Existing comment:
Elvis Presley receives a headdress
In 1960, Elvis Presley was inducted into the Los Angeles Tribal Council by the Native actor and activist William McGuire, also known as Chief Wah-Nee-Ota. Presley was so honored for his "constructive portrayal of a man of Indian blood" in the 1960 film Flaming Star. In the movie, Presley plays a young man whose mother is Kiowa and father is white. The plot revolves around his difficulties after Kiowas kill a white family.
The film is considered one of Presley's finest acting performances, but in the role, he did not wear a headdress or any other Indian clothing. McGuire, who was born in Muscogee, Oklahoma, presented Presley with the eagle-feather headdress on behalf of Native people living in Los Angeles, whose numbers had dramatically increased after the Indian Relocation Act of 1956. McGuire chose the headdress, and to dress like a Plains Indian himself, because most Americans associate Plains Indian clothing with all American Indians. |