Comments on: Native or Not? The True Stories behind 5 “American Indian” Actors

By: Heathermca

Heathermca — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 17:41:28 +0000

Sandie – Reserve is not the short form of Reservation. In Canada they are called reserves, in the US they are called reservations.

By: Amy

Amy — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 19:08:18 +0000

Heather, same here. I grew up around my great-grandfather, who is full-blooded Creek/Muskogee. My grandmother definitely took after her father, but by the time I ended up with the 1/8th diluted genes, I ended up with more physical traits from my German/Irish heritage.

Having grown up in Oklahoma, I likely could have gone to college on a free ride, but I chose not to. I did accept a small yearly grant for books (a few hundred dollars) though. With 1/8 blood you can get some school benefits if you have documentation. Since I was born in Oklahoma, I was issued a tribal membership card on my birth.

Once, I was even issued a tribal jury summons. Unfortunately, I was in college several hundred miles away at the time without reliable transportation, so I had to call them and get an exemption. I would have been interested to attend, though!

By: Heather

Heather — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 14:42:01 +0000

My grandmother is half Navajo (making my mother roughly a 1/4). I guess that makes me a 1/8 or thereabouts, but to be honest… I look more like my Irish grandfather. :D Everyone always asked me why I didn’t try to get scholarship money because of my “Indian blood.” While I doubt I would qualify in the first place, I never checked it out because frankly, I think it should go to people who identify more with the Indian culture. I certainly do not. I was raised typical middle class white American.

By: Nina

Nina — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 13:47:56 +0000

Randy Mantooth plays Charlie Horse on “Sons of Anarchy” – a Native American character.

By: Tyrone Tootoosis

Tyrone Tootoosis — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 15:05:04 +0000

BASSMAN;
Kemo Sabe/Kemo Tape…a literal translation in my Plains Cree language means ‘peeping’..due to the mask with eye holes that the Lone Ranger always wore.

By: botanycreek

botanycreek — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 17:50:00 +0000

Actually, Tonto called the Lone Ranger “Que no sabe” which loosely translates “He who knows nothing” in Spanish.

ReCaptcha: horses blocked

By: Bobo

Bobo — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 20:26:00 +0000

>> Actually Peter Maivia didnâ€™t claim to be Indian. He and his character were Samoan.

Ok…I’ll take your word on that one. He was the only one of that group that I never saw live. We didn’t get the “WWWF” as it was then known (Yes, 3 W’s) until around 1981, and by then I don’t think he was wrestling anymore.

By: Leslie

Leslie — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 09:29:00 +0000

Actually Peter Maivia didn’t claim to be Indian. He and his character were Samoan.

By: alison

alison — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 21:51:00 +0000

dooflotchie – totally! emergency was my favorite show as a kid cuz my dad was a fireman and paramedic.

i worked at a bookstore in hollywood and randolph mantooth came in and i was totally starstruck! i couldn’t even talk to him!

btw johnny depp is also part cherokee so it is appropriate he’s playing tonto.

By: Bobo

Bobo — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 22:01:00 +0000

I’ll bet you could devote a whole column to wrestlers who claimed to be either Indian or Russian, they were just popular gimmicks. Probably few if any actually were.

Indians: Jay Youngblood, Jack and Jerry Brisco, Wahoo Mcdaniel, High Chief Peter Maivia and many others.

Russians: Nikolai Volkoff, Boris Zukhoff, Ivan Koloff, Chris Markoff and many others