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Wood Mountain

Biographies

Wasu Mato
(Hail Bear/William Lethbridge)

1895-1994

William Lethbridge was born in Regina. When he was eight years old he travelled with his mother, Wanbli Sunpagewin, from Moose Jaw to Wood Mountain to Montana. It was wild country with herds of antelope everywhere. His early childhood travels ended when he went to the Indian Industrial School at Lebret at the age of ten. He stayed in school until he was eighteen years old. After that he moved

Wasu Mato

to Wood Mountain and lived with his mother on the reserve.

One year he worked for a rancher in the Dirt Hills. In 1916 he homesteaded near the reserve. To start farming he borrowed horses from a neighbour and later broke horses for a local rancher in return for the use of the horses. Often he hauled hay or wheat with a team and sled in the winter to Limerick, a distance of thirty-five miles.
In 1929 William Lethbridge married Kathleen Noonan. They lived in his home built of poplar poles and adobe mud. They raised three sons - Lawrence, Gilbert and Philip. To supplement his income William Lethbridge sometimes worked on harvest crews in the fall or in lumber camps in the winter. William Lethbridge was naturally artistic. To further his talents he took a correspondence course in art in the 1920's. He used his talent in many ways. In the 1930s he began to make saddles and designed his own patterns to decorate them. Beside making a saddle for himself he made one for each of his sons.

William Lethbridge also enjoyed sketching and drawing. Each year he drew Christmas cards.Some of his sketches were printed in The Indian Record.

WMHS
William Lethbridge leads parade at Wood Mountain Stampede.

He was nearly seventy years of age when he began painting pictures with oil paints. Most of his pictures were of historical events.

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