The Very American Story of Chief Buffalo Child Long Lance
The Very American Story of Chief Buffalo Child Long Lance
The article explores the complex American story of Chief Buffalo Child Long Lance, an individual born Sylvester Long in North Carolina in 1890, who was listed as Black and later claimed various Native American identities, including Cherokee and Blackfeet. Long Lance achieved significant fame as an author and actor, embodying a romanticized image of a Native American warrior. His memoir, published in 1928, was a sensation until his true ancestry was exposed in 1930, leading to his social and financial ruin. The piece then broadens to discuss the fraught and evolving definition of Native identity in the U.S., focusing on issues like blood quantum, tribal enrollment, and the phenomenon of "Pretendians." Author David Treuer, who also grappled with his own Ojibwe identity and enrollment challenges, argues that the historical and ongoing struggles over Native identity are deeply personal and have significant practical consequences for individuals and tribes, often leading to internal conflicts and disenrollment. He concludes by acknowledging Long Lance's complex identity, rooted in both Black and Native American heritage, as a uniquely American self-made narrative.
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it's hard not to walk away with the feeling that the self-made American narrative has the long term consequence of diminishing strength in community.
the act of defining a community is its own weapon on the future survival of the community itself by restricting growth and excluding rightful members in an attempt to disuade abuse.
defining laws and legal boundaries has done a lot of good for America, but the same can not be said when such strength attempts to define who we are and where we do belong.
sometimes when the author mixes their own story within some broader plot, i find it dilutes what i am trying to learn and reflect on. in this case, the author's personal experience was just as valuable to me if not more so than the case of Buffalo Child Long Lance.
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