RSS
Home
Native American Celebrities -- Part 1
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
Full-blooded Native American celebrities are few and far between. But many A-list stars from today and yesterday claim partial Native American ancestry.
The late Will Rogers was best known as a cowboy humorist. But he proudly told anyone who’d listen that he was one-quarter Cherokee, and often quipped that while his ancestors didn't come over on the Mayflower, they nevertheless “met the boat.” Johnny Depp, likewise, isn’t shy about telling people that his maternal grandmother was a Cherokee.
Elvis Presley was less inclined to speak about his ethnic heritage. But hundreds of journalists and reporters have researched the life of the King of Rock and Roll. It is generally accepted that he was part Cherokee, and possibly part Creek or Chickasaw (a not-uncommon ancestry for rural poor Southern folk like Presley). Some biographers even believe he was descended from a Tuscarora chief on his mother’s side.
Ava Gardner played a rather unlikely mulatto in the 1951 movie “Showboat.” But she was in fact part Tuscarora in real life. Cher is part Cherokee on her mother’s side, though she probably inherited her striking ethnic looks from her Armenian father. And the Lumbee tribe has recognized TV star Heather Locklear as one of its own.
Val Kilmer claims some Cherokee heritage, making him the only Native American Batman to grace the silver screen. Benjamin Bratt is of Qechua descent (from his Peruvian-born mother). Johnny Cash grew up believing he was part Native American, and was disappointed to discover that he wasn’t, though he later found out that he was in fact descended from Scottish royalty.
And James Earl Jones is part Cherokee. It almost begs the question, just what was the African/Native-American actor implying when he so famously intoned in George Lucas’ film, “Luke, I am your father”?
Related Articles:
Add a Comment
