1884-1974
The Native American silent film actress who was simply known as "Red Wing" was born Lillian Margaret St. Cyr in Nebraska on this day. She was born a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation in Nebraska, better known to the rest of world as Winnebago (now formally the "Winnebago Tribe Of Nebraska" [not to be confused with the Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin]), though her father was reputed to be of French Canadian & Native ancestry from the related tribe of Sauk peoples. The reservation where she was born, is located in the northeastern corner of the state and actually occupies a small portion of Iowa. She was raised on the reservation, before being sent to the infamous Carlyle Indian School in Pennsylvania, after which she moved to the Washington D. C. area to take up a domestic situation at a Kansas Senator's residence there. It was here that she met J. (James) Younger Johnson (better known as James Young Deer), a native of the city, who was mixed race (African, Native & European) and a member of the almost completely decimated eastern tribe the Nanticokes (themselves a member nation of the Delaware Confederacy). The two married in 1906 and by two years later they were making films in New York. This came by way of the two of them performing in western acts in major cities in the northeast. Her film debut came in Kalem's The White Squaw (1908)--billed as "Princess Red Wing" (because every damn actress, whether actually native or not, who played a native role had to be a "princess" something or other...also, I have to say, just typing the word "squaw" also ticks me off!). The following year, she appeared in the Lubin production The Falling Arrow, which was directed by her husband under the name James Young Deer. The two of them were subsequently hired by Bison. The first film at that production house that she appeared in A Cowboy's Narrow Escape in 1909 was not directed by her husband, despite his situation there; it was instead directed by Fred J. Balshofer. The studio, by the way, dropped the "princess" tag on her name thankfully. Bison made the relocation from New York to California in 1909 and St. Cyr and Johnson Young Deer went with them. Though her husband worked at Bison, he never directed there, though he did act in some of the films that she made with them--all of them were instead directed by Balshofer (the only "stand out" in this period of her acting career came when her and her husband worked on D.W. Griffith's Biograh release The Mended Lute in 1909). Young Deer departed for other companies that would allow him to direct. At Vitagraph--the company her husband first moved to--she appeared in the first film that bore her name: Red Wing's Gratitude (directed by Young Deer) in 1909. Bison caught on to this and duplicated it for several films in 1910. Though the vast majority of the films in which she acted came before 1914, she is by far best remembered for her role in The Squaw Man (there's that word again!*) in 1914. It's a legendary film in so many ways: first film direction by Cecil B. DeMille, first feature length western filmed in Hollywood...and the list kind of goes on; I am not going to take up the production of the film here (another time, perhaps), but I will say that her portrayal of Nat-U-Ritch is considered one of the most revered in Hollywood history. For a town that came to demonize and stereotype Native Americans, and make barrels of money doing it, this was one production where at least two of the native actors had a real hand in shaping the way natives where portrayed! She only appeared in four films after this, and in the last one, she went uncredited. By 1915 and 1916, the studios were condescendingly crediting her either as "Miss" or "Princess." Her last film appearance came in 1921, some five years after her appearance in Clune Film's Ramona (1916); the film was the Paramount distributed-William S. Hart production White Oak (1921), an exploitation western that did feature Chief Luther Standing Bear (Mato Nanji), but other than that, the film shows the signs of stereotypes that would become the norm of westerns. It seems that she had truly had enough of acting in the late 1910's and that her appearance in one production in the 1920's in a small role signals that she was tired of the whole profession. She certainly was done with California, and I am not sure that she ever really liked the place to begin with. Couple that with a not-so-nice divorce, she retired from the industry for good and returned to New York City. She lived there for the remainder of her life, remarrying in 1925, only to get divorced again in 1929. She never had any children. She passed away in the New York City on the 13th of March in 1974 at the age of 91. Her remains where transported back to her reservation for burial at the St. Augustine Mission Cemetery there. She is buried under her birth certificate name and her film name of "Red Wing of the Silent Era"--most importantly, her Native Ho-Chunk name of Ah Hoo Sooch Wing Cah**.
*There are a number of theories as to whether the word "squaw" is Iroquoian or Algonquin, but there is no debate as to whether the term was meant, and sadly continues to be, derogatory. There is strong evidence that the term is indeed derived from far eastern Algonquin languages, in which case it means "vagina"...or in other words "cunt." It's derogatory use, stemming largely from fur-trapping Europeans--basically meant "wife on the side." Don't expect a full reference here, a great deal of this notation is from my own memory...and experience. But please do see Wikipedia.
**She was a relative of Native American actor Vincent St. Cyr.
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