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World-famous, widely popular American humorist of the vaudeville stage and of silent and sound films, Will Rogers graduated from military school, but his first real job was in the livestock business in Argentina, of all places. He transported pack animals across the South Atlantic from Buenos Aires to South Africa for use in the Boer War (1899-1902). He stayed in Johannesburg for a short while, appearing there in Wild West shows where he drew upon his expertise with horse and lasso. Returning to America, he brought his talents to vaudeville and by 1917 was a Ziegfeld Follies star. Over the years he gradually blended into his act his unique style of topical, iconoclastic humor, in which he speared the efforts of the powerful to trample the rights of the common man, while twirling his lariat and perhaps chewing on a blade of straw. Although appearing in many silents, he reached his motion-picture zenith with the arrival of sound. Now mass audiences could hear his rural twang as he delivered his homespun philosophy on behalf of Everyman. The appeal and weight of his words carried such weight with the average citizen that he was even nominated for governor of Oklahoma (which he declined).

Jim Thorpe is an American athlete and Olympic gold medalist. Thorpe became the first Native American to win a gold medal for the United States. Considered one of the most versatile athletes of modern sports, he won Olympic gold medals in the 1912 pentathlon and decathlon, and played American football (collegiate and professional), baseball, and basketball. He lost his Olympic titles after it was found he had been paid for playing two seasons of semi-professional baseball before competing in the Olympics, thus violating the amateurism rules that were then in place. In 1983, 30 years after his death, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) restored his Olympic medals.

Jim Thorpe grew up in Oklahoma, and attended Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where he was a two-time All-American for the school's football team. After his Olympic success in 1912, which included a record score in the decathlon, he added a victory in the All-Around Championship of the Amateur Athletic Union. In 1913, Thorpe signed with The New York Giants Baseball Team, and he played six seasons in Major League Baseball between 1913 and 1919. Thorpe joined the Canton Bulldogs American football team in 1915, helping them win three professional championships; he later played for six teams in the National Football League (NFL). He played as part of several all-American Indian teams throughout his career, and barnstormed as a professional basketball player with a team composed entirely of American Indians.

From 1920 to 1921, Thorpe was nominally the first president of the American Professional Football Association (APFA), which became the NFL in 1922. He played professional sports until age 41. He struggled to earn a living after that, working several odd jobs. He was married three times and had eight children, before suffering from heart failure and dying in 1953.

Thorpe has received various accolades for his athletic accomplishments. The Associated Press named him the "greatest athlete" from the first 50 years of the 20th century, and the Pro Football Hall of Fame inducted him as part of its inaugural class in 1963. A Pennsylvania town was named in his honor and a monument site there is the site of his remains. Thorpe appeared in several films and was portrayed by Burt Lancaster in the film Jim Thorpe -- All-American (1951).

Harvey had a musical background and began his entertainment career in 1918 with "Gus Hill's Honey Boy Minstrels." From there he went on to appear in various minstrel and burlesque shows. This led to many roles in Broadway shows. He went to Hollywood in 1934 and had a career spanning almost fifty years, mostly in small character parts. He was a regular on The Roy Rogers Show (1951) on television, appearing as Sheriff Blodgett.

Victor Daniels was given the title of "Chief" in an honorary capacity and identified himself as Cherokee although his background is vague. His application for a social security number lists his birth date as April 12, 1899, and his birth-place as Arizona. Thundercloud was the eldest of nine children born to Jesus Daniels and Tomaca Daniels (as indicated on his social security application). But on his marriage record to Mildred Turner in 1925, he said his name was "Victor Vazquez."

Raised on a ranch in Arizona, he claimed he was educated at the University of Arizona at Tucson but the Office of the Registrar checked their databases and found no attendance record for a Victor Daniels. He worked in cattle ranches and rodeos in addition as a mining foreman, boxer and guide before entering movies as a stuntman in 1929.

By 1935, Hollywood had given him the professional name of "Chief Thundercloud" and he was appearing in acting roles, many of them uncredited. For the next two decades he played strong, grim roles in such "B" westerns as Cyclone of the Saddle (1935), Ramona (1936), The Great Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok (1938), Young Buffalo Bill (1940), North West Mounted Police (1940), The Law Rides Again (1943), Romance of the West (1946), Davy Crockett, Indian Scout (1950) and Santa Fe (1951). He eventually earned screen credit for his tribe members and chiefs, typecast more as evil than good.

Chief Thundercloud is probably best known for creating the role of faithful sidekick "Tonto" in the serial The Lone Ranger (1938) and its sequel The Lone Ranger Rides Again (1939). He also played the title role of Paramount Pictures' Geronimo (1939). On TV, he appeared in such programs as "Death Valley Days," "The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin," "My Little Margie" and "Buffalo Bill, Jr."

Following an uncredited part as a chief in the classic western The Searchers (1956), he died at age 56 following surgery for stomach cancer in Ventura County, California on November 30, 1955. Twice married, he was survived by second wife Frances, a former singer, and their two children. He was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the Los Angeles area.

Not to be confused with noted Chief Thunder Cloud (1856-1916), a Blackfoot tribe member and Army scout who went on to perform with P.T. Barnum and his Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show.

With his slicked back hair and thin moustache Erik Rhodes arrived in Hollywood to recreate his stage role of Rudolfo Tonetti (which he had performed first on Broadway and then in London, 1932-1933) for the filming of The Gay Divorcee (1934), starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Contrary to his screen image, Erik was born in Oklahoma and graduated from the University of Oklahoma where he won a scholarship to study acting in New York. He made his theatrical debut, delivering eight lines, in the 1928 play 'A Most Immoral Lady', under his birth name Ernest (sometimes spelled Earnest) Sharpe. Because of his good baritone voice, he was next cast in two musicals. An expert mimicker of accents and dialects, he came to specialise in films as the perennial hyperactive continental charmer. In his second notable screen outing, Top Hat (1935), he played flamboyant dressmaker Alberto Beddini, famously declaring to Ginger Rogers "All my life I have promised my dresses I'd take them to Italy...and you must be in them". There were other good parts, particularly in the comedy A Night at the Ritz (1935) as would-be master chef Leopold Jaynos. Andre Sennwald's review in The New York Times (May 16,1935) commented on Erik's performance "as the psychopath with a yearning for culinary immortality, he gives 'A Night at the Ritz' its air of polite lunacy and helps to wring laughter out of a featherweight enterprise".

Erik Rhodes made films at RKO until 1937, more often than not as excitable Europeans (Henri Saffron in Woman Chases Man (1937), Frank Rochet in Old Man Rhythm (1935), Tony Bandini in Criminal Lawyer (1937) and, not forgetting, Spaghetti Nadzio in Music for Madame (1937)). By the end of the decade, his screen career had run its course. After his wartime service with U.S. Air Force Intelligence, he went back to Broadway for a lengthy spell in 'Can Can' as a Parisian bon vivant.

John Marriott was born on 30 January 1893 in Boley, Indian Territory, USA [now Oklahoma, USA]. He was an actor, known for The Little Foxes (1941), Dog Day Afternoon (1975) and Omnibus (1952). He was married to Beatrice Smalls. He died on 5 April 1977 in Jamaica, New York, USA.

Frankie Marvin was born on 27 January 1904 in Butler, Indian Territory, USA [now Oklahoma, USA]. He was an actor, known for Gold Mine in the Sky (1938), Heart of the Rio Grande (1942) and Springtime in the Rockies (1937). He died on 18 January 1985 in Valencia, California, USA.

Born in El Reno, Indian Territory (now Oklahoma), Kenneth Peach entered the film industry in 1923 and became a director of photography in 1926. He worked with composite processes, miniatures, montages and matte shots for Tiffany Pictures for two years, then joined Fred Jackman's technical effects department at Warner Bros.- First National for three years. In 1931 he joined RKO Pictures' special effects department. In 1933 he began a long association with producer Hal Roach of Hal Roach Studios, where he shot many of the comedy shorts of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy.

Sid Jordan was born on 12 August 1889 in Muskogee, Indian Territory, USA [now Oklahoma, USA]. He was an actor, known for Men in the Raw (1923), The Ridin' Kid from Powder River (1924) and Trooper O'Neill (1922). He died on 30 September 1970 in Hemet, California, USA.

Russell Saunders was born on 26 January 1906 in Ravia, Indian Territory, Oklahoma, USA. He was an assistant director and production manager, known for Bonnie and Clyde (1967), The Shootist (1976) and The Way We Were (1973). He was married to N'was McKenzie. He died on 28 April 1987 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Gladys McConnell was born on 22 October 1905 in Oklahoma City, Indian Territory, USA [now Oklahoma, USA]. She was an actress, known for The Glorious Trail (1928), The Tiger's Shadow (1928) and The Fire Detective (1929). She was married to A. Ronald Button and Arthur Q. Hagerman. She died on 4 March 1979 in Fullerton, California, USA.

Leonard Trainor was born on 24 February 1879 in Tahlequah, Indian Territory, USA [now Oklahoma, USA]. He was an actor, known for Water Rustlers (1939), The Fighting Stallion (1926) and The Galloping Jinx (1925). He was married to Eva. He died on 28 July 1940 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Olive Mix was born on 10 April 1887 in Indian Territory, Oklahoma, USA. She was an actress, known for The Single Code (1917), Told in Colorado (1911) and The Scapegoat (1912). She was married to Tom Mix. She died on 1 November 1972 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Sonia Michelle Hoffman was born in Oklahoma City at what is now the University of Oklahoma Hospital in 1991. Her mother is Victoria Ann Redbird (Hoffman). Her father is Brian Dale Limpy but he was mostly absent from her life. Her mother and father did not last long and eventually she ended up in Concho,OK where she was raised by her grandparents Jesse Mae Hamilton and Archie Doyle Hoffman Sr. along with her older brother Nicholas Hamilton. She attended Darlington school until the age of 10 when her grandmother passed. She then moved to Oklahoma City with her mother. From there her life was a whirlwind of homes and schools that included Taft Middle School, Coopee Middle School, Jackson Middle School and a final trip back to Darlington where she graduated co salutatorian even though she fell from a cliff and landed in poison oak that took her out of school for two weeks and she only stated back at Darlington that year in February. She also had a dark childhood during the time she was in middle school that included sexual abuse and neglect that caused severe mental trauma. But as she proved over and over again she is a fighter. During high school she attended U.S. Grant high school where she ended up taking her first drama class there she fell in love with the idea of acting. Although it wasn't until the next year while a brief time at El Reno High School that she landed a role a Mrs. Beauregard the mother of Violet in the schools play of Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Her performance got her brownie points and people began to recognize her and that feeling never left her. But life soon took another turn and she again was moved to another school Putnam City West, she never felt so out of place but there in a world full of unrecognizable faces she met a teacher. This teacher called her in for a video interview that changed the course of her life. She was asked in this interview "how many times Native American's history was mentioned in your textbooks up to that point?" She being a member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes herself and growing up around her people thought it was odd that the answer was not a lot. Her journey took her back to U.S.Grant where she thrived she became Lt.Colonel of the JROTC program, member of the National Honor Society and founding member of the Native American club. She went on to attend her first year of college at the University of Oklahoma from there she transferred to Oklahoma City Community College where she graduated with two Associates Degrees one in Diversified Studies and one in Psychology. College was tough for her she went through grief of losing her grandfather Archie and her own daughter Mia Genesis to a miscarriage, after which ended up in a bad relationship that took numerous threats on her life and the lives of those she loved. She was fortunate to get away before things got that far. She is now attending college at Northwest Indian College in Bellingham,WA where she is pursuing her Bachelors in Human Services. She is currently engaged to Tyler "Ziggy" Williams and is set to marry in September of 2018. While living and going to school in Oklahoma Sonia landed her first role as Asha in the movie Chickasaw Rancher while attending an open audition at the Remington Park casino and racetrack in Oklahoma City. She found this audition by chance while they called for extras at her job at the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes.

Lynn Riggs was born on 31 August 1899 in Claremore, Indian Territory, USA [now Oklahoma, USA]. Lynn was a writer and director, known for Madame Spy (1942), Oklahoma! (1955) and The Garden of Allah (1936). Lynn died on 30 June 1954 in New York City, New York, USA.

Adrianna Galvez was born on 10 March 1907 in Muskogee, Indian Territory, USA [now Oklahoma, USA]. She was an actress, known for The Gentleman from Arizona (1939). She died on 1 March 1979 in El Paso, Texas, USA.

Alma Rayford was born on 24 March 1903 in Muskogee, Indian Territory, USA [now Oklahoma, USA]. She was an actress, known for Cactus Trails (1925), Between Dangers (1927) and The Son of Sontag (1925). She died on 14 February 1987 in El Paso, Texas, USA.

Patrick J. Hurley was born on 8 January 1883 in Indian Territory, USA. He died on 30 July 1963 in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA.

Tiny Roebuck was born on 26 June 1906 in Lenton Indian Territory, Oklahoma, USA. He was an actor, known for Robinson Crusoe of Clipper Island (1936), Straight Place and Show (1938) and Torchy Blane.. Playing with Dynamite (1939). He died on 8 June 1969 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Mary Ann Eslinger born "Sosti" Groundhog on Wednesday October 23, 1946 to George Washington Groundhog and Sallie Ann (Dick) Groundhog of Tahlequah, Indian Territory U.S.A. and until now with the birth of her daughter, Lisa Christine Groundhog, one of the endangered direct descendants of Sequoyah, the creator of the Cherokee syllabary. Mary authored two books GI-Dee-Thlo-Ah-Ee of the Blue People Clan for her daughters 1974 Christmas present, there are only ten copies of this book made. One belongs to Lisa Christine; two are registered at the Copy-Right Office; National Archives in Washington, D.C.; and one at the Oklahoma Historical Society; and one to the Cherokee Tribal Attorney, Earl Boyd Pierce. Mary also authored Cherokee People exposing the U.S. Government for their illicit exploitation and human trafficking of Native American girls. Sosti (Mary Ann Eslinger) Groundhog is one of the original activists in the American Indian Movement. The American Indian Movement (AIM) is an American Indian advocacy group in the United States, founded in July 1968 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. AIM was initially formed to address American Indian sovereignty, treaty issues, spirituality, and leadership, while simultaneously addressing incidents of police harassment and racism against Native Americans forced to move away from reservations and tribal culture by the 1950s-era enforcement of the U.S. federal government-enforced Indian Termination Policies originally created in the 1930s. "As independent citizens and taxpayers, without good education or experience, most 'terminated' Indians were reduced within a few years to widespread illness and utter poverty, whether or not they were relocated to cities," from the reservations. The various specific issues concerning Native American urban communities like the one in Minneapolis (disparagingly labeled "red ghettos") include unusually high unemployment levels, overt and covert racism, police harassment and neglect, epidemic drug abuse (mainly alcoholism), crushing poverty, domestic violence and substandard housing. AIM's paramount objective is to create "real economic independence for the Indians." While government-directed Indian termination policies were enforced during the Eisenhower administration, hastily executed uranium mining contracts to permit it (even sanctioning it as "economic progress") preceded the imposition of unprecedented-scale government-sanctioned commercial uranium extraction operations from various parts of traditional Indian western North American tribal lands (not so named under the ancient land-use and resource-sharing ways of indigenous former inhabitants) and the uranium mining was permitted. However, the uranium mining contracts were signed without tribal permissions. By executing eminent domain legalistic land reassignment practices, vast federally managed formerly tribal pastoral areas were deemed suitable for coal strip mining and commercial strip mine operators were allowed to capitalize on the products of unprecedented large-scale mineral extraction for the benefit of what Eisenhower described as the military-industrial complex. These corporate forces were directly opposed to AIM's objectives, as the movement came to realize. The original founders of AIM included Dennis Banks, George Mitchell, George Mellessey, Herb Powless, Clyde Bellecourt, Vernon Bellecourt, Harold Goodsky, Eddie Benton-Banai, and a number of others in the Minneapolis Native American community. Russell Means, born Oglala Lakota, was an early leader in 1970s protests. AIM participated in the Rainbow Coalition organized by the civil rights activist and urban leader Fred Hampton, who was elected as Deputy Chairman of the Illinois Chapter of the Black Panthers shortly before his assassination at the hands of Chicago police in Chicago on December 4, 1969. Charles Deegan, Sr. was involved with the AIM Patrol. Like an urban American Indian version of the Black Panthers formed by African American social activists, AIM initially addressed civil rights violations, but later broadened its scope to address human rights violations. Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who also spoke eloquently on human rights issues, reached out to the Indian movement during the planning stage of his Poverty Campaign a few weeks before his assassination in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968. Likewise, Robert F. Kennedy had met with Black Panther representatives in California and met with Indian movement representatives and visited reservations in Montana, New York, and elsewhere before his televised assassination on June 6, 1968 in Los Angeles during his presidential campaign. RFK's son David A. Kennedy was given the tribal-inspired honorary name Yellow Dove after his father's death and before his own. Malcolm X often referred to the human rights struggles of Native Americans in his speeches and in his autobiography, and was actively attempting to introduce a condemnation motion at the United Nations shortly before his assassination. From November 1969 to June 1971, AIM participated in the occupation of the abandoned federal penitentiary known as Alcatraz, organized by seven Indian movements, including the Indian of All Tribes and by Richard Oakes, a Mohawk who was afterwards murdered in Santa Clara, CA, on September 20, 1972. In response to Oakes's murder and "to demand protection of Indians against the widespread vigilante action that had been inspired by AIM's insistence on Indian treaties," various Indian protest groups aligned to march on Washington as Richard Nixon's 1972 reelection campaign was underway. In October 1972, AIM and other Indian groups gathered members from across the country for a protest in Washington, D.C. known as the "Trail of Broken Treaties." According to public documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), advanced coordination occurred between Washington, D.C.-based Bureau of Indian Affairs (the BIA staff) and the authors of a twenty-point proposal drafted with the help of the AIM for delivery to the U.S. government officials focused on proposals intended to enhance U.S.-Indian relations. After the final draft was ready, a four-mile-long cross-country automobile caravan carrying it departed from Seattle, Washington and arrived in Washington, D.C. Assistant Secretary of the Interior Harrison Loesch, overseeing both the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and BIA, suddenly cancelled all coordinated plans, including planned visitor housing accommodations for tribal chiefs traveling with the caravan. While awaiting housing for the chiefs, protestors began an impromptu sit-in protest and suddenly at six o'clock p.m., "Riot squads start busting down the doors trying to evict us, and they grab one of our guys and beat the hell out of him." On February 27, 1973, at large public meeting of 600 Indians at Calico Hall organized by Pedro Bissonette of Oglala Sioux Civil Rights Organization (OSCRO) and addressed by AIM leaders Banks and Russell Means. Demands were made for investigations into vigilante incidents and for hearings on their treaties, and permission given by the tribal elders to make a stand at Wounded Knee. In the decades since AIM's founding, the group has led protests advocating indigenous American interests, inspired cultural renewal, monitored police activities, and coordinated employment programs in cities and in rural reservation communities across the United States. AIM has often supported indigenous interests outside the United States as well. By 1993, AIM had split into two main factions. One faction is the AIM-Grand Governing Council based in Minneapolis. The other faction is AIM-International Confederation of Autonomous Chapters, based in Denver, Colorado. Mary Ann Eslinger is the mother of GI-Dee-Thlo-Ah-Ee Groundhog aka Lisa Christine Christiansen.

Johnny Marvin was born on 11 July 1897 in Butler, Indian Territory, USA [now Oklahoma, USA]. He was an actor, known for Under Western Stars (1938), Sing, Neighbor, Sing (1944) and Barnyard Follies (1940). He was married to Gloria Marvin. He died on 20 December 1944 in North Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA.

Emberry Cannon Gray was born on April 7, 1885 in Leon, Chickasaw Nation in present day Oklahoma. His family moved to Cache, Indian Territory within two years. The small town of Cache was near Fort Sill. Emberry's mother was 1/4 Chickasaw. His father had been a Texas Ranger in the Trinity Division and later served in the Confederate Army.

Emberry grew up among the Apache, Comanche and Kiowa as Cache was the commercial center of their territories. He and his brothers played with the children of Comanche Chief Quanah Parker. His parents became good friends with the Parker family. By the time Emberry was seven years old, he had started going by the name "Bee Ho". Quanah Parker gave him this name, which means "Brother of the Cripple" since Bee Ho's brother, Emmet Gray, was stricken with polio as a small boy and walked with a crutch for the remainder of his life. In about 1902, Bee Ho and his younger brother, Weaver, rode sixty miles on one horse to the town of Chickasha. They made the journey to view the Pawnee Bill Wild West exhibition. They were very impressed with the trick ropers and began teaching themselves rope tricks using clothesline and anything else they could spin. Within two years, both were performing with Wild West shows. Both brothers would enjoy amazing fifty-year careers in western performance.

Bee Ho's skills included extremely intricate rope tricks, horse riding tricks, knife throwing, whip tricks, banjo and comedy.

He joined several major Wild West shows including Colonel Cummins' Wild West Indian Congress and Rough Riders of the World, Miller Brothers 101 Ranch Wild West (which later featured Buffalo Bill and carried his name in the title), California Frank's All-Star Wild West, and The Irwin Brothers Cheyenne Frontier Days Wild West Show. He operated his own Wild West show called Bee Ho Gray's Wild West for a few years starting in 1919. He also performed with various circuses including the Shriner's and Ringling Brothers.

In about 1912, Bee Ho accompanied Sioux Chief Iron Tail to Washington D.C. and New York where he modeled for artist James Earle Fraser as he worked on designs for the new Buffalo Nickel. He supposedly traveled with Iron Tail to act as an interpreter.

Bee Ho won the World Champion Trick and Fancy Roper title at The Winnipeg Stampede in 1913 and held that title until 1916 when he lost it to Chester Byers.

Bee Ho and his wife, Broadway actress, equestrienne and horse trainer Ada Sommerville, spent many years as Vaudeville performers with both the B.F. Keith, Orpheum and Western circuits. Their show usually received top billing and was sought after across the country. They maintained a packed schedule of performances and literally played thousands of venues and shows during their career.

Bee Ho performed in Erich von Strohiem's "Greed" in 1924. Bee Ho's performance was apparently cut from the film when the length was reduced by about 80%. According to a 1926 Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Republican newspaper article, Bee Ho displayed his skill with knife throwing in the film.

Bee Ho also performed in a number of more obscure, early western films from the Miller Brothers 101 Ranch Bison Films and The Vitaphone Corporation including "Hey! Hey! Westerner".

In May and June 1922, Bee Ho and Ada Sommerville were featured in a Broadway musical called "Red Pepper". The stars of the show were the famous minstrel duo, McIntyre and Heath. The show then went on the road for one year, closing in North Dakota in June 1923.

Bee Ho added a trained coyote to his act in the early 1930s and began making radio appearances with his witty Oklahoma comedy. He appeared on stage and on the radio with personalities such as Bing Crosby, Will Rogers, Fred Stone, Joe E. Brown, Mary Beth Hughes, Eddie Nugent, Tom Mix, Hoot Gibson, Ken Maynard and many others. Many of the western stars who performed in the first half of the 1900s got their start with him at the Miller Brothers 101 Ranch Wild West as they saw their way of life on the open range disappearing.

Ada Sommerville died in 1940 at the age of sixty-eight. Bee Ho continued with his act using other assistants to fill her role, but the days of Vaudeville were over and his career was relegated to county fairs, small corporate events and school benefits. He died in Pueblo, Colorado on August 3, 1951 at the age of sixty-six while visiting his sisters. Many of his friends and family members never knew what became of him. He is buried at the Mountain View Cemetery in Pueblo, Colorado.