Born the son of a Wyandot Chief in Kansas in 1849, Irvin Mudeater was a celebrated buffalo hunter—killing 126 in just one day—who ran wagon trains to Santa Fe, was caught up in the Civil War, and lived as a plainsman on the lawless frontier. To escape punishment for an unspecified crime, Mudeater moved to Canada in 1882, adopted the name “Robert Armstrong,” and portrayed himself as white. Three years later, he played the lead role in bringing the fugitive Métis leader Louis Riel into custody. John D. Pihach scrutinizes the sensational incidents in Armstrong/Mudeater’s life, grapples with the opposing stories of Riel’s surrender/capture, and, with the inclusion of Armstrong’s unpublished memoir, allows this consummate storyteller to speak in his own voice.

Contributor: John D. Pihach John D. Pihach is the author of Ukrainian Genealogy and lives in Yorkton, Saskatchewan.

Kathryn Labelle, author of Dispersed, But Not Destroyed:
"Truly a North American story--Pihach captures the life of Irvin Mudeater in a way that transgresses national boundaries, ethnic identities, and traditional mythologies."

John Steckley, author of The Eighteenth-Century Wyandot:
"Pihach brings to life an important, but forgotten, figure in Wyandot and North American history."