James Oliver Curwood

Nomads of the North: A Story of Romance and Adventure Under the Open Stars James Oliver Curwood

A man in the North country tries to win Nanette by making her think her trapper lover, Challoner, is dead. He fabricates evidence that Challoner is dead and Nanette reluctantly agrees to marry him. She is about to be married when her fiancee appears and frustrates the ceremony. Raoul is accused of murder and arrested, but Nanette rescues him from jail and they flee into the woods where they live for a long time until they were discovered by the Mounties.

Meanwhile, Challoner's pup Miki befriends a black bear cub Neewa while their being lost in the Northern wilderness striving against harsh nature to survive and grow to adulthood, when they finally again join fates with their master.

"Nomads of the North" was made into a 1920 movie directed by David M. Hartford; starring Lon Chaney, Bety Blythe, and Lewis Stone, and was the basis of the Disney film "Nikki, Wild Dog of the North" released in 1960.

Today most Americans are unfamiliar with Canada's grand history, but in Curwood's heyday American children were as apt to play at being red-coated Mounties as they were cowboys.