Archives West Finding Aid

James W. Schultz was born in Booneville, New York, on August 26,1859. During a visit to St. Louis, Missouri, Schultz met trappers and fur traders from Montana at his uncle's establishment, the Planter's Hotel. Shultz listened to stories about the endless buffalo on the plains, and decided to go westward and shoot one. In the summer of 1877, he received $500 from his mother and her permission to go buffalo hunting in Montana. He promised to return in time for school at West Point in the fall, but found life in the west too exciting and never returned to live in the east.

Upon his arrival in Montana, Schultz went to Fort Conrad on the Marias River. There in 1880, he established a trading post with Joseph Kipp. Shultz remained at Fort Conrad from 1877 to 1885. During that time he traded with the Pikuni and Bloods and established another trading post at Carroll on the Missouri river where he also traded with the Crees.

Shultz became fascinated with the Native American way of life and joined the Blackfoot tribe. He developed further ties with the Blackfeet by marrying Fine Shield Woman of the Pikunis. Shultz lived with Fine Shield Woman until her death in 1884. They had a son from this union named Hart Merriam Schultz, "Lone Wolf," who later became a prominent artist in the southwest and illustrated some of his father's books.

After the death of Fine Shield Woman, Schultz moved to Los Angeles, where he became a literary critic for the Los Angeles Times. After a marriage to Celia B. Hawkins in 1907, Schultz finally settled down in 1932 with Jessie Louise Donaldson, a former professor at Montana State University. They collaborated together on the book The Sun God's Children.

Shultz explored the area that is now Glacier National Park with Dr. George Bird Grinnell in the 1880's. Many mountains, lakes, streams and glaciers still bear the names given during these explorations. This experience, along with Shultz's ties with the Blackfeet led him to begin to write stories about life out west. He published serials in Doctor Grinnell's Forest and Stream as well as Youth's Companion and American Boy magazines. His first book was My Life as an Indian, published in 1907. Numerous other books followed based upon the stories related by the Blackfeet and Shultz's experiences with them.

James W. Shultz was one of the few whites ever permitted to visit the sacred Blackfoot Tobacco Gardens in Bow River Valley, Alberta. Shultz was fluent in the language of the Blackfoot and well versed in their culture. He kept in contact with his adopted tribe until his death in 1947.