| Nationalities: | United States. |
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Henry_Ashley
Hugh Glass has a subheading in his Wikipedia entry called "Bear mauling," which instantly makes him cooler than me.
Here's what happened: Glass was one of 100 men who traveled up the Mississippi River starting in 1822 with General William Henry Ashley, who wanted to lead a fur-trading venture. The next year, while in present-day South Dakota, Glass accidently surprised a mother bear with cubs, who promptly picked him up and tossed him around. Glass and company managed to kill the bear, but not before Glass was left mauled and unconscious. Jim Bridger and John Fitzgerald were assigned to watch over Glass while the party moved on, but they left him for dead and took off with this stuff.
Bad move, guys. Sometime later, Glass woke up to find himself abandoned and his gear taken, with no choice but to trek back to the nearest settlement more than 200 miles away. Glass reportedly set his own broken leg and let maggots eat the dead flesh in his wounds to prevent him from getting gangrene. Once healthy again, he tracked down both Bridger and Fitzgerald, but decided to spare their lives.
Two centuries later, Hugh Glass is about to become a movie: He'll be played by Leonardo DiCaprio in The Revenant, set for a Christmas 2015 release.