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Research in Other Countries => Canada => Topic started by: liverpool annie on Saturday 21 March 09 04:41 GMT (UK)
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This is one of my Buffalo Bill Indians ...... ::) ... ( well he was supposed to be !! ) I'm supposed to be looking for his WW1 service record ... but I've kind of got carried away ( to the point where I've just ordered the book written about him ) and way off topic .... now I want to find out everything .... if anybody can help I'd appreciate it !! :D
Chief Buffalo Child Long Lance, born Sylvester Clark Long (December 1, 1890 to March 20, 1932), was an entertainer, journalist, actor, and writer from Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He has been the subject of much controversy, because he became famous following an autobiography in which he claimed to be the son of a Blackfoot chief. When this was found to be false, his Native American identity was called into question.
Long left his home in Winston to join the kind of "Wild West Show" popularized by "Buffalo Bill" Cody In 1909, Long applied as a half-Cherokee into Carlisle Indian Industrial School, and was accepted, partly because of his ability to speak some Cherokee. He graduated in 1912 at the top of his class, which included other prominent young Native Americans, such as Robert Geronimo and Jim Thorpe. He joined the St. John's Military Academy and then the Manlius Military Academy, graduating in 1915. At that stage, he had begun to call himself Long Lance, and had earned a nickname "chief" as the only Native American in the class. He decided to try for the West Point, and appealed to Woodrow Wilson, who endorsed his application. However, he failed the entry exam. In 1916, Long Lance enlisted to Canadian Expeditionary Force in Montreal, and was shipped to France to fight in World War I. He was wounded twice and eventually transferred to a desk job.
He returned to Canada as an acting sergeant in 1919, and moved to Calgary, Alberta where he took a job as a journalist for the Calgary Herald. He presented himself as a Cherokee and a West Point graduate with the Croix de Guerre. For the next three years as a reporter, he visited Indian reserves, and wrote articles defending their rights and criticizing government treatment of Indians, especially re-education and attempts to stamp out tribal rituals He was adopted into the Kainai Nation of the Blackfoot Confederacy, and given a ceremonial name, "Buffalo Child," which he began to use thereafter.
In 1924, he became a press representative for the Canadian Pacific Railway, and in 1927, moved to New York to write his autobiography. Cosmopolitan Book Corporation published his book, Long Lance in 1928. In it, Long Lance claimed that he had been born a Blackfoot in Montana's Sweetgrass Hills, and that he had been wounded eight times in the Great War and been promoted to the rank of captain.
He became a celebrity, part of the New York party life, and received an average price of $100 for his speeches. He also endorsed a running shoe for the B.F. Goodrich Company. A film magazine, "Screenland," stated that "Long Lance, one of the few real one-hundred-percent Americans, has had New York right in his pocket." In 1929, Long Lance starred in the silent film The Silent Enemy. The movie attempted to depict Indian tribal life more realistically, and was released in 1930.
However, an Indian advisor to the film crew, Chauncey Yellow Robe, became suspicious and alerted the studio legal advisor. Long Lance could not explain his heritage, and rumors began to circulate. An investigation revealed that his father had not been a Blackfoot chief, but a school janitor in Winston-Salem, North Carolina Some neighbours from his home town, testified that his background was actually African American. Although the studio did not publicize their investigation, the accusations led many of his socialite acquaintances to abandon him.
Historians have continued to describe Long as a fraud. James A. Clifton called Long "a sham" who "assumed the identity of an Indian," "an adopted ethnic identity pure and simple." Donald B. Smith has described him as a "glorious impostor" who "passed as an Indian," despite acknowledging evidence that Long Lance had some Croatan ancestry on his mother's side, and Cherokee ancestry on his father's. In her book, "Real Indians," Eva Marie Garroutte uses the controversy over Long Lance's identity to introduce questions surrounding contested Indian identity and authenticity.
After the controversy surrounding his identity, California socialite Anita Baldwin took Long Lance as a bodyguard on her trip to Europe, but he misbehaved to such an extent that Baldwin abandoned him in New York. For a time, he fell in love with dancer Elisabeth Clapp, but refused to marry her. In 1931, he returned to Baldwin.
In 1932, Long Lance was found dead in Baldwin's home in Los Angeles, California with a bullet in his head. His death was ruled a suicide. His will dictated that his all remaining assets should go to St. Paul’s Indian Residential School in Southern Alberta.
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I'm smiling 'cos I just found his papers !! :D ....
the Carlise Indian School is now a University !! and just look at his military experience !!
http://www.rootschat.com/links/05vh/
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A great result for you. I did notice what lovely writing he had, his signature is beautiful.
FF
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Annie,
Do you have his burial location? Name of cemetery, plot number, etc?
I have created a record for him at The Canadian Great War Project (CGWP) and would like to include that information.
http://www.canadiangreatwarproject.com/index.asp
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Hi Ken !
I'm sorry I don't ! ...... I'm still looking .... :-\
All I have apart from what I've already posted is this .... and this picture I found ..... it's very small though !! ::)
In the aftermath of the First World War, Chief Buffalo Child Long Lance, a "full-blooded member of the Northern Blackfeet", became a national celebrity in the United States. He starred in a movie, published a book, campaigned for the rights of inmates of Indian reservations, spoke publicly of his childhood in an Indian settlement in Montana and his war exploits in the Canadian Army for which he won three medals.
After he turned to drink and then killed himself in 1932, Chief Buffalo Child Long Lance was revealed to be Sylvester Long, part white, part black and possibly part Native American. He was not from Montana, but North Carolina, and he was not decorated in the First World War, either, but invalided back home.
His deception was initially based on expedience, when, trying to escape hopeless poverty, he managed to get into the prestigious Indian school in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Long did not look pale enough to get into a white school, and he did not want to go to a desperately under-resourced black school, but his unusual complexion let him pass for a Native American. From there on, he lied continually until "Chief Buffalo Child Long Lance" eventually consumed him.
Los Angeles Aroboretum
301 North Baldwin Av
Arcadia
This was the house of Chief Buffalo Child Long Lance who was a writer and a actor. In 1932 a reporter found out that he was a black man pretending to be an Indian. He shot himself in the head in his parlor and his ghost has been seen many times.
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Some mentions of him here:
http://www.ourfutureourpast.ca/loc_hist/page.aspx?id=3602409
(mentions his Calgary Herald work)
http://www.ourfutureourpast.ca/loc_hist/page.aspx?id=916552
- this claims he was fired in 1922 for faking a bomb scare!
http://www.ourfutureourpast.ca/loc_hist/page.aspx?id=891509
http://www.ourfutureourpast.ca/loc_hist/page.aspx?id=498899
- more on the City Hall "Bombing" in these books.
http://www.ourroots.ca/e/page.aspx?id=893894
- and a bit on the film he made.
http://www.ourroots.ca/e/page.aspx?id=164601
- an article he wrote is reproduced here.
http://search.labs.familysearch.org/recordsearch/
shows his family in the 1900 census. Sylvester C Long, parents Joseph S and ??? (indexed as "Sallie M") who had been married 21 years and were the parents of 6 children, five living and all in the house with them. Miles A, Walter L, Sylvester C, Grimes W, and an infant daughter.
"Fugitive poses" at books.google.com indicates that he was buried 30 Mar 1932, in the British Empire War Veteran's section of Inglewood Cemetery in Los Angeles (by the British Benevolent Society).
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Thanks Jorose ! ..... interesting stuff there !!
I've been trying to find out about the Inglewood Cemetery in Los Angeles but haven't come up with anything yet .... apparently they do their own photographs and genealogy and so aren't very helpful for others !! ... they only have from 1974 onwards on their database ..... so can't look him up there either !
I'm still looking though !! :D
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Two more images, and some writings in here:
http://www.greatwardifferent.com/Great_War/Over_There/Cherokee_01.htm
In full chirf regalia:
http://www.rootschat.com/links/05ya/
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http://www.rootschat.com/links/05ye/
http://home.epix.net/~landis/long.html
http://www.rootschat.com/links/05yd/
Hi, Annie...not got a lot of time...as am busy, but looked for a few things...These aren't what you want to hear, but I am also a big fan of Grey Owl, and so anyone who wants to better the life of Natives, partial natives, & humanity....
You may not like this but all part of what you want to know...and also we/you may be able to trace his true origins...
https://dspace.library.uvic.ca:8443/dspace/bitstream/1828/896/1/Vernon%20Thesis%5B1%5D.pdf
more...not good reading
http://www.rootschat.com/links/05yb/
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Did you see he wrote a book on "Indian sign language" in 1930?
http://www.rootschat.com/links/05zh/ another image of him on book cover
His Mother was part native, so it wasn't a complete lie...he just wasn't raised in the native ways he wrote about...
Poor fellow must have been a marvelous real-life actor!
Not sure if they'd have anything that isn't already online in publications
http://web.co.wake.nc.us/library/locations/orl/Dict%20of%20NC%20Bios%20Index/NC%20Bio%20Birth%20Index/forsythe.htm
and this should interest you as well, Native veterans ww1
http://www.rootschat.com/links/05zi/
and should you ever venture out/up to Alberta...
http://www.rootschat.com/links/05zj/
and lastly..."It's a bumb"
http://www2.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/story.html?id=2bda2db1-ce39-4cb1-ae5e-427f91b127fe&p=2
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Some photos of family etc.
Glenbow Museum
http://www.rootschat.com/links/0605/
Scoundrels, Rogues and Heroes of the Old North State
By H. G. Jones, Caitlin D. Jones, K. Randell Jones
(Starting at Page 80)
http://books.google.com/books?id=337AcJyhX40C
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Do you have his burial location? Name of cemetery, plot number, etc?
I have created a record for him at The Canadian Great War Project (CGWP) and would like to include that information.
Ken
According to the book in the previous reply, (Scoundrels, Rogues and Heroes of the Old North State) he is buried in Inglewood Cemetery, Los Angeles. (British Empire's Veteran's section)
http://www.inglewoodparkcemetery.org/home1.html
Fugitive poses
By Gerald Robert Vizenor
Page 102
(Buried: March 30th, 1932)
http://books.google.ca/books?id=Y0tqzVNiFasC
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Sorry I've been so tardy in replying ....... too many crisis' going on here !! :-\ :P
Thank you JJ .... smashing stuff .... and thanks Janice for the family photos ....
Jorose had already told us about Inglewood Cemetery and I'd been trying to get information but they are not too forth coming with any !! ::) but I'll keep trying !
Thanks again everybody .... some good stuff here !! :D
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Hi Annie
His tracking mentioned in this find my grave: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSvcid=34446&GRid=20844907&
Linda