navy. If the chief can't definitely prove his Indian ancestry, he certainly acts and thinks like an Indian. “I want to Improve the status of the Indian and make them proud of their heritage,” he says. Such a proud heritage can be seen at the Rolling Reserve, parked at Shoppers City for the next few days. The chief and his wife Ruby, daughter Little Gull. and son Ronald are pleased to show any visitor their unique reserve. A year later Kitpou and his “Rolling Reserve” were in Port Angles, Washington. He has now become ‘Dr. Wobay Kitpou, a bloodline Chief of the Algonquin Related Tribes’ and the bus contents are now ‘rare relics’ and Indian artifacts. Kitpou’s bio includes ‘has appeared on the Bonanza and Bob Hope television shows. Chief Kitpou received a Ph.D. from Bishops University in Lennoxville, Quebec, and has served with the Canadian Navy.’ In 1969 in Ontario he was charged with reckless driving and driving with a revoked permit. By August 1971 he had made his way to Prince Rupert to pick up a replica of a Haida war canoe to take back to the National Museum in Ontario. In Terrace, at a presentation by Chief Dan George, for the showing of Little Big Man, Kitpou ... managed to put in an appearance at the performance by appearing on stage and asking the audience, “You know what freedom is?”...no response from the audience...”a naked man riding a wild horse.” In April 1972 the Micmac News reported: Blue eyes and fair skin... but is he an Indian chief? Recently, the Edmonton Journal wrote an article on a Chief Shamon Kitpou, described as a fair skin, blue-eyed, blue-grey hair accentuated only by a big bald spot at the top of the head. The article goes on to indicate that Kitpou was dressed in Indian costume carrying a wampum treaty belt and it goes on. The Union of Nova Scotia Indians learned of the article and an executive is presently arranging for action in relation to the false pretense in Kitpou’s statement that he is an Indian Chief from Nova Scotia. Kitpou may have well grew [sic] up in Nova Scotia, but in no way on one of the 12 Indian Communities. The Union experience with Kitpou dates back to 1966 when he tried to submit a project to the Centennial Commission on behalf of the Nova Scotia Indians. No one knew who he was - not even the Indians. Some of the artifacts that “Kitpou as Mr Munster have been taken from the Indian people under different devious means. The last known Mic Mac medicine died in the 1940’s and there’s apparently no such THOMAS, JAMES 1866 appointed constable at Lytton; "of excellent character" PAGE 7 thing as a “Shamon” within the Nova Scotia Mic Mac nations. The executive of the Union continue in that they state, if indeed, Mr. Munster’s grandfather was an Indian, he was not of the Mic Mac tribe and has not lived on any Indian reservation in Nova Scotia. Then in June 1972, the Micmac News printed a full page follow up to the previous article entitled The Plourdes & Kitpou: a brief history on how they were taken in by an Indian imposter by the name of Kitpou. A couple who had moved to Ottawa in 1967 opened an Indian Crafts shop. They took Kitpou (and his family), at the recommendation of a local Indian, into their home in return for his help in arranging a Powwow and Native Crafts display. Kitpou stated he did not require pay for his help, the hosting of his family was thanks enough. After the Powwow, on a holiday Monday, when the shop was not open, Kitpou asked to borrow their car. Having second thoughts after loaning the car, they went to their shop and found ... he had ransacked the shoppe and had further gone to the hall where the production had been held and had removed all the clothing and props we had left there... The article finishes off with : Last week we received a letter from British Columbia asking for information about a Shaman Kitpou who he was considering to employ as he is interested in opening a longhouse museum in which he, Mr Maybee, is to provide the funds and Munster Kitpou is to provide the collection. And again in 1972, in the Micmac News in July, in a letter to the Editor prompted by seeing the previous two articles: ... Jim Kitpou borrowed a picture of us all dressed in Indian costume.... and we haven’t seen it since. I would like to have the picture back.

Reprinted from:

LYTTON MUSEUM & ARCHIVES 2014 Issue #2 (Page 5)

Another "Great Imposter" ?

First , a correction - this statement from the first article in Issue #2, 2014: In 1969 in Ontario he was charged with reckless driving and driving with a revoked permit. This is incorrect. The source on-line article had mixed up extracts from several news articles so it looked as if it was related to Kitpou. It was not. But he did run afoul of the law in 1976. More about that later. Kitpou continued his criss-crossing of the country - you just never knew where he would pop up next or what the latest news story might contain. 1968 Port Angeles Evening News Kitpou wore three Honor Medallions .... one awarded him by President Johnson, second one presented to the Chief’s father by Queen Victoria and the third he received for riding a buffalo. Chief Kitpou, who received a Ph.D. from Bishop’s University in Quebec....... 1969 Danville Register Chief Kitpou and his son, Alan, ...... The Chief is especially proud of a “Golden Spike” Winchester 30-30 (one of 50 produced) carbine given him this year by the Winchester Company. A copper plate given to one of his ancestors by the Hudson Bay Company in 1785 also is displayed. The plate was a gift for a treaty granting the Hudson Bay Company exclusive fur-trading rights. Perhaps the most unique item in Chief Kitpou’s display is the Champlain Calumet, a combination peace-pipe-tomahawk... It dates from 1608 when one of his ancestors smoked the pipe with the French granting them safe residence in Canada. By January 1970 Kitpou’s arrival in Lytton, and his accomplishments, made for a lengthy article in the Hope Standard newspaper. Lytton has a celebrity. He is Wobay Kitpou who calls himself Kitpou. He has a wife, Ruby and 11 children, nine boys and two girls. Kitpou spent 21 years in the Canadian Navy and was a translator of the Indian and Eskimo language for the government in the North. After leaving the Navy he felt he needed to get away from it all so he took his Grandfather, who was 102 at the time and went into the woods for 2 years. He did not come out again until his Grandfather died at 104 years of age. ...he can trace his family back 16 generations. Kitpou speaks six major languages - Algonquin, Ojibway, Peuoscott, Sioux, Apache and Navajo. He has written five books, including “Tribal Law” and assisted in the book called Mattchilsom Documentary” which was published in France. ...He made two movies, an Eagle American production called “Indian Paint”, and an MGM production “The Tribal Law”. He has also been in a number of TV series, PAGE Where is Hell’s Gate ? ... in Turkmenistan’s Karaum Desert 5 such as Gunsmoke, F-Troop, Bonanza and Wagon Train. In January 1971 a pamphlet entitled “The Tribal Law of the Children of Light” was published by Wawa Print & Litho , noted “Compiled and translated by Shaman Chief Kitpou.” January 19, 1971, La Presse Montreal article said Kitpou stopped off in Montreal on his way to New York where he was to ...negotiate an engagement on the Ed Sullivan Show. He was accompanied by his son Guiss... In addition to being the star of the feature film “Northwest Passage”, produced by the department of the National Archives of Ontario, the Indian chief equally held roles in American cinematographic productions, in films such as “A Man called Horse” and “How the West Was Won”. Next, he published a book, “Tribal Laws”, a compilation of all the laws that govern the Indian Tribes of North America. After having stayed in the Canadian Navy for 21 years, the shaman Kitpou left an Algonquin tribe in Nova Scotia, re-located in the West and became the adviser of the five Indian Nations of that region. June 18, 1971, Archives of Ontario files report he and his son visited Sarnia’s Boy Scout Camporee. By August 1971, he was making his appearance in Terrace. (See Part 1 in #2, 2014) and a subsequent Terrace newspaper article reported The headdress he wears is 140 years old and has accompanied the Shaman in many television and movie screen appearances..... Kitpou is internationally known and has personally received acknowledgement from Royalty, presidents and movie stars. February 26, 1972 The Edmonton Journal wrote about a theatre group putting on a play called “The Sky People”. Their advisor was Kitpou, ...an instructor of Indian history and an actor who has performed on stage and in 7 motion pictures. A follow up interview with Kitpou states he ...is on leave from his job as instructor of Indian history at the Church of England Indian Residential School in Lytton, B.C. ...and an actor - a relatively famous one, at that. He appeared as the Shaman in A Man Called Horse. As a driver in Stagecoach. In Rifles ’66 and in How the West was Won. And as Screaming Chicken in the TV series F-troop. One of his most prized possessions is a 400 year old peace pipe carved from stone, once smoked by Queen Victoria and other kings and queens since then. Kitpou’s transport of the Haida canoe in 1971 from Prince Rupert to the National Canoe Museum in Ontario was interrupted when his station wagon died in Thunder Bay Ontario. The canoe was left outside all winter where it deteriorated and cracked. In Toronto, in May 1972 extensive repairs were done before heading to it’s final destination in August 1972, but not before a Kitpou photo op, as he, and several costumed youths paddled the canoe in front of HMCS Haida in what was billed as ...a ceremonial visit. Where is Hell’s Gate ? PAGE ... in Death Valley, California & Nevada 6 By January 1973, Kitpou had returned to the Okanagan and was booked to do 4 storytelling sessions at the Kelowna Library. August 1973 Native Voice newspaper reported Kitpou attended the Penticton Pow-wow. He was ...educated at Oxford University where he received his PhD in philosophy. He wrote his thesis on the conception of the brain and human thought. June 15, 1974 Kitpou’s 8 year old daughter fell into a Westbank creek, fractured her neck and drowned. December 1974 A group of ...Indian children from the Lytton British Columbia Indian Residential School and Kitpou ...the head of the Indian Residential School. are in Banff to present a peace pipe to the Banff Indian Days Chairman. During 1974/75 Kitpou was listed as a member of the the Okanagan Photographic Society. May 1975, Kitpou, ...a consultant on Indian artifacts for the Royal Ontario Museum, was passing through Medicine Hat transporting two totem poles, gifts from B.C. Indians to the Algonquin tribes of Central and Maritime Canada. Canmore Miner Newsletter Aug 13, 1975 article reported Shaman Chief Kitpou brought some of his 'boys' from the Litton Indian School to perform. They told of the Indian version of Creation and the story of salmon fishing in B.C. .... Kitpou and his lively wife, Ruth, had some of their children and grandchildren with them. ---------------- To be continued - a seemingly never-ending story!

Reprinted from:

LYTTON MUSEUM & ARCHIVES 2014 Issue #4 (Page 4)

The end of Kitpou?

1975 - Sudbury Ontario TOTEM POLES & WAMPUM MEMORIAL IN BIG NICKEL PARK The totem poles were prepared by Shaman Chief Kitpou in British Columbia and transported to Sudbury Ontario in April on a trailer behind his car. It would take another 6 weeks to complete at the park with Kitpou living in a Tee Pee. 1976 - An anecdotal account of Kitpou’s arrest for indecency In Quebec City, in the early 60s, when things were still a bit prudish he was invited as an extra attraction for the tourists at a festival. While he was doing a traditional dance, someone saw a little strip of his flat Indian a** between his leggings and his loincloth, and he was arrested for indecency. Kitpou mentioned to his lawyer an old treaty that noted Chiefs attending a ceremony in their ‘traditional garb’ and his lawyer presented the treaty in court, about a week after the arrest. The judge went for it 100%, and declared the arrest illegal. October 16, 1976, Medicine Hat News published a photo with the caption: DRESSED FOR THE OCCASION - Wearing his full regalia, Chief Shaman Apou Kitpou, of British Columbia, poses with a pretty Japanese girl dressed in a kimono. The picture was taken at a Tokyo hotel shortly after the chief arrived in Japan, where he is visiting to promote Canadian products and goods. 1977 May - Spokane newspaper report: …Chief Wobay Kitpou, a shaman, or medicine man, of the Algonquin Indians, and a member of the Canadian Parliament from the Nova Scotia district of Labrador, has offered to carve the pole free… followed a few days later by..... …..Kitpou, an Algonquin artist who lives near Vancouver, B.C., has been keeping a busy schedule visiting Spokane schools this week as part of Indian Awareness Week…..Kitpou’s schedule and rain, which left the pole “soggy” prevented preliminary work this week that would have allowed the carving to be completed Saturday. Kitpou said he could carve the pole in one day, but felt he needed more time to do a good job. 1978 Spokane - May, according to one newspaper article Kitpou is now….a Mohawk Indian with degrees from Oxford and Cambridge… 1983-84 Kitpou worked at Camp Owaissi in Kelowna, as an educational lecturer. 1985 - In the history of The Neebing Roadhouse - Thunder Bay, Ontario Lytton - Thos. Henderson, M.A. $55.00 Lytton North - Miss C.M. Crankshaw $40.00 PAGE 7 The Totem Pole at the entrance was … created by Chief Kitpou “Shaman Chief of the Children of the Light”. Chief Kitpou, 74 years old at the time, was the hereditary chief of the Algonquin Nations. 1986 - B.C. Registration of Death - Ronald James Kitpou, age 22, Cawston, B.C. - Selfinflicted gunshot wound to head. 1987 - from A TWIST IN COYOTE’S TALE by Celia M Gunn, attending a Sinixt First Nation ceremony in Colville Washington ….. a striking figure, Chief Wobay Kitpou. A Native elder, small and heavy-set, he had risen to the occasion and was wearing a slightlyaskew buffalo headdress, many ostentatious pieces of silver and turquoise jewellery, moccasins and one item of clothing, a loincloth tied tightly beneath his heavy, naked belly…………and after a couple of raunchy jokes, the chief amused us with a string of stories and songs. 1987 - B.C. Registration of Death - Ruby Isabel Kitpou, age 74, Kelowna - myocardial infarction 1988 April 4, B.C. Registration of Death - James Albert Munster (aka Kitpou) died of pancreatic cancer in Kelowna BC. leaving more questions in the conflicting information (as provided by his son, John) on the Death Certificate : BIRTH: 7 February 1923 (vs 1912) OCCUPATION: Disabled 2014 - a Facebook message posted on the Bear River Historical Society & Museum page : I am looking for some information regarding...Jim Munster aka Shaman Chief Kitpou....By all indications he was quite a colourful character. He claimed Malti Pictou as his grandfather and John Pictou as his father but considering all of the tale tales told during his lifetime, I am taking it all with a grain of salt. Pass the shaker, please. POSTSCRIPT: Kitpou claimed to have been in many TV shows & movies, but a search of IMDb.com Movie & TV Casts and Crews returned no results for Kitpou, Wobay, James, Jim or Albert Munster. He claimed a role in the movie The Tribal Law . The only movie with this title was a silent film made in 1912. Although Kitpou claimed he played Gold Country Museums Screaming Chicken in the TV show F-Troop (1965-67) , there was no such role. There was a character, Roaring Chicken, played by Edward Everett Horton, who also played the role of Chief Screaming Chicken in two episodes of the TV series Batman (1966-68) For further reading : • The Feather & the Drum,: a History of Banff Indian Days 1889-1978 by Patricia Parker has 2 sections about Chief Kitpou, citing some of his ‘slip-ups’, a description of him and his family, and their activities at the gathering. • Bark, Skin and Cedar: exploring the Canoe in Canadian Experience by James Raffan, who also devotes space to a description of Kitpou and his adventures moving the Haida canoe from BC to Ontario. A special thank you to Jim Gledhill, in Ontario , who became interested in Kitpou’s fascinating character while researching the Big Nickel Park in Sudbury, and who very generously shared his research with me. He also shared that when it comes to Kitpou’s history it is best to say "To the best of my knowledge with information I have collected."

Reprinted from:

LYTTON MUSEUM & ARCHIVES 2015 Issue #1 (Page 6)