Chief Buffalo Child Long Lance

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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.

1 Education and career
2 Autobiography and fame
3 Impostor?
4 Death
5 References
6 Further reading

[edit] Education and career

Long left his home in Winston to join the kind of "Wild West Show" popularized by "Buffalo Bill" Cody.^[1]. 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.^[1] He graduated in 1912 at the top of his class, which included other prominent young Native Americans, such as Robert Geronimo and Jim Thorpe.^[1] 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.^[1] He was adopted into the Kainai Nation of the Blackfoot Confederacy, and given a ceremonial name, "Buffalo Child," which he began to use thereafter. ^[1]

[edit] Autobiography and fame

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."^[1] 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.

[edit] Impostor?

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.^[1] 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. Author Irvin S. Cobb is reported to have lamented, "We're so ashamed! We entertained a nigger!"^[1]

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." ^[1] 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.^[1] 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.

[edit] Death

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.^[1]