SPECIAL TO INDIAN COUNTRY TODAY



Pine Ridge So Dak.

Jan. 29 1914.

[De]ar sir.

Please Iwant you todo little thing for me. I like know where is one star or lone star i think name is james one star or lone star. he left the oglala reservation many years he is going to school. some where i think go to carlisle ind sch. and he never get home and last iheard he was outto soldier some wherebut i heard come back to school again he only got one sister lives so she like to know where is he now. i think he is 40 or over years old by this time iwant you to do that right the away and you let me know you try to finde out please.

your truly

Chas Yellow Boy



Long ago a boy was born in the western territory of the Dakotas. His name was James One Star, though how he came by this name is no longer known. It may have been given to him when he was born, along with a traditional Oglala birth order name. It may have been a sacred clan name, bestowed upon him by his elders, marking the onset of an early manhood. Perhaps it was only his "English" name, appropriated to him by U.S. officials so he could be easily identified on tribal rolls. Since the name of his father is unknown, this name indicates a close relationship with the boy;s maternal uncle, who was known simply as "One Star."

The elder One Star portrayed a Plains Indian warrior in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. While attending the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair, he met a young man and was compelled to tell him about his nephew, James One Star. Maybe there was something about the young man that touched One Star, allowing his words to flow freely from his heart. He began to share the sadness and loss he felt, because his beloved nephew had been missing for over 10 years. William Henry Dietz, athletic in spirit and imaginative by nature, was mesmerized by the gentle warrior's romantic tale. As a result of this fateful meeting, James One Star would begin to fade into oblivion, and in his place, "Lone Star" Dietz was born.

But what's in a name, really? Aren't "One Star" and "Lone Star" nearly interchangeable? Charles Yellow Boy wanted to believe they were. In fact, in 1914 when he wrote to the superintendent of the Carlisle Indian and Industrial School in Carlisle, Pa., he thought maybe the two names identified the same man. He hoped to tell Sally Eagle Horse her brother was alive. After all, from the Lakota language, Wicarhpi Isnala, can be translated as either "One Star," "Only Star," or "Lone Star" - though in the idiom of American English, a "Lone Star" to all appearances outshines them all.

In order to reclaim James One Star, it's essential to examine the legacy of the man who virtually replaced him, William Henry Dietz (1884 - 1964), alias "Lone Star." Though dead for 40 years, Dietz is currently at the center of a controversy where names are significant. Officially, the conflict began in 1992 when seven American Indians, headed by well-known Cheyenne writer and activist, Suzan Shown Harjo, confronted the Washington Redskins football franchise, requesting that it cancel six of its trademarks in lieu of the Lanham act, which prohibits the registration of names that are "disparaging, scandalous, contemptuous or disreputable." The defense, Redskin's owner, Pro-Football Inc., answered the charge with the counterclaim that the name was not disparaging but "honorific" to Native Americans and further added that it "would face massive financial losses if it lost the exclusivity of the brand it had marketed for 36 years." In April of 1999 the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board ruled for the plaintiffs, agreeing to cancel the trademark, but pending appeal.

When the decision was made, a satisfied Harjo exclaimed, "the judges agreed with us that the R-word never was honorific and is not ... now." But the victory for Harjo and Native America was short lived. The club's current owner, Daniel Snyder, immediately appealed the decision and defended the team's name by revealing its "honorific" tribute to an Oglala Sioux from the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, none other than William "Lone Star" Dietz.

In Indian Country Today Harjo stated that as soon as the appeal was filed, the team "lawyers trekked out to South Dakota in a modern-day version of the white man trading trinkets for Manhattan. The chief-makers gave away jerseys, jackets and hats sporting the team's name and asked for signatures on a paper saying the R-word is an honor." The 1999 ruling was overturned last fall, though not as a result of the field trip to Pine Ridge. The Washington team is to remain racially and offensively red-skinned - at least that's how those opposed to the name hear it.

But the team representatives perceive the name differently. For them "Redskins" is more than skin-deep; it is deeply nostalgic. And team nostalgia is a common sentiment invoked in the many "Indian" mascot and sport team name disputes, as shown in the "Factual Background" for the appeal made by the attorneys for Pro-Football Inc.:

On or about July 8, 1932, George Preston Marshall, along with Vincent Bendix, Jay O'Brien, and Dorland Doyle, purchased a then-inactive Boston National Football League franchise. Within the year, his co-owners dropped out and Mr. Marshall was left as the sole owner of the franchise. The Boston team played the 1932 season at Braves Field, home of Boston's then-national baseball team, and like the baseball team, were known as "The Braves." On or about July 8, 1933, Mr. Marshall officially changed the name of his franchise from the "Boston Braves" to the Boston Redskins." Mr. Marshall chose to rename his franchise the Redskins in honor of the team's head coach, William "Lone Star" Dietz, who was a Native American.

But was William "Lone Star" Dietz truly an American Indian? The answer to this question may surprise most everyone involved in the case.



(Continued in Part Two)



Linda Waggoner has taught for 12 years in the American Multicultural Studies and Philosophy departments at Sonoma State University in California. She is currently finishing a biography on Winnebago artist and educator Angel DeCora Dietz (1869 - 1919) and has written "Neither White Men Nor Indians," published in 2002.