Joe Keeper

Joseph Benjamin Keeper (January 17, 1886 - September 29, 1971) was a Canadian long distance runner, and a member of the 1912 Canadian Olympic team.

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, at high school, that he showed an enthusiasm for long distance running.

In 1916, Keeper joined the Army, and served for two years in France. He received a Military Medal for his actions at the Cambria 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. Keeper received three medals for his service for his duty, which made him the most decorated Canadian Indian.

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 seven children four sons and three daughters. His granddaughter is actress and Canadian politician Tina Keeper.

In 1910, Keeper moved to Winnipeg, where he joined the North End Amateur Athletic Club. The following year he set a Canadian record for the ten mile run.

In 1912, he was selected to the Canadian Olympic team, and participated at the 1912 Summer Olympics at , Sweden. He raced in the 5000 metre run and in the 10,000 metre run, where he finished fourth in the 10,000 and ninth in the 5,000, the best result ever for a Canadian runner in those events.

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