We all feel this way today
Holy peace pipe! I’ve spent all day perusing the web for a way to commemorate the 134th anniversary of Custer’s Last Stand, but I fear I’ve learned too much.
It turns out one of the dearest traditions of this blog, the Crying Indian, was never Indian at all! (I know this has nothing to do with Custer. He was a jerk anyway).
The lamenting Lakota that taught us to be nice to our planet was not Native American, but rather Italian-American. His birth name was Espera Oscar de Corti and it wasn’t until he headed to Hollywood in 1924 that he began to market himself as American Indian.
This was a very trying discovery for me, but what this guy lacked in genetics he made up for with insanity. He changed his name to Iron Eyes Cody (which is a pretty sweet name), married himself a nice Native gal named Bertha (not such a sweet name) and never looked back. Old Iron Eyes and Bertha adopted two little Indians, and according to his Snopes article he went everywhere in moccasins, a buckskin jacket and a braided wig. While the Crying Indian was his most famous role, he had a long acting career in which he acted opposite John Wayne and dazzled cinema goers with a striking performance in “Earnest goes to Camp.”
Iron Eyes championed many an Native cause, and maintained his false heritage all the way into his old age, even after his half-sister released his birth certificate the newspapers. He went on to meet the Great Spirit in 1999 at the age of 94. Apparently despite being an Italian in buckskin clothing, he’s well respected in the Native American community. Actually, all the craziness just makes me like him more.
And you know that tear that rolled down his cheek? It was glycerine.
