Michael Ross is a retired park planner and heritage resources consultant living in Edmonton, Alberta. He has degrees from the University of California at Berkeley (Geology) and Leicester University in England (Museum Studies). Several years of travelling, working, and photographing throughout western North America, Mexico, and Spain were driven by a slowly developing muscle disease that forced him to stop working in 2001. He met the Crowshoes in 1989, attended numerous cultural ceremonies, and later agreed to help the Old Man write his book a vow that took eleven years of hard work to fulfill.