Chief Nipo T. Strongheart (born May 15, 1891 in White Swan, Washington, died December 31, 1966 in Hollywood, California) was a Yakima Nation Native American film actor and technical advisor to Hollywood films about Native Americans. He helped form the National Congress of American Indians and authored the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 signed by President Calvin Coolidge in 1924.[1]
In 1902 he and his father toured in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show as a bareback trick rider.[2] He went to Hollywood appearing in his first motion picture at age 14.[3]
In 1926 Cecil B. DeMille made a biography of him with the title changed to Braveheart lest the public think the story was about a canine star of the time with the same name.[4][5]. Rod LaRocque played him with Strongheart playing a Medicine Man and collaborating on the screenplay.[6]
In 1930 he married Marion Winton Campbell (recently divorced from Alexander Winton) a composer of operas who started the Women's National League for Justice to American Indians in 1929. They divorced in 1933.[7]
Strongheart wrote an article History in Hollywood in 1937[8] that led him to a career as a technical advisor on Hollywood films about Native Americans where he also appeared in cameos in such films as Black Gold, Young Daniel Boone, Across the Wide Missouri, Broken Lance, Pony Soldier and Ten Who Dared.