In 1865, he moved on, to Waterton Lakes, just east of the Kootenays, being wounded by a Blackfoot on his way to Fort Garry (now Winnipeg), where he settled and became a whisky trader.

[2] Subsequent to that, he worked briefly for a company delivering mail to the United States Army until 1874, during which time he was captured and nearly killed by Sitting Bull in 1869.

[2] After a quarrel and gunfight at Fort Benton, Montana, with "celebrated hunter" Louis Ell, in which Ell was killed, and subsequent trial and acquittal by a territorial jury,[2] Brown returned to his beloved Kootenay, where he settled, building a reputation as a guide and packer.

In 1869, Kootenay Brown married a local Métis woman and ultimately made a living bison hunting and wolfing.

The 1991 movie The Legend of Kootenai Brown starring Tom Burlinson, Raymond Burr and Donnelly Rhodes, provides a loose portrayal of his life.