Dark Cloud (September 20, 1855 – September 17, 1918) was a

First Nations First Nations or first peoples may refer to: * Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area. Indigenous groups *First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including: **First Natio ...

silent film actor A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, wh ...

, born Elijah Tahamont. He was a chief of the

Abenaki The Abenaki (Abenaki: ''Wαpánahki'') are an Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands of Canada and the United States. They are an Algonquian-speaking people and part of the Wabanaki Confederacy. The Eastern Abenaki language was predom ...

, a First Nations

band government In Canada, an Indian band or band (french: bande indienne, link=no), sometimes referred to as a First Nation band (french: bande de la Première Nation, link=no) or simply a First Nation, is the basic unit of government for those peoples subjec ...

belonging to the

Eastern Algonquian The Eastern Algonquian languages constitute a subgroup of the Algonquian languages. Prior to European contact, Eastern Algonquian consisted of at least 17 languages, whose speakers collectively occupied the Atlantic coast of North America and adj ...

peoples of northeastern

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

Early life

Tahamont's father, also named Elijah Tahamont, had studied at

Moor's Charity School Moor's Charity School was founded in 1754 in Lebanon, Connecticut (now in the town of Columbia), by the Puritan CalvinistDavid J. Silverman, ''Red Brethren: The Brothertown and Stockbridge Indians and the Problem of Race in Early America'', Cornel ...

and

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native A ...

, where Native American education had been funded by a gift of £12,000 in 1767 from a Native American, Presbyterian Rev.

Samson Occom Samson Occom (1723 – July 14, 1792; also misspelled as Occum and Alcom) was a member of the Mohegan nation, from near New London, Connecticut, who became a Presbyterian cleric. Occom was the second Native American to publish his writings in Eng ...

. Moor's School had been established for "civilizing the wild, wandering Tribes of Indians in North America, and ... for promoting religion, virtue, and literature among people of all denominations." Tahamont became known first as a popular lecturer, and as a model for artist

Frederic Remington Frederic Sackrider Remington (October 4, 1861 – December 26, 1909) was an American painter, illustrator, sculptor, and writer who specialized in the genre of Western American Art. His works are known for depicting the Western United Stat ...

, the most successful Western illustrator in the "Golden Age" of illustration at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. Remington wrote and illustrated a novel, ''John Ermine of Yellowstone.''

Acting career

Dark Cloud began working for

American Mutoscope and Biograph The Biograph Company, also known as the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, was a motion picture company founded in 1895 and active until 1916. It was the first company in the United States devoted entirely to film production and exhibition, ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in 1910, making his first screen appearances in the era of "eastern Westerns" under the direction of D. W. Griffith and with cinematography by Billy Bitzer. Unlike the later Westerns, featuring dramatic conflicts and indolent Natives, these early films showed Native Americans with respect: in serene, nearly still-life profile against a wide landscape, as though in calm reflection on their lives before the treaties were broken. ''

The Song of the Wildwood Flute ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

'', with

Mary Pickford Gladys Marie Smith (April 8, 1892 – May 29, 1979), known professionally as Mary Pickford, was a Canadian-American stage and screen actress and producer with a career that spanned five decades. A pioneer in the US film industry, she co-founde ...

and

Mack Sennett Mack Sennett (born Michael Sinnott; January 17, 1880 – November 5, 1960) was a Canadian-American film actor, director, and producer, and studio head, known as the 'King of Comedy'. Born in Danville, Quebec, in 1880, he started in films in the ...

, was filmed near

Fishkill, New York Fishkill is a village (New York), village within the Fishkill (town), New York, town of Fishkill in Dutchess County, New York, Dutchess County, New York (state), New York, United States. The village is in the eastern part of the town of Fishkill o ...

. Dark Cloud's first movie, ''

The Broken Doll ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

'', was made in 1910 in Coytesville, near

Fort Lee, New Jersey Fort Lee is a borough at the eastern border of Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, situated along the Hudson River atop the Palisades. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the borough's population was 40,191. As of the 2010 U.S. census, t ...

, where Griffith also filmed ''Call of the Wild.'' Dark Cloud appeared in many Westerns and other films during the 1910s. He moved with Griffith's company to the West Coast in 1912, eventually appearing in at least 34 silent movies in a brief film career of only 8 years, cut short by the

Spanish flu The 1918–1920 influenza pandemic, commonly known by the misnomer Spanish flu or as the Great Influenza epidemic, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. The earliest documented case was ...

pandemic of 1918. "Dark Cloud" filmography on IMDb
/ref> He was sometimes billed as Chief Dark Cloud or as William Dark Cloud. After Remington's death, Dark Cloud collaborated on making a 1917 Francis Ford movie, based on ''John Ermine of Yellowstone,'' in which "John Darkcloud" appeared as Fire Bear. Tahamont was dressed as Hollywood's idea of a "Plains Indian Chief" for all his theatrical roles. Being Abenaki (a group of tribes native to Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, and Southern Canada), he would have never worn the mock ceremonial garb in his personal life, and is often viewed as an example of the long-standing Hollywood tradition of stereotyping and minimizing the cultural diversity of native tribes across the Americas.

Personal life

Tahamont married Margaret Camp, who became an actress billed as Dove Eye of the silent film era. Margaret Camp was born in Indian Lake NY, the daughter of the town's namesake, Chief Sabael. The Tahamonts' children, Beulah and Bessie, reportedly were "the first Indian children to attend a New York public school". Beulah appeared in early films and on stage. Their granddaughter, Bertha Parker, was an archaeologist and ethnologist. As an ethnologist, she wrote about the lore, mythology, and early history of Native Americans in California and Nevada. Her third marriage was to the actor "Iron Eyes" Cody, who played the Indian who sheds a single tear for a blighted American environment in "

Keep America Beautiful Keep America Beautiful is a nonprofit organization founded in 1953. It is the largest community improvement organization in the United States, with more than 700 state and community-based affiliate organizations and more than 1,000 partner organiz ...

" ads that ran from 1971 into the 1980s. Tahamont's death, in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

on October 17, 1918, was from

bronchopneumonia Bronchopneumonia is a subtype of pneumonia. It is the acute inflammation of the bronchi, accompanied by inflamed patches in the nearby lobules of the lungs. citing: Webster's New World College Dictionary, Fifth Edition, Copyright 2014 It is often ...

, officially attributed to the

Spanish influenza pandemic The 1918–1920 influenza pandemic, commonly known by the misnomer Spanish flu or as the Great Influenza epidemic, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. The earliest documented case was ...

. Rumors that he was murdered by a jealous husband, that he died from accidental

drowning Drowning is a type of suffocation induced by the submersion of the mouth and nose in a liquid. Most instances of fatal drowning occur alone or in situations where others present are either unaware of the victim's situation or unable to offer a ...

, or that he was still alive were never substantiated. Several of his films were released after his death.

Filmography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dark Cloud (Actor) 1855 births 1918 deaths Burials at Hollywood Forever Cemetery American male silent film actors First Nations male actors People from Centre-du-Québec Deaths from the Spanish flu pandemic in California Abenaki people Male actors from Quebec 20th-century American male actors Canadian emigrants to the United States Deaths from pneumonia in California Deaths from bronchopneumonia