And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: >>Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1999 12:21:13 -0500 >From: "Jordan S. Dill" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: [FN] Beating a dead Iron Eyes >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > >Since the recent death of Iron Eyes Cody, I am reminded of a feature >article published by the New Orleans Times Picayune a few years ago, in >which Cody was revealed to have been of Italian descent and an original >resident of Louisiana. Cody maintained that he was born and raised >Cherokee in Oklahoma. Many Indians in the country would like to know of >the evidence gathered by Times Picayune reporters that went into this >story. I would appreciate any information you could provide; a copy of >the original article, either on paper or online, would be especially >helpful. > > >Which generated the following response: > >Copyright (c) 1996, The Times-Picayune Pub. Corp. > >Sunday, May 26, 1996 >NATIVE SON By Angela Aleiss Contributing writer > >He stole America's heart with his "Keep America Beautiful" television ads >in the 1970s. His image was unforgettable: as careless citizens littered >the country's lakes and forests, he turned toward us with a tear trickling >down his cheek. > >Iron Eyes Cody, veteran Hollywood actor of more than 100 motion pictures, >thus came to represent America's noble Indian hero. Long before the ad >ran, he rode alongside cowboy stars Tim McCoy, Gary Cooper and Roy Rogers >in countless Westerns. He even has his own star on Hollywood Boulevard's >Walk of Fame. > >But Iron Eyes, supposedly of Cherokee/Cree descent, is actually a >second-generation Italian-American from Louisiana. His true heritage lies >within the state's southwestern parish of Vermilion and its records of >probates, deeds and baptisms. > >Today, Iron Eyes speaks of how his mother was a Cree Indian who married >his Cherokee father and raised the children in Oklahoma. He recently >suffered a stroke and still lives in the same modest home in Los Angeles >that he purchased in 1936. His living room is a museum of his own photos >and trophies, and his Hollywood memorabilia clutters the tables and >chairs. > >In a telephone conversation last year, Iron Eyes denied his Louisiana >origins. "You can't prove it," he said. Instead, he gave his own >explanation: "All I know is that I'm just another Indian." But Iron Eyes' >Indian guise, his Hollywood fame, was an escape from an early life of >hardship and despair. Ultimately, he created his own Native American >identity. > >May Abshire, 80, is half sister to Iron Eyes Cody. She explains that their >mother was Francesca Salpietra, a short woman with long black hair and >dark skin who grew up in Sicily among a family of winegrowers. Her >traditional parents arranged her marriage to Antonio DeCorti, an Italian >immigrant awaiting his bride-to-be in New Orleans. > > >According to New Orleans' passenger lists, Iron Eyes' mother arrived in > >1902, a decade after the notorious 1891 lynching of 11 Italian immigrants >that nearly triggered a war between the United States and Italy. >Widespread tensions erupted between the city's Italian and Irish >residents, and by the turn of the century, New Orleans greeted its >immigrant arrivals with suspicion and hostility. > >"We were known as `Dagoes' (knives) when we got there," May recalls her >mother telling the children. > >May says that the couple soon left New Orleans to work in Louisiana's >sugar cane fields, where Sicilian immigrants commonly replaced black slave >labor. > >Iron Eyes - or `Oscar' as he was called - was born on April 3, 1904, in >the small town of Kaplan. Baptismal records at Holy Rosary Catholic Church >show that his sponsors christened him "Espera." Iron Eyes was the second >of four children, with Joseph William the eldest (born in about 1902), and >sister Victoria Delores (about 1907) and brother Frank Henry (about 1909) >the younger siblings. > >Francesca and Antonio struggled to make ends meet with their small grocery >store in Gueydan. But May explains that in 1909, Antonio ran afoul of the >notorious "Black Hand Society" and its Mafia tactics. He fled to Texas and >never returned. "He said he wanted to hide because he didn't want his >family destroyed," she explains. > >Parish records indicate that Francesca soon faced seizure of her business >by the store's suppliers. "She had a hard time. She washed at night and >ran the store during the day," May adds. > >According to May, Antonio lived virtually incognito in Texas and >communicated with his family only through his sister in Missouri. But >mention her husband's name, and Francesca paled. > >The incident left 5-year-old Iron Eyes temporarily without a father. But >Francesca soon remarried Alton Abshire, a native Louisianian whose >ancestors had immigrated from Nova Scotia. She bore five more children, >and May was the couple's second eldest. > >May recalls that even as a youth Iron Eyes would dress up as an Indian and >lead neighborhood boys in outdoor games. "He always said he wanted to be >an Indian. If he could find something that looked Indian, he'd put it on," >she says. > >Meanwhile, Iron Eyes' struggling parents temporarily moved to Orange, >Texas, to find work in the oil refineries. Within a year they returned to >Gueydan, but the DeCorti boys stayed behind to join their biological >father. > >Part of the family mystery is that no one appears to know what happened to >Antonio. But Texas vital records show that he changed his name to Tony >Corti and worked in Houston as a poolroom manager. He died in 1924 at the >young age of 45. > >Following Antonio's death, the three boys journeyed to California to start >a new life. They changed their names from Corti to Cody, and Iron Eyes >"turned 100 percent Indian," as May puts it. "He had his mind all the time > >on movies," she says. For Iron Eyes, Hollywood became a comfortable escape >from his unsettling past. He easily sympathized with an oppressed people >and knew firsthand of > >hardship and persecution. He pledged his life to Native American causes, >married an Indian woman (Bertha Parker), adopted two Indian boys (Robert >and Arthur), and seldom left home without his beaded moccasins, buckskin >jacket and braided wig. "He looks just like an Indian," May notes. > >For awhile, playing Indian seemed to run in the family. Iron Eyes' two >brothers also portrayed Indian characters in the movies until they drifted > >into other careers. Frank was killed by a hit-and-run driver in 1949, and >Victoria worked as a seamstress in Los Angeles until her death in 1965. >Joseph died in 1978, the same year Iron Eyes lost his wife of nearly 42 >years. > >Last year, Hollywood's Native American community honored Iron Eyes for his >longstanding contribution. Although he was no Indian, they pointed out, >his charitable deeds were more important than this non-Indian heritage. > >For Iron Eyes, it seems that his Indian identity will become another movie >legend. <<<<=-=-=FREE LEONARD PELTIER=-=-=>>>> If you think you are too small to make a difference; try sleeping in a closed room with a mosquito.... African Proverb <<<<=-=http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ =-=>>>> IF it says: "PASS THIS TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW...." Please Check it before you send it at: http://urbanlegends.miningco.com/library/blhoax.htm
