Native American Blood

Wes Studi's has had one long enjoyable acting career. He was raised in Nofire Hollow Oklahoma, speaking Cherokee only until he started school. At 17 he joined the National Guard and later went to Vietnam. After his discharge, Studi became politically active in American Indian affairs. He participated in Wounded Knee at Pine Ridge Reservation in 1973. Wes is known for his roles as a fierce Native American warrior, such as the Pawnee warrior in Dances with Wolves. In the Last of the Mohicans he plays the Huron named Magua, which was his first major part. Soon after he got the lead role in Geronimo: An American Legend. He was in Skinwalkers, The Lone Ranger, and The Horse Whisperer. He played the Indian out in the desert in The Doors movie, and he was also in Avatar. Studi also plays bass and he and his wife are in a band called Firecat of Discord. Wes Studi also serves as honorary chair of the national endowment campaign, of the Indigenous Language Institute that's working to save Native Languages. He and his family live in Santa Fe New Mexico, and Wes has been in several other movies, TV shows and movies, and mini series. He also received an Academy Honorary Award, becoming the first Native American and the second North American Indigenous person to be honored by the Academy, the first was Buffy Sainte-Marie, a First Nations Canadian Indigenous musician.

White House policy advisor, activist, artist, and acclaimed traditional dancer Jodi Archambault Gillette created this dress for powwow competition. She used Adobe Illustrator to design it and then turned to bead workers in her family and circle of friends to help complete the garment

Stella Standingbear is an up-and-coming Lakota (Sioux) artist from Utah. She recently won awards for Best Female Hip Hop Artist and Best Music Video for her song "Home Run" at the International Indigenous Hip Hop Awards in Vancouver, Canada.

Courtesy ~
Lakota Times / Stella Standingbeardotcom
Photo Courtesy ~
StellaStandingbeardotcom

One of our maternal grandfathers is War Eagle. His statue can be seen in Sioux City, Iowa. He co-founded Sioux City. He was a Dakota and was one of those spared by President Lincoln when Lincoln ordered 38 Dakota men be hung by the neck in the largest amount of people executed at one time on December 26, 1862 in the history of the United States. He is holding his council pipe. Council pipes were normally longer than personal pipes. This is a colorized photo of him. The fact that it has an extension past the bowl indicates he has a family. Those that have no extensions indicate they are single. Wopila!

A PARENTS WORST NIGHTMARE
Losing a child and having to bury them. A man lost his son and couldn’t bare the thought of living without him. He was suffering and couldn’t believe his son was gone. He cried and cried every day and night, missing his son, wishing things were different.
He couldn’t sleep and hadn’t slept in a long time. One night an old medicine man came to him in a dream and told him “Enough!! That’s enough crying!!” The dad told him “I cannot stop, I am never going to see him again!” The old Medicine man said, “Do you want to see him again?” The dad says “yes of course” the old medicine man takes him to the entrance of happy hunting ground where he sees many little beautiful children, so happy and innocent, carrying eagle feathers into the happy hunting grounds, smiling and laughing and just so beautiful. The dad asks “where is my son? Who are these kids?” The old medicine man said “these are the children that are called home early, they are innocent and loved and they go right through to the happy hunting grounds, so happy” the dad says “and my son? Where is he? Why isn’t he with these children?” The old medicine man said, “come this way” and guided him to the side of entrance. A small boy with a beautiful smile was standing there watching all the children enter the happy hunting grounds. He was standing there within reach of an eagle's feather. His dad grabbed him and hugged him, and the boy kissed his dads' cheeks and told him he missed him. The dad said “why don't you have a eagles feather like the other kids? Why are you waiting here at the entrance?”
The boy said “I keep trying to get the eagle feather Daddy, but your tears pull it out of reach. I see you are so sad, and I am tied to that feeling so I wait here until you’re ok” the dad burst out crying for the last time, he told his son, “Get that eagle feather and go, I will be ok, and I know you will be too”
- Don't cry too long for that loved one you lost, whether son, daughter, husband, mother or father!! Let them rest in peace, don't torment your life, because they won't come back, have faith that you will be together again, and that Creator makes us a beautiful home

Negative talking leads to negative thinking then actions and behavior. At any moment we can turn our talk around to positive and lift ourselves and others.
Practice by replacing words like won't, don't, can't with postive words and the thinking will change.
Lena ciscila epa wacin.

Yes, that's right he is in Plains regalia. Straight off the bat, we know he is a war dancer. That gun stock war club and shield makes it plain as day. This is what the nit pickers and professional gripers need to understand. A member of one tribe can embrace a tradition outside of his/her own.

His wife might be Lakȟóta or Cheyenne etc., or maybe as a child he went to a powwow and got hooked on the war dance and decided: "Okay, that's me. I will do that". It is a known fact that the Plains tribes tied up the US Army in field engagements longer than the Navajos who negotiated peace early. In fact, the Navajo Police of today was created by Chief Manuelito himself in 1869 to prevent young Navajo warriors from running off with Apache nantans to go on raids and jeopardize the tribe's treaty.

The point is that the Plains warrior societies had a lot more war dances than the Navajos ever did. So, to those who are so inclined, we try our best to give details about the people in our posts whenever possible. Sometimes it simply isn't for one reason or another. Some individuals will pose but don't want their names published. So, whenever you see a post with contradicting information, know that there is a reason. Just don't heap abusive insults on our admins. This is hard work constructing these posts, and they are meant for people who are supportive of our work and appreciate the information gathered here. Meanwhile, there he is, you see is name and tribe. Reach out to him and ask why he veered off course. We respect his decision.

Photo Courtesy~CraigVarjebedian

There is an ancient Indian saying that something lives only as long as the last person who remembers it. My people have come to trust memory over history. Memory, like fire, is radiant and immutable while history serves only those who seek to control it, those who douse the flame of memory in order to put out the dangerous fire of truth. Beware these men for they are dangerous themselves and unwise. Their false history is written in the blood of those who might remember and of those who seek the truth.
~ Floyd ‘Red Crow’ Westerman (Dakota Sioux) actor, activist, singer

Chief Iron Tail
(Oglala Lakota: Siŋté Máza in Standard Lakota Orthography) (1842-May 29, 1916) was an Oglala Lakota Chief and a star performer withBuffalo Bill’s Wild West. Iron Tail was one of the most famous Native American celebrities of the late 19th and early 20th centuries and a popular subject for professional photographers who circulated his image across the continents. Iron Tail is notable in American history for his distinctive profile on the Buffalo nickel or Indian Head nickel of 1913 to 1938
Siŋté Máza was the chief’s tribal name. Asked why the white people call him Iron Tail, he said that when he was a baby his mother saw a band of warriors chasing a herd of buffalo, in one of their periodic grand hunts, their tails standing upright as if shafts of steel, and she thereafter called his name Siŋté Máza as something new and novel.[1]
Chief Iron Tail is often mistaken by historians for Chief Iron Hail (“Dewey Beard”), being Lakota contemporaries with similar sounding names. Most biographies incorrectly report that Chief Iron Tail fought in the Battle of the Little Bighorn and that his family was killed in 1890 at Wounded Knee, when in truth it was Chief Iron Hail who suffered the loss.[2] Major Israel McCreight reported: "Iron Tail was not a war chief and no remarkable record as a fighter. He was not a medicine man or conjuror, but a wise counselor and diplomat, always dignified, quiet and never given to boasting. He seldom made a speech and cared nothing for gaudy regalia, very much like the famed War Chief Crazy Horse. In this respect he always had a smile and was fond of children, horses and friends." [3]
Chief Iron Tail was an international personality and appeared as the lead with Buffalo Bill at the Champs-Élysées in Paris, France and the Colosseum inRome, Italy. In France, as in England, Buffalo Bill and Iron Tail were feted by the aristocracy.[4] Iron Tail was one of Buffalo Bill’s best friends and they hunted elk and bighorn together on annual trips.[5] On one of his visits to The Wigwam of Major Israel McCreight, Buffalo Bill asked Iron Tail to illustrate in pantomime how he played and won a game of poker with U S. army officials during a Treaty Council in the old days. "Going through all the forms of the game from dealing to antes and betting and drawing a last card during which no word was uttered and his countenance like a statue, he suddenly swept the table clean into his blanket and rose from the table and strutted away. It was a piece of superb acting, and exceedingly funny.” Iron Tail continued to travel with Buffalo Bill until 1913, and then the Miller Brothers 101 Ranch Wild West until his death in 1916.
Buffalo Bill requesting permission to photograph Sioux traveling with the show in her studio. Buffalo Bill and Käsebier were similar in their abiding Native American culture and maintained friendships with the Sioux. Buffalo Bill quickly approved Käsebier's request and she began her project on Sunday morning, April 14, 1898. Käsebier's project was purely artistic and her images were not made for commercial purposes and never used in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West program booklets or promotional posters.[6]
Käsebier took classic photographs of the Sioux while they were relaxed. Chief Iron Tail was one of Käsebier’s most challenging portrait subjects. Käsebier's session with Chief Iron Tail was her only recorded story: “Preparing for their visit to Käsebier’s photography studio, the Sioux at Buffalo Bill's Wild West Camp met to distribute their finest clothing and accessories to those chosen to be photographed.” Käsebier admired their efforts, but desired to, in her own words, photograph a “real raw Indian, the kind I used to see when I was a child’, referring to her early years in Colorado and on the Great Plains. Käsebier selected one Indian, Chief Iron Tail, to approach for a photograph without regalia. He did not object. The resulting photograph was exactly what Käsebier had envisioned: a relaxed, intimate, quiet, and beautiful portrait of the man, devoid of decoration and finery, presenting himself to her and the camera without barriers. Several days later, however, when presented with the photograph, Chief Iron Tail immediately tore up the image, stating it was too dark. Käsebier photographed him once again, this time in his full feather headdress, much to his satisfaction. Chief Iron Tail was an international celebrity. He appeared with his fine regalia as the lead with Buffalo Bill at the Avenue des Champs-Élysées in Paris, France, and the Colosseum of Rome. Chief Iron Tail was a superb showman and chaffed at the photo of him relaxed. but Käsebier chose it as the frontispiece for a 1901 Everybody’s Magazine article. Käsebier believed all the portraits were a "revelation of Indian character," showing the strength and individual character of the Native Americans in "new phases for the Sioux." [7]
Early in the twentieth century, Iron Tail's distinctive profile became well known across the United States as one of three models for the five-cent coin Buffalo nickel or Indian Head nickel. The popular coin was introduced in 1913 and showcases the native beauty of the American West. Bee Ho Gray, the famous Wild West performer, accompanied Chief Iron Tail to act as an interpreter and guide to Washington D.C. and New York where Iron Tail modeled for sculptor James Earle Fraser as he worked on designs for the new Buffalo nickel.[8] Iron Tail was the most famous Native American of his day and a popular subject for professional photographers who circulated his image across the continents.
In May 1916, Chief Iron Tail, at the age of 74, became ill with pneumonia while performing with the Miller Brothers 101 Ranch Wild West in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and was placed in St. Luke's Hospital. Buffalo Bill was obliged to go on with his show next day to Baltimore, Maryland, and Iron Tail was left alone in a strange city with doctors and nurses who could not communicate with him. McCreight learned about the Chief's admission to the hospital in the morning Philadelphia paper, and immediately sent a telegram to Buffalo Bill to send Iron Tail by next train to Du Bois, Pennsylvania, for care at The Wigwam. No reply was had and the wire was not delivered or forwarded to Baltimore. Instead the hospital authorities put Chief Iron Tail on a Pullman, ticketed for home to the Black Hills. On May 28, 1916, when the porter of his car went to wake him at South Bend, Indiana, Iron Tail was dead, his body continuing on to its destination.[12] Buffalo Bill expressed regret that the Chief was sent to the hospital and that he had not received the telegram.[13] Iron Tail's body was transferred to a hospital in Rushville, Nebraska, then to Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, where he was buried at Holy Rosary Mission Cemetery on June 3, 1916.[14] With deep emotion, Buffalo Bill said he was going to put a granite stone on Chief Iron Tail's grave with a replica of the Buffalo nickel (for which Chief Iron Tail had posed) carved on it as a memento. However, Buffalo Bill died on January 10, 1917, just six months after Chief Iron Tail's death. In a ceremony at Buffalo Bill's grave on Lookout Mountain, west of Denver, Colorado, Chief Flying Hawk laid his war staff of eagle feathers on the grave. Each of the veteran Wild Westers placed a Buffalo nickel on the imposing stone as a symbol of the Indian, the buffalo, and the scout, figures since the 1880s that were symbolic of the early history of the American West.

Very worth reading 🪶🪶
Keanu Reeves was abandoned by his father at 3 years old and grew up with 3 different stepfathers. He is dyslexic. His dream of becoming a hockey player was shattered by a serious accident. His daughter died at birth. His wife died in a car accident. His best friend, River Phoenix, died of an overdose. His sister has leukemia.
And with everything that has happened, Keanu Reeves never misses an opportunity to help people in need. When he was filming the movie "The Lake House," he overheard the conversation of two costume assistants; One cried because he would lose his house if he did not pay $20,000 and on the same day Keanu deposited the necessary amount in the woman's bank account; He also donated stratospheric sums to hospitals.
In 2010, on his birthday, Keanu walked into a bakery and bought a brioche with a single candle, ate it in front of the bakery, and offered coffee to people who stopped to talk to him.
After winning astronomical sums for the Matrix trilogy, the actor donated more than $50 million to the staff who handled the costumes and special effects - the true heroes of the trilogy, as he called them.
He also gave a Harley-Davidson to each of the stunt doubles. A total expense of several million dollars. And for many successful films, he has even given up 90% of his salary to allow the production to hire other stars.
In 1997 some paparazzi found him walking one morning in the company of a homeless man in Los Angeles, listening to him and sharing his life for a few hours.
Most stars when they make a charitable gesture they declare it to all the media. He has never claimed to be doing charity, he simply does it as a matter of moral principles and not to look better in the eyes of others.
This man could buy everything, and instead every day he gets up and chooses one thing that cannot be bought: To be a good person.
Keanu Reeves’ father is of Native Hawaiian descent
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Red Hawk, of the Oglala Sioux tribe, letting his horse drink from an oasis.. love this majestic photo ,he must have been a sight too behold .(taken 1905) In his warrior age he fought at the Little Bighorn, later he had his own following on the Pine Ridge reservation, where he settled in he Wounded Knee district.
He left an account of the Custer battle and several ledger book drawings.Red Hawk, Oglala, went on his first war party at the age of eleven. He eventually participated in twenty battles, including the battle against Custer at the Little Bighorn in 1876. He fasted twice. The second time, after two days and a night, he had a vision of four women mourning as they circled the camp, followed by a warrior singing the death song. His grandfather then appeared to him and told him to arise. With that, he awoke. He looked eastward and saw the sun peeping above the horizon so he took his pipe and held it to the rising sun as he offered a prayer, “Let my people with glad hearts behold a good day.” Unfortunately, a few days later, four men were killed in a raid, and their wifes circled the camp mourning, while the survivor of the battle followed them, singing the death song. photos taken by Edward Curtis, 1907. the drawing is red hawks..titled "Chasing Crow on Horseback, Shoots Him in the Head" - Cetanluta (Red Hawk) The Red Hawk ledger book comprises the majority of the Plains drawings in the collection of the Milwaukee Public Museum. The collection consists of 105 ink and crayon drawings that the Milwaukee Public Museum purchased in 1897 from H.H. Hayssen of Chuncula, Alaska. According to a handwritten note found inside the ledger, Captain R. Miller originally "captured" the book from Red Hawk at Wounded Knee Creek, South Dakota on January 8, 1891, just days after the infamous massacre at Wounded Knee.

Mary Frances Thompson Fisher (December 3, 1895 – October 25, 1995), best known as Te Ata, was an actress and citizen of the Chickasaw Nation known for telling Native American stories. She performed as a representative of Native Americans at state dinners before President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1930s. She was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 1957 and was named Oklahoma's first State Treasure in 1987.
Te Ata began her early education in a one-room tribal school, but after two years she was sent to Bloomfield Academy, a Chickasaw boarding school for girls. At Bloomfield, she met Muriel Wright, a teacher who became her role model. Te Ata graduated high school from Tishomingo, Oklahoma, where she was salutatorian.
In the fall of 1915, Te Ata began college at the Oklahoma College for Women (now the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma) in Chickasha, and graduated in 1919. During her time at Oklahoma College for Women, she worked as an assistant in the theater department for theater instructor Frances Dinsmore Davis. It was during this time that Te Ata was first introduced to the stage.
Te Ata’s life and likeness have been featured in many books, plays and magazines. In the summer of 1924, Te Ata was featured in McCall's magazine in its "Types of American Beauty" series.
Her life and performances have been commemorated through several different awards. She was the namesake for Lake Te Ata in New York. She was named the Ladies' Home Journal Woman of the Year in 1976. She was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 1957 and named Oklahoma’s Official State Treasure in 1987. In 1990, she was inducted into the Chickasaw Hall of Fame.

In the 1920's, the Fancy War Dance had it's beginning with members of the Ponca tribe. The dance originated in Oklahoma and the first world champion fancy dancer was the late well-known Ponca dancer Augustus Hurley "Gus" McDonald. In 1926, he won the very first world title in dance competition at the Haskell Institute in Lawrence, Kansas.
Fancy dancers of the 1930's included men of various tribes such as the popular Comanche named George Woogie Watchetaker.
In his lifetime, Woogie would eventually win seven national titles and three world titles as a fancy dancer. The men's fancy dance is both original and full of energy.
From an interview of the early 1990's, Woogie shared his understanding of what made a good fancy dancer:
"In my times, I was told by the older Indians that two good champions, two good dancers, a guy that could dance his footwork and his steps. Keeping time with the drum, keeping time with body movements, head movements, body movements, footwork. Coordinating with the song and the drum."
Moreover, Woogie stated "Gus McDonald was the true first world champion and after he got old, I got to be one."
Amazing picture (L to R) of the champion dancer George "Woogie" Watchetaker, the well-respected tribal leader Edgar Monetathchi Sr., and his son Edgar Monetathchi Jr., circa 1970. Photograph courtesy of the Lawton Constitution. Additional information from Full Circle Videos (Scott Swearingen)

Two Leggings captured by photographer Edward S. Curtis in 1906
Two Leggins (c. 1845-1923) River Crow.
Take part in many battles with traditional Indian enemies. He had little influence in the tribe and was not much different from other members of the community, but from 1919 to 1923 he told his life story to Montana businessman and amateur anthropologist William Wildschute. , whose recordings were later reworked by Peter Nabokov. The result of his work was the biography "Two Leggins: The Formation of the Crow Warrior", which is one of the sources on the history and culture of the Crow of the second half of the 19th century.

GRAHAM GREENE - Born June 22, 1952, on the Six Nations Reserve in Ohsweken, Ontario, Mr. Greene is a 68 year old FIRST NATIONS Canadian actor who belongs to the ONEIDA tribe. He has worked on stage, in film, and in TV productions in Canada, the U.K., and the U.S. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his 1990 performance in "Dances with Wolves". Other films you may have seen him in include Thunderheart, Maverick, Die Hard with a Vengeance, the Green Mile, and Wind River. Graham Greene graduated from the Centre for Indigenous Theatre in 1974 & immediately began performing in professional theatre in Toronto and England, while also working as an audio technician for area rock bands. His TV debut was in 1979 and his screen debut in 1983. His acting career has now spanned over 4 decades & he remains as busy as ever. In addition to the Academy Award nomination for Dance with Wolves, he has been consistently recognized for his work, and also received nominations in 1994, 2000, 2004, 2006, and 2016. Graham Greene lives in Toronto, Canada, married since 1994, and has 1 adult daughter.
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The Ute Pass Trail originated just below the springs of Manitou, Colorado, through Ute Pass and into the White River country of Utah. With the Indians dragging their travois along this trail, the route became easier to follow and eventually became a safe route to the Colorado gold fields. Starting in 1860, the mineral rushes to Colorado resulted in large settler migrations that began the first major threat to the Ute way of life. These Ute men pose on horseback as part of the marking ceremony for the Ute Pass Trail on August 29,1912. – Courtesy Southern Ute Cultural Center & Museum

The Comanche were a branch of the Shoshoni. They left the Rocky Mountains early in the 18th century, migrating to the Plains to become the most famous of the Texas Plains tribes. They made life extremely hazardous for the caravans attempting to cross the Santa Fe Trail. Their warlike culture was feared throughout the Southwest
Awesome looking warrior braves, the ones who weathered the storm of the European invaders,much like us, The Maori in Aotearoa NZ.The Great Spirit Father protect you our cousin's, A'ho

Gordon Tootoosis
October 25, 1941 – July 5, 2011, was a First Nations actor of Cree and Stoney descent. Tootoosis was a descendant of Yellow Mud Blanket, brother of the famous Cree leader Pîhtokahanapiwiyin. He was acclaimed for his commitment to preserving his culture and to telling his people's stories.
When Gordon Tootoosis (Poundmaker First Nation) began working in theatre, there was a noticeable void of Aboriginal actors. He set out to fill that void by creating a platform for the development of young, burgeoning and experienced Aboriginal actors.
His first acting role was in the film Alien Thunder (1974), alongside Chief Dan George and Donald Sutherland. He portrayed Albert Golo in 52 episodes of North of 60 in the 1990s. He is best known to British audiences for playing the Native American Joe Saugus, who negotiates the purchase of the Middlesbrough Transporter Bridge in Auf Wiedersehen, Pet series 3 (2002). Gordon appeared in the CBC Television mini-series By Way of the Stars with Eric Schweig as Black Thunder and Tantoo Cardinal as Franoise.
He appeared in the award-winning movie Legends of the Fall (1994), and starred with Russell Means in Disney's Pocahontas (1995) and Song of Hiawatha (1997).
In 1999, he and Tantoo Cardinal became founding members of the board of directors of the Saskatchewan Native Theatre Company. In 2011, he appeared in Gordon Winter at the Persephone Theatre in Saskatoon and Prairie Scene in Ottawa, his first stage role in 15 years.
Tootoosis was raised with his 13 siblings in the Plains Cree tradition until he was forced from his home; taking indigenous children away from their communities and into residential schools was Canadian government policy at the time. Tootoosis was placed in a Catholic residential school, where he was treated harshly and forbidden to speak his own language. His father, John Tootoosis, was an activist for aboriginal rights, which got the younger Tootoosis into trouble at school. After his traumatic school years, Tootoosis went into social work, specializing in work with children and young offenders

Little is known about Native American women—particularly Plains women—in early Native societies. Most of what is known comes from European men’s observations of the Native American women they encountered in their survey of Native America. For this reason, it is difficult to fully detail the status and roles Plains women held prior to European domination. But, by focusing on the Lakota (Sioux) tribe primarily, it is possible to paint a picture of the lives of Plains women.
Historically, the Teton Lakota (Sioux) were a male dominant warrior society, yet Lakota women maintained high status, particularly because the feminine “culture hero” was so important to Lakota belief systems.
In the Lakota Sioux religion, the Sun (the universal Father) and the Earth (the universal Mother) were the parental symbols of all organic life and the main elements in the Great Spirit’s creation.
In many Native American cultures, women were viewed as extensions of the Spirit Mother, and therefore vital to the continuation of their people.
According to their oral tradition, the Teton Lakota received seven sacred rites—including the Sacred Pipe—from the White Buffalo Calf Woman. When White Buffalo Calf Woman was finished giving the sacred rites, she told the Lakota women the work of their hands and the fruit of their wombs would keep the tribe alive. The choice of a woman, rather than a man, as a key sacred figure indicates the Sioux reverence for feminine qualities.

𝐇𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐲𝐰𝐨𝐨𝐝’𝐬 𝐅𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐍𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐀𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫
Lillian St. Cyr debuted on stage at age 5—and was mentioned by name in a Philadelphia newspaper review of the show. St. Cyr was Native American, born on the Nebraska Ho-Chunk reservation but sent, like many native children in the early 20th century, to an Indian boarding school. Although the Carlisle Indian School wanted to assimilate its students into White Anglo-Saxon Protestant society, as a student Cyr began to craft the persona of an Indian “princess” that served her well in the era’s traveling Wild West shows. Calling herself Red Wing, she found her way into the movies, a bit part in The White Squaw (1908), shot like many early pictures in Fort Lee, NJ.

Linda M. Waggoner did a lot of digging to reconstruct the Native actress’ story in Starring Red Wing! The Incredible Career of Lillian M. St. Cyr, the First Native American Film Star. Contemporary technology helped. Waggoner was able to scroll through hundreds of digitalized pages from early movie magazines, following clues to compile a probable yet still uncertain filmography. She ran movie ads through iPhoto facial identification softwear and “used my own facial recognition abilities to try to confirm who was who” in the cast photos.

Despite Waggoner’s tireless efforts, “presumably” and “perhaps” appear on many pages. American’s pre-Hollywood film industry remains largely a lost continent. Starring Red Wing! sheds light into the nascent western genre at a time when cowboy and Indian pictures were made back East.

By 1909 she found a small role in a Cecil B. De Mille flick starring Mary Pickford as a Native woman. Interestingly, the villains of that movie, The Mended Lute, were white and the Indians triumphed in the end. According to Starring Red Wing! St. Cyr also served as a consultant on pops and Indian customs. From 1909-1915 St. Cyr may have appeared in over 100 films, most of them short by later measures but often in key roles.

From 1911 she was in California during Hollywood’s pioneering days, when working ranches with real cowboys were just down the road. But St. Cyr’s stardom was brief. In 1915 she appeared in only two films. Waggoner explains, “She began to show her age and she had put on weight,” no longer fitting her “Indian maiden” image of a few years earlier. She lived until 1974, making handicrafts and becoming an activist in the first stirrings of Red Power.

Much of Starring Red Wing! is devoted to Ho-Chunk history, which during the 19th century became a sad chronicle of massacres, ethnic cleansing, cultural genocide and poverty. History provides the context. Whether portraying a romanticized version of Native womanhood or crafting artifacts for the tourist trade, St. Cyr found ways of turning her ethnicity (and gender) into an opportunity for financial independence. While maintaining her dignity, she knew what her white audience wanted.