Simon Gunanoot

Simon Gunanoot (1874 – October 1933)[1] was a prosperous Gitxsan man and a merchant in the Kispiox Valley region of Hazelton, British Columbia, Canada.

One night, in June 1906, Gunanoot and Himadam were returning from Kitselas when they decided to stop in at the roadhouse at Two Mile, near Hazelton.

There, Simon and Peter got into an argument with Hazelton dock worker Alec McIntosh and another man, packer and hunting guide Max Leclair.

Sperry Cline was the Chief at Old Hazelton by then and he took down the wanted poster in the police station and waited for Gunanoot to come into town and surrender.

Cline hired Stuart Henderson, one of the best criminal defense lawyers in British Columbia, on Gunanoot's behalf.

By the time the case came to trial in New Westminster, it had received national media coverage and Gunanoot's story of survival in the wilderness had become legendary.