Chief Buffalo Child Long Lance

Chief Buffalo Child Long Lance (born Sylvester Clark Long; December 1, 1890 – March 20, 1932) was a journalist, writer and film actor who, for a time, became internationally prominent as a spokesman for Native American causes. He published an autobiography, purportedly based on his experience as the son of a Blackfoot chief. He was the first presumed Native American admitted to the Explorers Club in New York City, and held a racial mixed heritage that one Professor describes as "inbetween...—Native, White, and Black."

In an article for the academic Journal of Canadian Studies, Professor Vernon at the University of Toronto explains that the accusations of Long Lance being an imposter are false. The Professor writes "Long's mother was recognized as having both White and Lumbee Indian ancestry" and "Sally Long identified herself as part "Croatan," or "Croatoan," the names by which
Lumbees were known in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries." Furthermore, the Professor asserts "There is no doubt that Long Lance had valid claims to Indian ancestry on both his mother's and his father's side. His mother's people, however, the Lumbee, occupied an anomalous position in the racially segregated South nited States"

Early life and education

In that segregated society, African Americans had limited opportunities.Alexander D. Gregor, review of Donald B. Smith, ''Chief Buffalo Child Long Lance: The Glorious Impersonator''
, Manitoba Library Association, accessed 18 Apr 2009 Long first left North Carolina to portray Indian characters in a "Wild West Show". During this time he continued to build upon his (later proven to be fraudulent) stories of being Cherokee.

In 1909, Long claimed to be half Cherokee when he applied to the Carlisle Indian Industrial School and was accepted. He also lied about his age to gain admission. He graduated in 1912 at the top of his class, which included prominent Native Americans such as Jim Thorpe and Robert Geronimo, a son of the famous Apache warrior.

Long entered the St. John's and Manlius Military academies in Manlius, New York with a full musical scholarship, based on his performance at the Carlisle School.

Career

Long went to Canada as an acting sergeant in 1919, requesting discharge at Calgary, Alberta. He worked as a journalist for the ''Calgary Herald''. Canada had ''de facto'' segregation and a climate in which the government had discouraged black immigration from the US. During this time in both Canada and the US it was common for those of African heritage to instead make false claims of Cherokee or Blackfoot. "It is not surprising that in such a climate...Long Lance felt that he was safer, and that he could go further, by disavowing any connection, cultural or racial, to blackness."

Long presented himself as a Cherokee from Oklahoma and claimed he was a West Point graduate with the ''Croix de Guerre'' earned in World War I. For the next three years as a reporter, he covered Indian issues. He criticized government treatment of Indians and openly criticized Canada's ''Indian Act'', especially their attempts at re-education and prohibiting the practice of tribal rituals. To a friend, Long justified his decision to assume a Blackfoot Indian identity by saying it would help him be a more effective advocate, that he had not lived with his own people since he was sixteen, and now knew more about the Indians of Western Canada. In 1924, Long Lance became a press representative for the Canadian Pacific Railway.

Through these years, Long also entered the civic life of the city, by joining the local Elks Lodge and the militia, and coaching football for the Calgary Canucks. Due to Jim Crow laws, these activities would not have been possible had he honestly presented himself as a black man. He was a successful writer, publishing articles in national magazines, reaching a wide and diverse audience through ''Macleans'' and ''Cosmopolitan''. By the time he wrote his autobiography in Alberta in 1927, Long claimed to be a full-blooded Blackfoot Indian.

Autobiography and fame

Cosmopolitan Book Company commissioned Long's autobiography as a boy's adventure book on Indians. It published ''Long Lance'' in 1928, to quick success. In it, Long claimed to have been born a Blackfoot, son of a chief, in Montana's Sweetgrass Hills. He also said that he had been wounded eight times in the Great War and been promoted to the rank of captain.

The popular success of his book and the international press made him a major celebrity. The book became an international bestseller and was praised by literary critics and anthropologists. Long had already been writing and lecturing on the life of Plains Indians. His celebrity gave him more venues and caused him to be taken up as part of the New York party life. More significantly, he was then admitted to the prominent Explorers' Club in New York. The Explorers' Club believed they were admitting their "first Indian".

He received an average price of $100 for his speeches, a good price in those years. He endorsed a sport shoe for the B.F. Goodrich Company. A film magazine, ''Screenland