Joe Keeper
Canadian distance runner (1886-1971)
Joseph Benjamin Keeper (January 17, 1886 – September 29, 1971) was a Canadian long-distance runner, and a member of the 1912 Canadian Olympic team.
Early and personal life
Joseph Benjamin Keeper, a member of the Norway House Cree Nation, was born at Walker Lake, Manitoba. He was sent to Brandon for schooling at the Brandon Indian Residential School, and it was while there that he showed an enthusiasm for long-distance running. During his upbringing, he was raised to practice the Methodist religion.
In 1916, Keeper joined the Army and served for two years in France. He received The Military Medal for his actions at Cambrai during WWI. In 1917, Keeper joined with Tom Longboat to win an inter-Allied cross country championship near Vimy Ridge. Longboat, Keeper, and other First Nation long-distance runners A. Jamieson and John Nackaway served as dispatch carriers for the 107th Pioneer Battalion. In addition to the Military Medal, Keeper received the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.
Following the war, he returned to Winnipeg, where he worked as a carpenter, before moving back to the northern part of the province, where he worked for the Hudson's Bay Company until he retired in 1951. He and his wife, Christina McLeod had four sons and three daughters.
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This entry incorporates text from “Joe Keeper” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.