Native American Blood

Non-Native Americans call these cradleboards papoose, but Native Americans call the baby a papoose and the carrier a cradleboard. The Algonquian word papoos means child. The word originally came from the Narragansett tribe.

These cradleboards vary greatly from tribe to tribe. Some are extremely decorated with great beading, others are more practical. If you were going to hunt berries, or plant seeds you would not use the best one which was saved for special events.

It is a very safe way to carry a baby by the mother so her hands are free to do other things. It is only in recent decades the habit has been picked up by non-Native American mothers and fathers. Today, the babies are often carried on the front of the adult by non-Native Americans.

The early cradleboards usually had protective covers at the top to stop the heat of the suns rays and protect from rain. This cradle was not used for indoor events, but the top was still constructed to protect the babies’ heads. The binding gave the baby security and restricted the child's movements for easy travel. A child could be transported this way until about age two or the child was able to walk.

Tsianina Redfeather. Creek/Cherokee singer and performer. ca. 1920. Source - Denver Public Library.
Tsianina Redfeather Blackstone (December 13, 1882 – January 10, 1985) was a Muscogee singer, performer, and Native American activist, born in Eufaula, Oklahoma, then within the Muscogee Nation. She was born to Cherokee and Creek parents and stood out from her 9 siblings musically. From 1908 she toured regularly with Charles Wakefield Cadman, a composer and pianist who gave lectures about Native American music that were accompanied by his compositions and her singing. He composed classically based works associated with the Indianist movement. They toured in the United States and Europe.
She collaborated with him and Nelle Richmond Eberhart on the libretto of the opera Shanewis (or "The Robin Woman," 1918), which was based on her semi-autobiographical stories and contemporary issues for Native Americans. It premiered at the Metropolitan Opera. Redfeather sang the title role when the opera was on tour, making her debut when the work was performed in Denver in 1924, and also performing in it in Los Angeles in 1926.
After her performing career, she worked as an activist on Indian education, co-founding the American Indian Education Foundation. She also supported Native American archeology and ethnology, serving on the Board of Managers for the School of American Research founded in Santa Fe by Alice Cunningham Fletcher.

Agnes Iron Roads and her father, Pretty Shield (aka Iron Roads, aka Andrew Iron Roads), on the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota - Yanktonai - 1923

{Note: The Yanktonai Dakota man known as Pretty Shield (aka Iron Roads, aka Andrew Iron Roads) was the husband of the Hunkpapa Lakota/Yanktonai Dakota woman known as Last Woman (aka Mary Hairy Chin, aka Mrs. Mary Iron Roads).

Russell Means. He is a man of all trades. He is a actor and author and activist. Grew up watching him on the news in the 70s. With the siege at Wounded knee.
As a child I didn't understand because schools don't teach anything about real American Indian history. I took it upon myself to read and learn and ask questions.
Because of Russell Means is why I learned what was happening to American Indians.

When an elder passes they take all their knowledge of life, sacred teachings, songs, language, culture. Volumes of history, family geanology, stories are all gone. Be safe with this sickness coming its not going to get better until it gets worse. Call and check on them. Make sure they have food to eat, necessities they need. Cherish them. I miss my unci more then anything and i would give anything to spend another day with her. We have many unci and kaka here with us. Protect them the best you can.

She looked at me with big sad eyes and said, “We are grateful for the return to life, but the Season of the Ghost Face is coming soon. We will starve without our crops and our people to help and protect us. What we can do? Will you help us?"
“We burned the bodies of your people to save them from black birds, coyotes and wolves. We didn't take anything from your ranchery. The witch took you and ten pack horses from your rancher and then burned everything, even your crops. There's nothing left for you. My friends and I are returning north to our land, which the Indus has taken from us. Where do you want to go? We will help you if we can, but we must go quickly. The time we can stay away from the reservation is shrinking.
She looked at the white sparkling sand and the seething, roaring river and held her stomach. “My child needs the help of a man to grow up strong. He needs him to put food in my stomach. I need food to get milk in my chest, otherwise the baby will starve, and so will I.” She looked at me with pleading eyes. "Mescalero, send us or sell us, but don't leave us to starve."

𝐎𝐟 𝐁𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐇𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐬
I am the largest land animal in North America and my picture often symbolizes the American West during the time of settlers, wagon trains, Cowboys and Indians, and you will even see my image on some of your money.
You likely know me as the American Buffalo, although in technical terms some of you refer to me as Bison. By what name I am known to you is not as important as the role we have played throughout life history.
When the explorer Columbus landed on Turtle Island in the late 1400's, my family population was estimated at nearly 60,000,000 and our home range was the majority of what is now called the United States, with some of our Wood Bison cousins living in the area of Canada. By 1890, our estimated population was around one thousand as we neared total extinction from being hunted by settlers, and slaughtered by others to starve out the 'Indians'.
Although some of your ancestors of that time raised concerns about this slaughter, nothing was actually done to bring it to an end as the government encouraged this killing to meet their goal of containing the Plains Indians. Sadly, this apathy among your kind continues to this day as cattle ranchers have taken land once ours to range their cattle for profit. This may not raise alarm with some of you concerning us, but consider that the greatest slaughter of my family took place between 1850 and 1890, and if we were to be killed at the rate of 1000 per day, it would take 164 of your years to complete this cycle, and yet, humans were able to achieve this in less than 40 years. This gives you an idea of what my family endured at the hands of humans.
This demonstrates the mindset of those whose life quest was based on greed for land and genocide of a native people; those who lived in harmony with their surroundings knowing that how they treated the earth and her inhabitants would come back full circle to their way of life.
Native Americans had great respect for my family members and took what they needed without killing an entire herd. We were honored with song and dance and our spirits were respected with the ensuing hunt. Our numbers were not greatly affected by their hunting as we were prolific and maintained our ability to do our part in keeping the natural world in balance.
There are many things you can learn about yourself from my family as we all share this small planet together. Native People looked to nature for lessons, warmth and livelihood and realized that all natural things are teachers and speak to us if only we take time to listen.
The males in my family can grow to around 2000 pounds and nearly 6 feet high at the shoulders, and although we may seem to be slow and cumbersome, we can run to speeds of 35 miles per hour. This is good to remember when meeting others of your species so that you don't assume one thing about that person when something entirely different may be the case. When we graze, we continue to move so we do not lay waste to the land and our hooves loosen the earth as we walk, run, or wallow which in turn makes it easier for grasses to grow and critters to dig. This is a reminder to you that there will be times you must move quickly and times to move more at ease, but whatever your pace, be considerate of what you are doing to our Earth Mother and not destroy or disrespect what is around you.
Our great strength is needed to walk this journey we have been given and will teach you that there will be times in your own life that you will need great strength to continue on your path and reach your goals. When the snow is heavy and food is scarce, we will use our massive heads to push snow aside and find grasses lying underneath. Keep in mind that as we do this, so you also can use your head in stressful situations rather than giving in to panic. Look at the whole situation, use your head (emotions don't move snow very well) and keep going until you resolve the situation or find the grass you are looking for. The cold winds of change will figuratively blow through your life from time to time and emotional winters can be endured with the right type of insulation. Our heavy winter hair is a reminder to you of this and just as you see us shed this heavy coat in the spring, so you are reminded that there will come the day you can shed the concerns you had during that winter time that settled upon your path.
Native Americans wasted nothing we had to offer. Our bones were tools and weapons, our hides clothing and shelter, our bladders water and boiling bags, and even our tails made good fly swatters. They understood, and many still understand, that taking a life is a serious thing and when this must be done, honor should be a large part of the process leaving little to zero waste. Here I would ask you humans to think about how much waste is created on your earth walk as you eat and build homes, buy new things or just get tired of what you have had for a time. Settlers and hunters were known to kill us, take our tongues and hides and leave the rest to rot on the plains. Waste created by greed and lack of respect. We Buffalo had no need for landfills nor did we bury toxic waste beneath the skin of our Earth Mother. All worked in a beautiful cycle from our birth to our fertilizing the ground in our death and in feeding others.
If you see our story in some of your films, you will learn that we are very protective of our young and our herd works together for survival. Humans have much to learn here where difference seems to divide rather than bring together.
We have long been a celebrated part of nature with Native America and still hold that place with many who honor the respectful ways passed to them by the ones who have gone before them.
Where we once roamed free as was our birth right, now we are few in numbers and except for some of my family in your Yellowstone Park, most of us are in protected areas...fenced in and no longer free. In Yellowstone, your species still have issues with us and often ranchers will lure my family members outside of the Park and kill us the minute we cross some invisible line that has been drawn, all in the name of raising cattle on land once ours. Interestingly, our meat is much healthier than cattle but your species has a way of using the media to circumvent these truths. We have been accused of carrying a disease called 'brucellosis' which causes cattle to abort, and it has been shown with your science this is of low occurrence in my family but much higher among our Elk cousins; but still we are destroyed on our lands out of a fear that is without foundation.
I hope you will think of these things when you next see some of my family whether it be from a picture or in person, and remember that all of nature has something to say if only one would take time to listen.
My family and I appreciate those of you who work hard to help us survive and it is because of these caring humans and their efforts that our population is slowly coming back in these times.
Chief Dan George said in part,...'what we don't know, we fear...what we fear...we destroy' and I can only hope you will learn more about my family and the role we play in keeping things in balance. We do our part...may you do the same!

Portrait of Chief He Dog, of the Oglala Lakota, 1900
Each line on a Native Americans face is a badge of honor, every line holds sacred knowledge from their experiences in this life. Like the tree that has lines in their inner trunk for every year it has existed and holds the knowledge of all those years, so does these lines show the knowledge amassed in these faces. For honor and respect were shown to these elders, and the more lines meant more knowledge to share. For these Elders usually had the last word for the most important decisions for the well being of their Nation. These lines had just as much stature as Eagle feathers collected and they were shown proudly. We did not see beauty as young appearance but saw beauty and gave reverance to these lines

GERONIMO.......On this day, February 17th, 1909 Geronimo dies of pneumonia at age 80, while still a captive of war at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.~ This rare cabinet card Image shows the great Apache Resistance leader leaning against a tree. photographed by William E. Irwin, Chickasha, Indian Territory with inscription in period script on the cards reverse, "Jeronamo (sic), from the Apache tribe, now in captivity at Ft. Sill.”~ "We are vanishing from the earth, yet I cannot think we are useless or Usen would not have created us. He created all tribes of men and certainly had a righteous purpose in creating each. For each tribe of men Usen created He also made a home. In the land created for any particular tribe He placed whatever would be best for the welfare of that tribe. When Usen created the Apaches He also created their homes in the West. He gave to them such grain, fruits, and game as they needed to eat. To restore their health when disease attacked them He made many different herbs to grow. He taught them where to find these herbs, and how to prepare them for medicine. He gave them a pleasant climate and all they needed for clothing and shelter was at hand. Thus it was in the beginning: the Apaches and their homes each created for the other by Usen himself. When they are taken from these homes they sicken and die.How long will it be until it is said, there are no Apaches?" ~ Geronimo, 1906.Geronimo often spoke of his desire for his people's eventual return to their ancestral homelands in Arizona. Tragically, his life ended at Fort Sill, Oklahoma far away from the beloved lands he had been forcefully taken from and imprisoned by the United States Government for defending. ~ Bedonkohe Apache leader Geronimo [Goyaałé], Mescalero-Chiricahua.

Everything on Earth is borrowed...
There is no "Mine"or"Your"...
there is only "Ours"...
Even Time is borrowed.
We kill over a Plot of land,
that belongs only to our Mother Earth.
All you have is what you came with...
and what you will leave with...
Your Spirit.

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.

🔥Red Cloud🔥🔥🔥
Chief Red Cloud. Oglala Lakota. 1890s. Photo by D.F.Barry. Red Cloud (Lakota: Maȟpíya Lúta) (born 1822 – December 10, 1909) was one of the most important leaders of the Oglala Lakota from 1868 to 1909. He was one of the most capable Native American opponents whom the United States Army faced in its invasion of the western territories. He defeated the United States during Red Cloud's War, which was a fight over control of the Powder River Country in northeastern Wyoming and southern Montana. The largest action of the war was the Fetterman Fight, with 81 US soldiers killed; it was the worst military defeat suffered by the US Army on the Great Plains until the Battle of the Little Bighorn 10 years later. After signing the Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868), Red Cloud led his people in the important transition to reservation life. Some of his opponents mistakenly thought of him as the overall leader of the Sioux groups (Dakota, Lakota, and Nakota), but the large tribe had several major divisions and was highly decentralized. Bands among the Oglala and other divisions operated independently, though some individual leaders were renowned as warriors and highly respected as leaders, such as Red Cloud.

Olivia Poole was raised on the White Earth Reservation in Minnesota. She was inspired by the traditional practice of using a bouncing cradleboard to soothe babies. In 1957, she patented her invention of the baby jumper, under the name Jolly Jumper, making her one of the first Indigenous women in Canada to patent and profit from an invention.
Susan Olivia Davis Poole
born: April 18,1889, Devils Lake, North Dakota
died: October 10,1975 in Ganges, BC.

Time is running out for me too,
And life has left scars on my face.
Though my body is growing old,
My soul will always stay young.
The day will come,
When I too will cross the bridge,
And leave this earthly life behind.
But as long as you remember me, I'll live in your heart.
My soul will stay with you,
You will see my face in the rising sun.
My eyes in the stars,
That look down on you every night !

The Inuit people can't be imagined without their signature parkas, fashioned from fur and hide of the local wildlife. One of the many reasons why early European voyages into the Arctic circle failed is because they were underprepared for the extreme weather conditions of the north. They wore wool clothing, which kept them hot on the inside, but made them sweat a lot, which made their clothing freeze in the extreme temperatures. The Inuit never faced this problem, as they have been making their parkas from caribou deer or seal hide from as early as 22,000 BC (Siberia). The production of these parkas took weeks, and the tradition of making them was passed down from mother to daughter, taking years to master. Depending on the geographical location of the tribes, the design of the parkas varied according to the types of animals available. Beadwork, fringes and pendants frequently decorated the clothing. Roald Amundsen was the first explorer who outfitted his crew with Inuit clothing, which enabled him to successfully circumvent the North-West Passage in 1906. In the 20th century the use of traditional Inuit clothing declined, but it has seen a recent resurgence, as the Inuit strive to preserve their culture.

Chief Henry Roman Nose (June 30, 1856 – June 12, 1917) was a highly respected Southern Cheyenne Chief. Living during turbulent times, Roman Nose was recognized for facilitating a peaceful transition to a non-nomadic way of life, while retaining elements of his Cheyenne culture. He was a vocal proponent of obtaining education and training.
As a young warrior, Henry Roman Nose participated in the Red River War. After being captured, he was sent in 1878 to Fort Marion in St. Augustine, Florida, where he was listed as a "ringleader". After release, he attended the Hampton Institute in Virginia and the Carlisle Institute in Pennsylvania. In 1892, he received a land allotment in current-day Blaine County, Oklahoma. This land later became part of the Roman Nose State Park, which was named in his honor.
Henry Roman Nose died in 1917 in the canyon on which Roman Nose State Park was established.
He is depicted in a mural, "Roman Nose Canyon", at United States Post Office Watonga, painted by Edith Mahier in 1941.

Cleghorn, Mildred Imoch
Traditional doll maker, schoolteacher, and Fort Sill Apache tribal leader, Mildred Imoch (En-Ohn or Lay-a-Bet) was born a prisoner of war at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, on December 11, 1910. Her grandfather had followed Geronimo into battle, and her grandparents and parents were imprisoned with the Chiricahua Apache in Florida, Alabama, and at Fort Sill. Her family was one of only seventy-five that chose to remain at Fort Sill instead of relocating to the Mescalero Reservation in New Mexico in 1913.

Mildred Cleghorn attended school in Apache, Oklahoma, at Haskell Institute in Kansas, and at Oklahoma State University, receiving a degree in home economics in 1941. After she finished her formal education, she spent several years as a home extension agent in Kansas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico, and then worked for sixteen years as a home economics teacher, first at Fort Sill Indian School at Lawton and then at Riverside Indian School at Anadarko. Later, she taught kindergarten at Apache Public School in Apache. She was married to William G. Cleghorn, whom she had met in Kansas, and their union produced a daughter, Peggy. In 1976 Mildred Cleghorn became chairperson of the Fort Sill Apache Tribe, newly organized as a self-governing entity. Her leadership in that government revolved around preserving traditional history and culture. She retired from the post at age eighty-five in 1995.

Cleghorn's many awards and recognitions included a human relations fellowship at Fisk University in 1955, the Ellis Island Award in 1987, and the Indian of the Year Award in 1989. She also served as an officer in the North American Indian Women's Association, as secretary of the Southwest Oklahoma Intertribal Association, and as treasurer of the American Indian Council of the Reformed Church of America.

Above all, Mildred Cleghorn was a cultural leader. She spent a lifetime creating dolls authentically clothed to represent forty of the tribes she had encountered in her teaching career. Her work was exhibited at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Her life ended in an automobile accident near Apache on April 15, 1997.

History of the Jingle Dress Dance
The Jingle Dress Dance began with the Mille Lacs Band of the Ojibwe Tribe in the early 1900s and became prevalent in the 1920s in Wisconsin and Minnesota (Great Lakes region) in the US and in Ontario, Canada.
The story is that the dress was first seen in a dream. A medicine man’s granddaughter grew sick, and as the man slept his Indian spirit guides came to him and told him to make a Jingle Dress for the little girl. They said if the child danced in it, the dress would heal her. The Jingle Dress was made, and the tribe came together to watch the child dance. At first, the child was too sick to dance alone so her tribe carried her, but after some time, the little girl was able to dance alone, cured of her sickness.
The dance has since been not only a ritual of healing but also one of pride.
What Do Jingle Dresses Look Like?
Jingle Dresses, also known as Prayer Dresses, are believed to bring healing to those who are sick. As mentioned above, the dance gets its name from the rows of ziibaaska’iganan (metal cones) sewed to the dress. These cones are traditionally made from rolled s***f can lids and hung from the dress with ribbon close to one another, so they make a melodic sound as the girls and women dance. Traditionally, the dress is adorned with 365 visible jingles, or cones. Nowadays, these cones are often machine-made.
The dresses come in every color imaginable, from yellow to bright blue, to deep red, and accented with sparkles and even neon-colored fabrics. They are often made with shiny and sparkly materials and decorated with fringes, embroidery, beading, and more.
They usually have three-quarter length to full-length sleeves and come down to mid-calf or the ankle. They are secured at the waist with a thick belt, often made of brown leather. On their feet, the dancer wears decorative moccasins embellished with the same kind of detail found on their dresses.
What are the steps for the Jingle Dance?
As the ziibaaska’iganan hit one another it sounds like rain falling, so it’s important for the dancer to be light on their feet, to move in time with the drum and stop when the beat stops. They keep their foot movements low to the ground while dancing, kicking their heels and bouncing on their toes to the music. Typically, this dance is done in a zigzag pattern, said to represent one’s journey through life—or so the story goes. Often, they keep their hands on their hips, and if they are dancing with a feathered fan (full of neutral colors, like eagle feathers) as the more modern Jingle Dress Dancers do, they will raise it into the air as they dance to receive healing.
The traditional Indian dance involves low, soft-footed steps, as could be performed by those who were sick, while the modern competitive dancers push the boundaries some as they try to out-dance their competitors. The manner in which the dance has evolved has built firmly on its origin story.
What are the songs and music for Jingle Dance?
The music for this style of dancing has a foundation of a solid drumbeat, and of course, the metal cones make a loud jingling (hence the name) as the women move, which contributes to the music you’ll hear at a Jingle Dress Dance. Jingle Dancers will usually dance to Northern drum groups. Special songs for Jingle Dance include a Side Step or Crow Hop.

If you forgot who you are, remember it's never too late to come home. Home is your heart and who you really are, your nagi your spirit, that small child inside that is close to tunkasila!
These drugs, alcohol and messed up teachings lead you away from who you really are.
I see who you are deep down beneath the fake facade! You had to be someone else to survive and i get it. But you forgot to come home, its time to come home! You need you now more then ever, we need you now more then ever!

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.

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

MONTANA BLACKFEET, 1938. Twelve adult men and other Blackfeet tribal members traveled in a dedicated Great Northern railcar to Hollywood to make a movie with child-star Shirley Temple (center), 20th Century Fox’s top moneymaker. The old people felt they were traveling to a strange country, so they prayed hard to be protected.
The Blackfeet brought their own ceremonial finery. Shirley Temple’s costume was made by an actor’s wife. Many Guns reported that on the train they wore ordinary store clothes. They put on buckskins and headdresses to look proud when they arrived in the strange land of Los Angeles, California. When they ate at the famed Brown Derby, Many Guns was certain that the restaurant had never before hosted old buffalo hunters and warriors.
For two months, the Blackfeet lived in tent houses on the Fox studio lot and usually ate at the commissary with other actors. Tom Many Guns, standing right, and Eddie Big Beaver, standing left, were the youngest adults and served as interpreters. At age 80 in 1976, 37 years after the movie was released, Many Guns reported that he was getting monthly residual payments of $191, about $850 in current value. You can view the colorized version of “Susannah Of The Mounties” on YouTube.
Adolf Hungrywolf documented stories from original participants. Click or zoom image to clarify/enlarge.

Linda Darnell (born Monetta Eloyse Darnell; October 16, 1923 – April 10, 1965) was an American actress. Darnell progressed from modeling as a child to acting in theater and film. Darnell was born in Dallas, Texas, as one of four children (excluding her mother's two children from an earlier marriage) to postal clerk Calvin Roy Darnell and the former Margaret "Pearl" Brown. One of her maternal great-grandparents was Cherokee. She was the younger sister of Undeen and the older sister of Monte Maloya and Calvin Roy, Jr.. Her parents were not happily married, and she grew up as a shy and reserved girl in a house of domestic turmoil.Starting at an early age, her mother, Pearl, had big plans for Darnell in the entertainment industry.She believed that Linda was her only child with potential as an actress and ignored the rearing of her other children.Unlike her husband, Pearl had a notorious reputation in the neighborhood of being "aggressive" or "downright mean." Despite some financial problems, Darnell insisted that she had had a joyful childhood and loving parents.Darnell was a model by the age of 11 and was acting on the stage by the age of 13. She initially started modeling to earn money for the household and performed mostly in beauty contests.In November 1937, a talent scout for 20th Century Fox arrived in Dallas looking for new faces. Encouraged by her mother, Darnell met him, and after a few months he invited her for a screen test in Hollywood. Arriving in California alongside Mary Healy and Dorris Bowdon in February 1938, Darnell initially was rejected by film studios and was sent home because she was declared "too young."