Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear…
All the way to Jan. 31, 1933, when a fiery horse with the speed of light, ridden by a masked hero left behind a cloud of dust as The Lone Ranger debuted on WXYZ, a radio station out of Detroit.
The show followed a former Texas Ranger who fought outlaws in the American Old West. In the 11th episode of the show, The Lone Ranger met his faithful sidekick.
An Indigenous character, named Tonto.
From 1933 to 2013, Tonto was played by several actors including,
John Todd.
Victor Daniels.
Michael Horse.
Johnny Depp.
Of those four, only Michael Horse was Indigenous, and his portrayal was hardly seen as it was only shown in 1,000 screens in 1981.
And he had massive shoes to fill because before him one a man born on the Six Nations Reserve in Ontario, became synonymous with Tonto.
He took a stellar lacrosse career and turned it into a successful career on the television screen.
I’m Craig Baird, this is Canadian History Ehx and today we’re galloping our way through Jay Silverheels’s life!
Hi-Yo Silver! AWAY!
The show was conceived either by radio station owner George W. Trendle or by Fran Striker, the show’s writer, and Tonto was created with the only purpose being to give The Lone Ranger someone to talk to.
A character silently riding a horse alone through the rugged backcountry of Arizona did not make for good radio.
The name came from James Jewell, who also came up with the term “Kemosabe” based on the name of a summer camp owned by his father-in-law in upstate Michigan. In the local Indigenous language, “Tonto” meant “wild one”.
The character spoke in broken English emphasizing Tonto had learned it as a second language.
When a white actor, John Todd, was hired for the role in 1933, not much thought was given to the fact that he would be portraying a character outside his race. It was fairly commonplace to see stars of the Silver Screen donning blackface like Fred Astaire did in the movie Swing Time three years later.
And The Lone Ranger’s audience was radio but still for publicity photos, Todd donned a wig to look Native American, though for public appearances, an Indigenous actor was hired to meet fans.
When The Lone Ranger debuted as a movie serial in 1938, Victor Daniels was hired to play Tonto.
Known professionally as Chief Thundercloud, he claimed to be Cherokee, but he did not appear on any tribal rolls during his life.
His biography stated he was of quote unquote “Muskogee aristocracy” and born to parents Dark Cloud and Morning Star.
In actuality, his parents were named Jesus Daniel and Tomaso Acuna, and he was presumed not to be Native American because of his parents’ ancestry.
Daniels portrayed Tonto again in the 1939 film The Lone Ranger Rides Again. After that point, he settled into his Chief Thundercloud persona, acting in films where he typically portrayed Native American characters.
While non-Indigenous actors were portraying the character of Tonto in radio and movies, another person was just beginning his acting career.
Jay Silverheels.
The Six Nations of the Grand River is one of the largest reserves in Canada. Located near the city of Brantford, Ontario, it expands 190 square kilometres along the banks of the Grand River and is the most populous First Nation in the country.
It was founded by Indigenous leader Joseph Brant following the American Revolutionary War. Many well-known Canadians have called the reserve home, including musician Robbie Robertson, Oscar nominated actor Graham Greene and athlete Tom Longboat.
It was here that Jay Silverheels began his life as Harold Jay Smith on May 26, 1912.
Silverheel’s family was one of the most prestigious ones in the area.
His grandfather was Chief Alex Smith, who was called Two Rows of People by residents of the reserve because of his skills as an orator and ability to speak Latin.
Silverheel’s father, Alexander Smith, was a Cayuga man, who served in the First World War.
During the Battle of the Somme on Sept. 27, 1916, he led his company in an attack where they captured an enemy trench and took 50 prisoners despite being buried by shellfire twice.
For his bravery, he was awarded the Military Cross.
He became one of the most decorated Indigenous soldiers of the war and rose to the rank of captain.
After the war, he became Chief like his father before him.
Alexander Smith and Mabel Smith instilled in their son the importance of discipline, while his grandfather gave him advice that he carried with him for the rest of his life, like
“Never cheat. If you have to cheat to win, then that’s admitting the other man is better than you are. Never cheat.”
From a young age, Silverheels learned to ride horses, a skill that served him well as an actor in westerns later in life.
An unnamed neighbour stated,
“I’d wake up around dawn and go to the door and there would be Harry. He’d be sitting there just staring at the front door. I had some thoroughbreds and he wanted to ride him. I’d let him. Half the time, he wouldn’t have a saddle.”
As Silverheels grew older, he started to notice that the boys outside the reserve looked different from him.
He became disturbed by the colour of his skin and washed constantly in the hopes of removing the pigmentation.
At one point, when asked to go to the store by his mother, he scrubbed his face until it was sore and parted his hair to the side rather than combing it back as his father did.
As he walked to the store, a car approached and a child said out the window,
“Look, look at that black Indian.”
The incident caused Silverheels to break into tears and run home.
This proved to be a watershed moment in his life. He said.
“It taught me a lesson. I never cried again at insults. I’ve fought yes, but I cried my fill that day.”
Growing up near Brantford, Silverheels went to the movie theatre and grew dissatisfied with how Indigenous characters were portrayed on screen.
In that era, white cowboys were the good guys in westerns, while the Indigenous Peoples were nearly always villains. If they were not villains, they were one dimensional, stoic and unsmiling, and spoke in broken English.
By the time Silverheels was a young man, he was a skilled athlete, especially in lacrosse which was growing in popularity, so much so that the owners of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens created an indoor lacrosse league to fill arenas during the summer.
Silverheels was a top player and became one of the first selected for the new league.
Ted Reeve, a Toronto Telegram columnist wrote,
“He was the best young lacrosse player I’ve ever seen.”
He debuted with the Toronto Tecumsehs, and quickly became a fan favourite because of his composure on the field. His teammates believed his blood to be made of ice. He didn’t seem to let the pressure get to him because he even slept in the dressing room before games. The truth is, he was so nervous before games he often couldn’t stand up. quote,
“I was so scared I was weak. I used to lie down in the dressing room because I couldn’t stand up. I’d walk out on the floor shaking, thinking, I can’t do it, I can’t, I can’t. Then the whistle would blow, and I’d play in a fury. Happened every time.” end quote.
At the time he was going by his given name, Harry Smith, and was a force on the field and his passion helped the Toronto Tecumsehs become one of the best teams in the league.
The Montreal Gazette wrote,
“A lean, bronzed Indian buck, 19 years of age and bearing the mundane name of Harry Smith, fired a burning long shot past Goaler Suds Sutherland in the fourth period at the Forum last night and that was the deciding goal which gave Toronto Tecumsehs a 6-4 victory over Canadiens.”
Because of his speed, he earned the nickname –Silverheels.
Despite his star quality, the lacrosse league folded because of The Great Depression and Silverheels moved to Buffalo in 1936, where his parents were living.
He took up boxing to stay fit and within a year, he won the Golden Gloves semi-final at Madison Square Gardens. For extra money, he wrestled and posed for art students.
In 1937, he returned to lacrosse, and toured the United States playing in exhibition games.
And lacrosse didn’t just help him pay the bills and give him a great nickname, it also launched his film career.
In 1937, while on a lacrosse tour in California, he was spotted by comedian Joe E. Brown who was one of the most popular American comedians during the 1930s and 1940s.
Upon seeing Silverheels’ athleticism, Brown convinced him to do a screen test, and then helped him join the Screen Actors Guild.
Silverheels said,
“Nobody knows how much good that man does in the world. He’s helped so many people.”
As a member of the guild, Silverheels started to work as an extra and stuntman in movies, typically Westerns and adopted the stage name Jay Silverheels., He said.
“They were making a lot of westerns then, so I was lucky. I made $16.50, sometimes twice a day, for riding a horse in some big Indian battle scene. Sometimes though, I went hungry.”
His first major role was in Drums Along the Mohawk.
Based on a 1936 novel of the same name, the movie was released in 1939 starring Claudette Colbert and Henry Fonda and directed by John Ford.
The film takes place during the American Revolution and follows a couple who settle on the New York frontier and fend off attacks from the British and Indigenous Peoples before the revolution ends and peace is restored at the farm.
Silverheels played a Mohawk man, who attempts to kill Henry Ford’s character Gil Martin throughout the film. He said,
“I got to shoot an actress, I forget who, and I stalked Henry Ford all through the picture. I didn’t get to kill him though.”
While he had no lines, Silverheels earned $350 a week, the most money he ever earned in his life to that point.
During those early years of his acting career, Silverheels saw how the Indigenous Peoples were portrayed on screen, and was disappointed, just as he had been as a child.
Silverheels said these portrayals were stiff, making strong gestures, and barking guttural sounds to fit the stereotype of the time.
“I was raised on a reservation, and I knew old Indians. They were men who had been hunters and trackers, and they never made an awkward move. They were graceful as cats, and they spoke with soft low voices.”
As a child there was not much he could do but now he was in Hollywood and acting in those same roles, so he decided to do something about it.
Silverheels stopped working as an extra, got an actor’s A card and found himself an agent.
He started taking acting classes while working odd jobs in Los Angeles.
A friend suggested he read Shakespeare, but Silverheels said he was Indigenous and would never get to perform it… to which his friend replied,
“Never mind. If you can read these lines so they make sense, you can read any line.”
Silverheels took the advice but despite the bard of Avon, the coaching and endless classes, most of the roles he performed in were Native Americans in westerns.
He said,
“When I play an Indian, I play myself.”
In 1947, Silverheels appeared in the film The Prairie. A story about an 1803 Kentucky family traveling west in a wagon to settle in the newly acquired Louisiana Purchase.
He played the character Running Deer, also cast in the film?
Victor Daniels, the man who called himself Chief Thundercloud, portraying the more prominent role of Eagle Feather.
As far as I could find, this was the only time two actors who would portray Tonto appeared together in a film.
A year later, Silverheels was told he had a chance for a role in Captain from Castille, the film would be directed by Henry King.
King was one of the most celebrated directors of his era, with two Best Director Oscar nominations to his credit in the 1940s.
Silverheels desperately wanted the part. To keep himself in shape, he skipped meals so his wardrobe would fit.
On the day of his audition, he dressed in his best suit and walked into the room to try out in front of King.
He was immediately told to remove his shirt.
This was common for the auditions that Silverheels went to.
He said that when he was examined by casting directors, it felt like they were wives buying meat from shady butchers.
After Silverheels removed his shirt, he was told to study the lines and come back in the afternoon.
He returned and King told him to pack his bags.
Silverheels would be leaving the next day for Mexico to begin production on Captain from Castile.
Set in 16th-century Mexico, the film was a historical adventure that follows a nobleman as he flees Spain and joins an expedition to Mexico alongside an infamous conquistador, who changes the mission from exploration to conquering once they arrive.
In his journey, the nobleman befriends a runaway Indigenous Prince played by Silverheels.
The movie was one of the most expensive of its era, costing $4.5 million, and featured 19,500 Mexican extras.
Filming began on Nov. 25, 1946, and wrapped on April 4, 1947.
The film had good reviews but was considered a financial failure after it brought in only $3.65 million at the box office.
Captain from Castile was his Silverheels first feature film even though he was uncredited for his role, something that would also happen in Key Largo – The 1948 film noir directed by John Huston and starring Humphrey Bogart, and Lauren Bacall.
Undeterred he would go on to act in several more films but…as the decade ended, he was offered the role of a lifetime.
And it would make him famous.
The American Broadcasting Company, or ABC, launched its television network r on April 19, 1948. Hoping to generate a hit, the network looked to its radio shows to find one to adapt into this new medium.
It was the dawn of a new era and for the company one of its most popular radio programs with both children and adults was The Lone Ranger.
Since its debut in 1933, it had released over 2,500 episodes and believing it could be a hit ABC adapted it for TV and brought on the man who created the original radio show, George Trendle, as a producer, while MGM film producer Jack Chertok was hired as director.
To play The Lone Ranger, the cast Clayton Moore, former acrobat, model and soldier, who was known for his work in the Ghost of Zorro movie serial.
Trendle saw him in the role and thought he was perfect for The Lone Ranger.
To portray Tonto, the friend and sidekick, Trendle and Chertok wanted an Indigenous actor, rather than a white actor to portray the character.
Jay Silverheels had been making a name for himself in Hollywood for several years and he was offered the role.
While he didn’t call himself a fan of the show, he said he did listen to it on the radio from time to time.
Silverheels signed the contract, but he was not enthusiastic about it after reading the first scripts, and having heard the radio show, he felt that Tonto was once again a humiliating portrayal of an Indigenous person.
In the show, The Lone Ranger was the last survivor of a group of Texas Rangers killed and is found near death by Tonto who nurses him back to health.
From then on, The Lone Ranger and Tonto spend each episode riding through the Old West, helping people in the towns dotting the landscape.
On Sept. 15, 1949, the William Tell Overture blared in millions of living rooms across the United States as The Lone Ranger galloped onto television screen.
ABC was hoping to develop its first hit, and with The Lone Ranger, they had it.
By the end of the first season, it was the ninth highest rated show on television, drawing in an audience share of 49.7 per cent.
With the success of The Lone Ranger, Silverheels was cast in one of his biggest roles yet, that of Geronimo, the Apache military leader and medicine man in the film Broken Arrow.
Starring Jimmy Stewart, the story follows white settlers and Apaches in a bloody war until a white scout has an enlightening encounter and begins to see humanity in his enemies.
It was like no other film at the time in its portrayal of Native Americans because it portrayed them in a balanced and sympathetic way.
Broken Arrow’s tolerance and racial equality influenced later western films.
Unfortunately, due to the era, the majority of the Indigenous Peoples on screen were portrayed by people of European descent.
Brooklyn-born actor Jeff Chandler played Apache leader Cochise, a role that earned him an Oscar nomination.
Seventeen-year-old white actress Debra Paget played the Indigenous woman Sonseeahray who falls in love with the 42-year-old Jimmy Stewart.
Silverheels was the only main cast member portraying an Indigenous character who was actually Indigenous.
When the second season of The Lone Ranger debuted, the show drew in over 12 million viewers an episode and rose to number seven in the Nielsen rankings.
As the show reached the eyes of viewers across North America, Jay Silverheels suddenly found himself being swamped with fan mail at home, and people crowding around him on the streets.
One disadvantage of his newfound fame was he couldn’t find the time to travel home to see his family due to his hectic schedule. To make up for that, his family made regular trips to Los Angeles to visit him. During one visit, his brother Hugh said,
“Too hot. When I arrived the temperature outside was 103 degrees and Jay was working inside the studio under burning lights. I just do not know how he could manage it.”
As Tonto, Silverheels also did all his own stunts. He refused to use a double for any horse-riding scenes, or hard fighting action sequences.
He said,
“People ask me if I can really ride. They ask me if I was exposed to horses as a boy back in Brantford. Actually, the horses were exposed to me.”
His skills came in handy because his horse, Scout, was much faster than Silver, The Lone Ranger’s horse and Silverheels said his most difficult task on set was holding Scout back, quote.
“You couldn’t have the sidekick zipping out in front of the hero.” end quote.
In his spare time, Silverheels also worked hard to maintain his physique by jogging, lifting weights and practicing on a punching bag. Eventually, he pushed himself too far and in 1954, he suffered a heart attack.
He recovered but was told that he could not work out like before so to keep from gaining weight he started a fat-free diet to keep his body lean.
All that work was worth it for the money that Silverheels was making. He was paid $100,000 per season for the role of Tonto, or about $850,000 today.
Despite all the work he put in to remain lean for his character’s look, and the fact he did all of his own stunts, there was a significant pay gap between himself and his co-star Moore, who was paid double what Silverheels received.
The disparity between how Moore and Silverheels were paid extended to how they were treated outside of the show.
At a fan gathering in West Virginia, Moore was approached to visit a children’s ward of a nearby hospital, but the invitation was not extended to Silverheels, despite always taking time for his young fans.
The children at the hospital were excited to see The Lone Ranger but kept for Tonto. When Moore saw Silverheels later, he asked him about his absence to which Silverheels responded, quote,
“I speak your language. If you had asked me, I’d have been glad to go. But I am no animal that follows humbly along behind The Lone Ranger.”
The disappointment in how he was being treated extended to how the character was portrayed on the television.
One thing that bothered him was how Tonto talked, using phrases like “situation plenty bad” and “Me go now”. He said it was insulting.
In a Maclean’s interview, Silverheels stated he believed the character was written purposely to have poor intelligence because it was a property owned by a Texan who saw Native Americans that way.
To counter Tonto’s image of a simple man who dressed in animal skins, Silverheels always made sure he wore expensive suits whenever he was out visiting people in the public or participating in publicity events.
He refused to wear the buckskins and white feather headdress outside of the show.
During one publicity stop the Vancouver Sun wrote,
“Silverheels signed autographs as he talked. A gaudy Indian headdress scarcely matched his dark, Ivy-league suit.”
He also didn’t like how Tonto seemed to be subservient, despite having saved The Lone Ranger’s life on many occasions.
Silverheels added,
“Look at it. The Lone Ranger has saved Tonto’s life and Tonto has saved The Lone Ranger’s. Therefore, they should be brothers, closer than brothers but The Lone Ranger treats him like some kind of servant, and this seems to suit Tonto fine.”
He was also dissatisfied with his character’s iconic habit of calling The Lone Ranger “Kemosabe”, Silverheels stating that it is supposed to mean faithful friend but in reality, it was mumbo-jumbo created by a Hollywood writer.
With his new stature as a famous actor, Silverheels used his platform to speak out against anyone who passed themselves off as Indigenous to get work in television or movies. He said,
“I’m a Mohawk. If you ever pass yourself off as an expert on Mohawk Indians, watch out for me.”
It was Silverheels’ hope that he could one day star in television to show Indigenous people as he knew them, with dignity while restoring the image he felt had been tarnished and lost.
His passion for a proper portrayal of his people in films and television surprised many in the media. The Calgary Herald wrote,
“There’s more to Canadian-born Jay Silverheels than the popular TV image of the silent sidekick Tonto. Scratch the surface of this bronzed, ruggedly handsome Indian and you’ll find a man of deep feelings, highly articulate and well-read.”
While he criticized the character, he was still happy that the show portrayed an Indigenous character in a relatively positive manner, Tonto was one of the good guys rather than as an enemy and said,
“I was lucky, I guess. Hollywood makes a lot of movies about Indians, but rarely uses any of us in the roles.”
The Vancouver Province wrote at the time, Silverheels was the only major Indigenous actor in Hollywood with name recognition.
“Take away Fred Astaire and you still have Donald O’Connor and Gene Kelly. Take away Marilyn Monroe and you’ve got quite a few other blondes. But take away Jay Silverheels and Hollywood is almost without an authoritative Indian.”
As Silverheels cemented his star quality in Hollywood, achieving a level of fame few actors get to enjoy, The Lone Ranger show was still popular in the ratings…
…but…there were changes on the horizon.
[BEAT]
In 1955, show creator George Trendle sold the rights to The Lone Ranger to Jack Wrather, a television producer who had success with shows such as Sergeant Preston of the Yukon and Lassie.
The Lone Ranger continued to be a popular television show, but it was slowly losing ground as new competition arrived on the television screen and during the 1954-55 season, the show fell outside the Top 20.
The show may have been slipping in the ratings, but among children it was still extremely popular. As it was seen when Silverheels returned to Canada in 1956.
It was his first trip home to the Six Nations Reserve and Brantford in 18 years.
The decision was made when his family visited Los Angeles the previous year.
Silverheels agreed to return to help raise funds for a sports centre which would sit on land donated by his mother and named the Jay Silverheels Memorial Hall.
A parade for him was held and as it traveled through Brantford a sea of children lined the road to see Silverheels wave from a car.
At one point, the car was surrounded by hundreds of children who climbed onto it causing the rear bumper to scrape along the pavement.
Once the children were asked to get out of the car, the parade continued.
After, a meet-Tonto event was planned in Lions Park but after the commotion on the car the decision was made to cancel it over fears it would cause children to be trampled in a rush.
Locals said that the reception for Silverheels was bigger than any they had ever seen, including when Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent visited the community.
During the trip he also visited two hospitals where he met with children and signed autographs.
He then went to city hall where he signed the guest book, met the mayor, and attended a formal luncheon.
Mayor Max Sherman said,
“A demonstration of affection the like of which has never been seen in the city of Brantford. It was bigger than the welcome for Gene Autry.”
During the luncheon, Silverheels rose to thank the mayor and began to tear up over the homecoming he had been given. He said,
“And they say that Indians never do show emotion. This will be the high point of my life, no matter what else happens.”
In terms of his time as The Lone Ranger, it just might have been the high point of his life. Within a year, his entire life would be changed, and he would be looking to an unknown future.
[BEAT]
After the heartwarming visit home, he returned to LA and the set of The Lone Ranger.
Season five of the show debuted on Sept. 13, 1956, and aired 39 episodes.
But Jack Wrather wanted to take it to the big screen and decided not to negotiate for a sixth season causing the show to end after 221 episodes.
The Lone Ranger movie debuted in 1956, starring Moore and Silverheels in the same roles. The movie was a success, grossing $3.9 million as the 53rd most popular movie of the year.
Hoping to build off that success, a second movie was ordered, The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold which debuted in 1958, but this time, it was a failure, as it grossed less than $500,000.
The movie may have been a failure, but it seemed that children were still clamoring to meet Tonto.
In 1958, he travelled to Vancouver for an event where he was mobbed by children asking for autographs and signed for all of them. When asked if he got tired of signing his name, he said,
“No. I like it. I like kids.”
He added he also loved getting invitations to raise money for causes such as children’s hospitals,
“I’m always proud to get these invitations. I guess it proves the Lone Ranger series is as popular as ever.”
But he wasn’t entirely right as all good things must come to an end.
Those kids soon grew up, and The Lone Ranger moved into the realm of nostalgia.
And for Silverheels, it was the end of an era.
[PAUSE]
In 1959, Jay Silverheels played Tonto in an uncredited role in Alias Jesse James, which starred Bob Hope. The film featured cameos by several Western TV and film stars of television and movie westerns including Roy Rogers, Gary Cooper, and Bing Crosby.
Silverheels was about to discover that a great role came at a great cost.
Leonard Nimoy will always be Spock.
George Wendt will always be Norm.
and Jay Silverheels would always be Tonto.
The Tonto role had helped him gain fame and fortune, but like so many actors since, he found it came at the cost of being typecast.
With so many producers, directors and viewers identifying him only as Tonto, the offers began to dry up following 1961. He acted in eight television shows and movies from 1959 to 1961, but only acted in one episode of Laramie in 1962.
Silverheels said in September of that year,
“I could kid you and say I’ve been working hard but the truth is I haven’t worked in four months.”
Things were not in his favour and his next role didn’t come until 1965 when he appeared on the shows Branded and Daniel Boone.
During that gap he decided to give back and help other Indigenous actors.
In 1963, he formed the Indian Actors Workshop, to help new actors navigate the world of acting and find work.
His friend, Lois Red Elk said quote:
“He labored very, very long in getting all the right equipment and scripts and contacting Indian people and encouraging us. I met him at the workshop and at that time he was working in an episode of The Virginian television. He just stipulated in his contract that Indian people get into the series.”
Silverheels was still popular enough as Tonto and made occasional public appearances.
In 1963, he visited the Calgary Stampede where he rode in the famous Stampede Parade and was a special guest at the Children’s Day Program. He also spoke at the grandstand platform where he spoke out against the poor treatment of Indigenous actors in Hollywood.
“There seems to be something against giving an Indian a good part. If one sets out to overcome something there is always a way, if one keeps trying.”
Afterwards, he made sure to visit the children’s wards of hospitals in the city.
His appearance at the Stampede was widely praised. The Edmonton Journal wrote,
“This week in Calgary, Jay Silverheels has said much, to the swarming crowds, to adoring children in hospital wards, to anyone who wanted to stop and chat. He’s a very, very good ambassador for his race and for the Hollywood industry.”
In the late 1960s, acting work slowed down even more.
He appeared in three episodes of Pistols ‘n’ Petticoats and Gentle Ben in 1966 and 1967,
A small role in Smith! in 1969 and that same year he got an uncredited role as a condemned man at a hanging in True Grit.
As the 1960s came to an end, the generation that knew him as children were now becoming adults and Silverheels rediscovered as Tonto in reruns.
In 1969, he reprised the role in a sketch on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.
As he walked out to thunderous applause, he said,
“My name is Tonto. I hail from Toronto, and I speak Esperanto.”
That sketch was popular enough it spawned a novelty single with Silverheels doing the vocals.
He began to act in commercials, usually portraying his most famous role.
In an ad for Chevy in 1970, he played an Indigenous man, modelled after Tonto, who rescues two lost hikers that ignored his advice. The two hikers were played by two men who had played The Lone Ranger, Clayton Moore, and John Hart.
Silverheels said of his role as his defining work,
“I wouldn’t mind getting away from the Tonto image but in those days, it was work and I needed it. I didn’t particularly like Tonto, but you can’t tell directors what to do.”
That same year, Little Big Man came out, which was one of the first revisionist westerns that portrayed the Indigenous Peoples as the good guys, and the Americans as the villains.
It starred Canadian Chief Dan George as Old Lodge Skins and earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
While he didn’t win, George made history as the first Indigenous Person to be nominated for an Academy Award.
Silverheels said of the film,
“I don’t believe in that kind of movie. It shows the same old tired savages. Imagine Dustin Hoffman playing an Indian. Chief Dan George is probably very good in that movie but there’s no acting to the part. He is just playing himself, a very old Indian.”
During this time, he and his former co-star and friend Clayton Moore kept in touch. They would exchange Christmas cards and when Moore was in town, they would go out and get a drink together.
In 1971, Silverheels made the decision to adopt the name he had used for the past two decades. He legally changed his name from Harold Jay Smith, a name only his family referred to him as, to Jay Silverheels, the name that he made famous.
He continued to act in the next few years and 1973 turned out to be Silverheel’s busiest year in a decade.
One Little Indian was released first, with Silverheels in the minor role of Jimmy Wolf. The film was notable for starring a young Jodie Foster in one of her first film roles. The film made a profit of $2 million.
One week later, The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing was released. Starring Burt Reynolds, Jay Silverheels had the minor role of Chief. The film was panned but made $3.6 million.
Lastly, there was Santee, released in September of that year. The film, which starred Glenn Ford, is mostly forgettable today. Jay Silverheels, in his final roll in a feature film, starred as John Crow.
The next year, Silverheels in an episode of Dusty’s Trail, and the short film, A Different Drum, as Jim Swift Hands.
The film was about a young Indigenous man trying to find acceptance from his family for his career choice and starred Chief Dan George, who was fast taking up the mantle of the world’s most famous Indigenous actor from Silverheels.
Alongside them were other Indigenous actors who were influenced by Silverheels including Betty Ann Carr, George American Horse and Lois Red Elk.
A Different Drum was Silverheels’ final film.
Soon after its release in 1974, he suffered a stroke causing his right side to be paralyzed, and he lost the ability to speak.
For several months he worked to regain his mobility and speech by going to therapy at the hospital three days a week.
He made a fantastic recovery and was up and about within a few months.
In 1975, Silverheels made a trip to the Six Nations Reserve to visit with family and friends and it would be his last
His health was failing but he was well enough on July 21, 1979, to appear in person when Jay Silverheels became the first Indigenous actor to be honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
He said with tears in his eyes,
“I am pleased and honoured.”
Silverheels continued to hang on as troubles with his health mounted. His friend Tom Shelley said,
“Two things kept this man alive. He had a full-blooded Mohawk spirit and a strong, strong heart.”
In January 1980, Silverheels was admitted to hospital suffering from cardiac problems and pneumonia.
Three months later, on March 5, 1980, he died from a stroke.
Tom Shelley said,
“Jay Silverheels was much more than just Tonto. This man gave more to this business than he ever received. He was the founder of the Indian Actors’ Workshop and also worked with the handicapped, the elderly, alcoholics and drug addicts. And there were hundreds and hundreds of kids in the children’s hospital. Those kids, oh, they just loved him.”
His co-star, Clayton Moore, added.
“A perfect gentleman and a true fighter for the Indian cause. He was a great man with a great sense of humor. I am going to miss him very much.”
Lois Red Elk credited him with changing the film industry for Indigenous actors and said,
“He created the atmosphere for us to get into the industry. Before that, Indian people had to play props, extras, background. There just weren’t any Indian people with speaking parts.”
Silverheels’ ashes were returned to his reserve in Ontario where a memorial was attended by 200 people. Reverend Robert Hayne said in his eulogy,
“He never forgot his people. He was aware of the part they held in the brotherhood of the universe.”
In 1993, he was inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum.
In 1997, he was inducted into the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame.
Today, a portrait of Silverheels hangs at the Buffalo Theatre in Buffalo, New York.
Many Indigenous actors from Canada have made their mark in Hollywood like the Oscar nominee Chief Dan George, the amazing Graham Greene and the up-and-coming Expanse actor Cara Gee, just to name a few.
All of them owe a debt of gratitude to Jay Silverheels, the Indigenous Canadian actor who helped open that initial door in Hollywood.
and although this is the end of his story there’ something else you should know
[TRANSITION]
Jay Silverheels was a lacrosse star.
A television star.
And a man who used his fame to help his fellow Indigenous actors.
But he also had a passion for.
Horse racing!
In his spare time, Silverheels raised and raced Standardbred horses.
He loved it so much that he obtained a harness racing licence and competed in races across Canada and the United States.
Once, a child asked him if any of his horses could outrun Tonto’s horse Scout from The Lone Ranger.
Silverheels responded by saying,
“Heck! I can outrun Scout!”
He had a deep respect for horses.
Throughout his career he had ridden horses on screen, and they helped cement his image with millions of people.
His friend Tom Shelley said,
“He had a genuine love of horses.”
Silverheels did and was racing as a harness driver nearly to the end of his life.
[OUTRO]
Information from Macleans, Canadian Encyclopedia, The Ottawa Journal, Wikipedia, Brantford Expositor, The Vancouver Province, Montreal Gazette, Vancouver Sun,
