Dances with Wolves actor Floyd Westerman dies

[Xipe Totec]

Source: Associated Press

Floyd Red Crow Westerman, an American Indian activist, actor and folk singer who appeared in "Dances with Wolves" and performed with Willie Nelson and other musicians, has died at age 71.

Westerman was also well known as an activist for environmental causes, the rights of American Indians and other indigenous people.

Westerman was born on Aug. 17, 1936, on the Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota Sioux reservation in South Dakota.

As a youngster, he left the reservation to attend a government boarding school some 80 miles away. In keeping with policies at the time, the school frowned on his native culture.

"They cut his hair and they wouldn't allow him to speak the language," his son said. "He was a survivor of everything that the government has tried to do to native Americans."


Read more: http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_7724819?nclick_check=1

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[glowing]

1. He just always had this peace on his face-- calmness.

[lost-in-nj]

2. That is sad

He had a soft voice but made his presence known....

Not to many American Indian activists around...

lost

[adadem]

3. so sad...rest in peace

[Botany]

4. And with Ten Bears it was always something more but he liked to talk ....

... about the good times and share a smoke.

[TwilightGardener]

5. Loved him in "Dances With Wolves"--RIP.

An aside--it's not cool to admit liking D.W.W., but...it was one of my favorite movies. To me, the real star of the film was the beautiful South Dakota landscape, where I used to live. I always liked Kevin Costner (even thought that's not cool either), because he contributed a lot to the state and seemed to have a real affection for the people of SD.

[hlthe2b]

10. The Costner haters went crazy on this move.... very unfairly

I agree it was beautifully filmed and offered a more comprehensive depiction of Native Americans that had largely been confined to caricature in films until that time.

[Bjorn Against]

20. That was an excellent movie.

I never heard of anyone hating that movie, it is probably the best western ever made. It was one of the first big movies to come out of Hollywood to really show the Native American community in a positive way, and I don't think there have been any since then that have done more for that community.

[Spinzonner]

21. I think Little Big Man

also qualifies in that category

[AnnieBW]

6. May the Ancestors Welcome Him With Open Arms

Blessings, Red Crow, on your journey to the Ancestors.

[Xipe Totec]

8. Chief Seattle's 1854 Oration

"...Every part of this soil is sacred in the estimation of my people. Every hillside, every valley, every plain and grove, has been hallowed by some sad or happy event in days long vanished. Even the rocks, which seem to be dumb and dead as the swelter in the sun along the silent shore, thrill with memories of stirring events connected with the lives of my people, and the very dust upon which you now stand responds more lovingly to their footsteps than yours, because it is rich with the blood of our ancestors, and our bare feet are conscious of the sympathetic touch. Our departed braves, fond mothers, glad, happy hearted maidens, and even the little children who lived here and rejoiced here for a brief season, will love these somber solitudes and at eventide they greet shadowy returning spirits. And when the last Red Man shall have perished, and the memory of my tribe shall have become a myth among the White Men, these shores will swarm with the invisible dead of my tribe, and when your children's children think themselves alone in the field, the store, the shop, upon the highway, or in the silence of the pathless woods, they will not be alone. In all the earth there is no place dedicated to solitude. At night when the streets of your cities and villages are silent and you think them deserted, they will throng with the returning hosts that once filled them and still love this beautiful land..."

[kestrel91316]

7. OT: If you cut his hair short and add glasses he's dead ringer for

my mom's dad at about age 80. Funny, too, there was a persistent rumor for years that Grampie had some Native American blood, but genealogical research showed it to be untrue......

[Little Star]

9. RIP Floyd Red Crow Westerman.

[Crunchy Frog]

11. One Who Waits on Northern Exposure. RIP.

[Lorien]

12. My cousin rented a room from him for years in Santa Monica

they were good friends (she's Chippawa and the VP of several Native organizations, as well as an Executive Producer). Floyd was quite a character. My last memory of him was way out in the desert, 112 degrees, at a Powwow. I was unbearably hot and wearing a light cotton dress. He had long sleeves on and wasn't even breaking a sweat "We Indians never sweat" he claimed. He was eating hot fry bread with honey and offered some to me. A few bites and I felt awful! The hot food in the scorching dry heat with the pounding drums and chanting..it was just too much.Floyd moved over and gave me a piece of shade to sit in. The sun didn't seem to faze him in the least while I was close to passing out in the shade. That's how I'll remember him; sitting there in the intense sunlight, drums pounding, many voices singing, eating fry bread and smiling.

[Xipe Totec]

13. I envy you

as I envy anyone who's had the privilege of meeting a true human being.

[Benhurst]

14. R.I.P.

Recommended :grouphug: #5

[Xipe Totec]

15. Thanks!

Red Crow was an awsome person.

I will think of him when I hike the Great Blue Hills.

[Enthusiast]

17. May he rest in peace.

Now the American people are the new Indians and are subject to the same abuses at the hands of the same criminal element that the Native Americans have been all along. History is repeating, once again.

[xchrom]

16. peace be with his family. nt

[emmadoggy]

18. Awww. What a sad loss.

He always seemed so calm, gentle, and wise. He had such presence. Loved him in Dances with Wolves.

[ChazII]

19. R.I.P.

A wonderful man and actor.

[DinahMoeHum]

22. I saw him several times at Clearwater Husdon River festivals. . .

singing from his albums Custer Died For Your Sins and The Earth Is Your Mother.

Now he's gone home to the Great Spirit.

[Doctor_J]

23. Mods - will you please combine with this one

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3101258&mesg_id=3101258

[bitchkitty]

24. An awesome presence in one of the best films

I've ever seen. Rest in peace, and thank you!

[RFKHumphreyObama]

25. I'm very sad to hear this

My deepest and sincerest thoughts, prayers, condolences and sympathies are extended to his family and friends. He sounds like he was a great man who will leave a great legacy behind him and that the world was better for having had him in it

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

26. He was wonderful in Dances With Wolves - so natural and real - a performance from the heart

Ten Bears (in Lakota):

The men who wore this came... (brings out old Spanish Conquistador helmet) in the time of my Grandfather's Grandfather. Eventually we drove them out. Then the Mexicans came. They do not come here anymore. In my own time, the Texans. They have been like all the others. They take without asking. I don't know if we are ready for these people. But I think you are right. I think they will keep coming. When I think of that, I look at this helmet. Our country is all that we have, and we will fight to keep it. Tomorrow we will strike the village...and go to the winter camp.