http://www.tahlequahdailypress.com/features/local_story_247140442.html

September 04, 2007 02:04 pm

Will Rogers always proud of Cherokee identity

By BETTY SMITH
Press special writer

TAHLEQUAH DAILY PRESS - Will Rogers could have played a game of cowboys and
Indians all by himself.

While Oklahoma's favorite son earned acclaim on stage, screen, radio and in
his newspaper columns for his cowboy feats, he always identified himself
first as a Cherokee. Although he had little Cherokee blood, he became known
as "the Cherokee Kid" during his performing career.

Amy Ware, who has chosen Rogers as the subject of her dissertation, spoke
Friday during the State of Sequoyah Conference, sponsored by the Cherokee
Nation's State of Sequoyah Commission at Northeastern State University.

Ware, an assistant instructor at the University of Texas in Austin, hopes
to attain her Ph.D. next year. She teaches a course called, "Killing John
Wayne: American Indians in Popular Culture." Her multimedia presentation
featured clips of Rogers' film and radio performances.

Most of the audience members have no direct experience of Rogers' humor,
having been born after his death in a 1935 plane crash. So some of his
barbed comments appeared to come as a pleasant surprise, sparking frequent
laughter.

"I propose he was culturally a Cherokee, a man who grew up in the nation
and whose father was prominent," Ware said.

Rogers was born on the Clem Rogers ranch near Oologah. But, contrary to
popular belief, he never lived in Oklahoma. He left the area and began his
world travels in 1902, when the area was still Indian Territory.

(The family continued its prominence over the decades. Besides the
well-known Will Rogers Jr., Rogers' nephew, Clem McSpadden, represented the
2nd District of Oklahoma in Congress).

Ware described Rogers as a cowboy-Indian hybrid.

"It is a cultural mix the stereotype does not allow," Ware said.

The popular conception pitted cowboys against Indians, she said. In
reality, the Indians were more likely to be fighting cavalry, while the
cowboys were a mixed-heritage lot, with cowpokes ranging from various white
ethnic backgrounds to black, Hispanic and yes, sometimes Indian.

During Rogers' youth, he worked cows on the Dog Iron Ranch where he grew
up. He earned acclaim for his roping skills, as evidenced by the short
silent film Ware presented, "The Ropin' Fool," shot in 1922. Besides such
relatively basic rope work as the "Texas skip," Rogers dazzled audiences by
roping horses, by throwing a loop a man and horse could gallop through
without touching, and lassoing a man on horseback by the waist, without
putting the rope over his head. In the latter case, the horse stepped
through the rope and it went up to land around the rider's midsection.

The Rogers were a wealthy family. Both Rogers' parents came to Oklahoma
before the Trail of Tears. They intermarried with Scotch and Irish.

Rogers grew up in the wake of the Civil War, and as a 10-year-old was aware
of the Oklahoma land fun.

Later he would write, "We spoiled the best territory in the world to make a
state."

When he left in 1902, ranching was in decline and the Rogers family was
growing wheat. He headed for Argentina, where his desire to become a gaucho
was thwarted. During his world travels, he hooked up with a wild west show,
made the switch to the Ziegfeld Follies, and headed for Hollywood when it
became evident vaudeville was on its way out. He was one of the first
Beverly Hills residents, and eventually made 71 silent and sound films.

Ware said that while Rogers served as a conventional actor in many of these
films, playing a part, learning lines and following directions, he
expressed his creativity as well as his political viewpoints in a few.

One, called "Two Wagons, Both Covered," spoofed the classic "Covered Wagon"
and other popular Western epics. The film contained a train of two wagons,
headed west, that circled around through territories that appeared
suspiciously the same, Ware said. Rogers played two roles in the film, and
is almost unrecognizable as a bearded mountain main, a Grizzly Adams sort.

The wagons arrived at the future site of Los Angeles, where the inevitable
Indian attack came. But instead of any tribe recorded in historical tomes,
the attackers were the dread "Escrow Indians."

These besuited and bowlered, or golf-capped, gentlemen, hiding behind
branches and trees, rushed at the settlers, then dropped the greenery to
present proposed real estate contracts.

"I'll take the wagon for my first payment," one broker offered, while
others described "land swept by ocean breezes" and other amenities. Finally
the "Escrow Indians" rode off in triumph with the wagons and cattle,
leaving the pioneers standing in a befuddled mass.

Ware said it was ironic that the Cherokees and other Indians promoted
communal ownership of land, while the "Escrow Indians" pushed private
property.

"In his [Rogers'] version it's not the Indians that are attacking, but the
settlers," she said.

Soon, Rogers had his own newspaper column. Ware compared his version of
vernacular native dialect with that employed by Mark Twain, Bret Harte, and
the renowned Muscogee (Creek} poet Alex Posey, who wrote as Fix Fuxico. She
showed comparable passages by the latter and Rogers.

Both rebelled against the "cigar store Indian dialects," she said.

"Many consider Rogers' writing an extension of his stage performance," Ware
said.

However, he worked hard to make the language deceptively simple.

Between 1923 and his death, Rogers took his talents to the radio. These
shows were known for their spontaneity.

"Recorded live and uncensored, Rogers said what he wanted," Ware said.

He challenged stereotypes of Native Americans, including those related to
technology.

"As a political humorist, Rogers often walked the line between acceptable
and objectionable," she said.

She played a radio clip that began with a dispute over whether Plymouth
Rock or another site was the actual landing place of the Pilgrims. Starting
with that perspective, the satire emerged.

"Why were they allowed to land anywhere? That's what we want to know,"
Rogers said in the clip. "I hope my Cherokee blood is not making you
prejudiced."

He spoke of the generosity Indians were known for.

"What if we reversed this?" he said. "Do you think the Pilgrims would have
allowed the Indians to land? The Pilgrims would not even allow the Indians
to live after the Indians let them land."

"This tangent is the meat of the story," Ware said. "He wanders through it,
probing the boundaries just enough to make the audience nervous."

She compared Rogers' effect on his audience to that of Richard Pryor in
later years.

Ware said there is much more to Rogers' life and career than could be
covered in the time allotted to her.

"It matters that Rogers was Cherokee. His career offers the opportunity to
study national and Cherokee history simultaneously," she said.

He provides proof that the Cherokee culture moves beyond tribal boundaries,
she said.

"Rogers is just now coming into his own as a native player on the national
stage," she said.