| Chief Tahachee | |
|---|---|
| Born | March 4, 1904 James Mill, Arkansas, U.S. |
| Died | June 9, 1978 (aged 74) San Gabriel, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actor, author |
Chief Tahachee (born Jeff Davis Tahchee Cypert, March 4, 1904 – June 9, 1978) was an Old Settler Cherokee Indian who was an author, a stage actor, a film extra, and a vaudeville performer.
Chief Tahachee wrote four books: Poems of Dreams (1942), Drifting Sands (1950), An American Indian Climb Toward Truth & Wisdom (1955), and The Rough and Rowdy Ways of an American Indian Cowboy (1957).[1] Poems of Dreams was his most popular and he renewed the copyright on it October 1972.[2]
Chief Tahachee appeared as a film extra in several films produced from the 1920s to the 1960s, including westerns, film noir, drama, and historical sagas. His first film appearance was in a silent film, The Last of the Mohicans, in 1920 at the age of 16.
He was married seven times, fathered ten children, and died June 9, 1978 in San Gabriel, California of a heart attack.[3] He is buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in San Dimas, California.