Sylvester Long Lance

liverpool annie · Mar 20, 2009

Does anybody know anything about Sylvester Long Lance ? I'd appreciate any information please !

According to Commissioner of Indian Affairs Cato Sells in his 1918 Report, "many Indians from our northern reservations enrolled in Canadian military organizations before the declaration of war by the United States." In his 1917 report, Cato Sells also gave the example of two Native Americans from Carlisle who had enlisted in the Princess Patricia Regiment of Canada. One of them, Ernest Kick, died in the trenches in France; the other, Sylvester Long Lance, was wounded in "valorous action."
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The case of Sylvester Long Lance is particularly interesting. This former Carlisle student, born "in the midst of the stifling racial prejudice of the Old South" pretended he was a full-blooded Cherokee Indian and later in his life that he was a Blackfoot born in Montana. His whole life was one of lies and impostures, yet he actually had participated in the Great War. It is difficult to know why he chose to volunteer for the Canadian Army probably to fight for a great world cause as it was praised in the newspaper of his alma mater, St. John's. On August 4, 1916, Long Lance enlisted in Montreal, lying about his date of birth and claiming a West Point military experience. He was first assigned to the 237th Battalion of the American Legion, then transferred to the 97th Battalion and arrived in England on September 25, 1916. After having hurt his knee in training, he was transferred in October to the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry Depot, near Brighton. It was from here that he sent a Christmas card to Carlisle -

I've just come out of the trenches
Where we made the Germans dance,
And I'm sending this Greeting to let you know
That he is still alive, Yours Truly, Lieut. Long-Lance

Alive and fit as fit can be,
Though fighting's not all sport,
And manners "made in Germany"
Aren't quite what you and I were taught.

Of course, Long Lance was not a Lieutenant but a Sergeant, and of course he knew of the French trenches only what he could have read in the newspapers. But then, who would have known this in Carlisle? His letter was quickly sent to newspapers and the New York Sun, on February 12, 1917, read: "Lieut. Long Lance of Carlisle Surprises Teacher with Note from Trenches."

Long Lance did eventually see actual combat in France, at the famous battle fought and won by the Canadian forces at Vimy Ridge, in April 1917. He was wounded a month later, and then again in June, which put an end to his war service.

liverpool annie · Mar 20, 2009

I really would like to find out about his service record if possible ...... !

Sylvester Long Lance was one of my Buffalo Bill Indians ... who went to the Carlise School .... he was quite a character there ... I have a copy of a letter he wrote to the Superintentant !!

but oh my goodness ..... check this out ...... !! I have to get this book !

He was one of the most famous North American Indians of his day.

Newspapers and magazines hungered for stories about him but kept their research to a minimum. Reporters reveled in his many achievements: athlete, war hero, journalist, biographer, full-blooded Indian chief, public lecturer, Indian rights advocate, actor pilot. The story went that he had once trained with the legendary athlete Jim Thorpe; he had once sparred with none other than Jack Dempsey. An American president had granted him a special appointment to West Point; a grateful French nation had awarded him the Croix de Guerre for exceptional military valor. Born a Blood Indian in a teepee in the Sweetgrass Hills near the Canadian-American border, Long Lance had risen in celebrity through intellect, charm, courage and tremendous will. He was, one reporter claimed, one hundred percent American.
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http://www.umanitoba.ca/cm/vol6/no15/chief.html

And now I find this ........

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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liverpool annie · Mar 21, 2009

I found his attestation papers !! ........

the Carlise Indian School is now a University !! and just look at his military experience !!

http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/...rval=20&&PHPSESSID=50kagb1v2dk6vaf7vfc19149s3

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