Performer, actor, and native American leader. Chief Red Fox was born on the Pine Ridge Reservation in Dakota Territory, a member of the Oglala Sioux subgroup of the Lakota people. He was closely related to several notable Sioux tribal leaders including his father Black Eagle and his uncle Crazy Horse. He was six years of age at the time of the infamous Battle of the Little Bighorn where George Custer and the seventh cavalry were decimated by a combined force of Sioux and Cheyenne warriors, and he gave a detailed account of that event in his memoirs. In his youth, he was sent to the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania where he acquired the given name William. In 1893, he was recruited along with others to join Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. He toured with the show for many years, visiting cities throughout the United States and Europe, as performer, translator and Native American leader. He was the actor who personally "scalped" King Edward VII during a performance in London in 1905. With the advent of the American movie industry, he settled in California and acted in over a hundred Hollywood films, mostly of the silent genre. In later years, he achieved a degree of celebrity status by appearing numerous times on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. His memoirs, published in 1971, give an account of his life and travels, as well as his views of the plight of the native American people. He died in Corpus Christi Texas at age 105.
Performer, actor, and native American leader. Chief Red Fox was born on the Pine Ridge Reservation in Dakota Territory, a member of the Oglala Sioux subgroup of the Lakota people. He was closely related to several notable Sioux tribal leaders including his father Black Eagle and his uncle Crazy Horse. He was six years of age at the time of the infamous Battle of the Little Bighorn where George Custer and the seventh cavalry were decimated by a combined force of Sioux and Cheyenne warriors, and he gave a detailed account of that event in his memoirs. In his youth, he was sent to the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania where he acquired the given name William. In 1893, he was recruited along with others to join Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. He toured with the show for many years, visiting cities throughout the United States and Europe, as performer, translator and Native American leader. He was the actor who personally "scalped" King Edward VII during a performance in London in 1905. With the advent of the American movie industry, he settled in California and acted in over a hundred Hollywood films, mostly of the silent genre. In later years, he achieved a degree of celebrity status by appearing numerous times on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. His memoirs, published in 1971, give an account of his life and travels, as well as his views of the plight of the native American people. He died in Corpus Christi Texas at age 105.
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