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PROFILE: Lillian St. Cyr (Princess Red Wing) and James Young Deer

Lillian St. Cyr (Princess Red Wing) and James Young Deer: First Native American Silent Movie "Power Couple"

Copyright © 2004 by Jean Sanders

Actress Lillian St. Cyr, known as Princess Red Wing, and her actor/director/writer husband, James Young Deer, were the first Native American Hollywood "power couple." Silent movies, particularly Westerns, were their milieu.

Lillian St. Cyr--not to be misidentified with the exotic dancer who used the name Lili St. Cyr during the 1940s-1950s--was born February 13, 1883 on Nebraska's Winnebago Reservation. Lillian's father, Michael St. Cyr, who was white, reportedly belonged to an old wealthy family. Her mother, Julia Decora, was a Winnebago Indian. Lillian had four siblings--Julia, David, Levi, and Louis.

When Lillian was four years old, her mother died. Family circumstances at that time are unknown. Records are scant and contradictory. Andrew Brodie Smith, in his book Shooting Cowboys and Indians, reports that Lillian "grew up on the Omaha Winnebago reservation in the home of her older brother, David St. Cyr, living with his wife and their seven children." However, several other sources state that she was sent to live with a family in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she entered kindergarten. If so, the Philadelphia family either had some connection with U.S. Senator Chester I. Long from Kansas, or Lillian actually lived with the Long family for a while.

At some point Lillian was enrolled in the Carlisle Indian Industrial School at Carlisle, Pennsylvania. She graduated from the school in 1902.

A report in The Red Man and Helper, September 26, 1902, stated that "Miss Lillie St. Cyr, class '02, who is at her home in Nebraska, is expecting to return East this Fall, to take a post-graduate course somewhere."

Another account appeared in The Red Man and Helper, January 2, 1903: "Lilian [sic] St. Cyr, . . . is in Kansas, with Ella Romero who is ill. Lillian has remainded [sic] out of school this winter on account of her own health. She says she is enjoying her freedom from school duties, but has not given up the idea of taking a higher course. She reads considerably, takes music lessons, and has recently united with the Church."

After graduation, Lillian lived with the family of U.S. Senator Long in Washington, DC. On April 9, 1906 she married James Young Deer, a.k.a. J. Younger Johnston. According to Andrew Brodie Smith, "Young Deer was born in Dakota City, Nebraska, just north of the Omaha Winnebago reservation." No birth date is given. Smith says that Young Deer began his entertainment career in the 1890s with the Barnum and Bailey Circus and continued with the Miller Brothers' 101 Ranch Wild West Show.

The marriage of Red Wing [Lillian] and Young Deer was both a personal and professional collaboration. Exactly how and why they arrived in New York and became involved with the film industry is uncertain, but Red Wing was twenty-four in 1908 when she appeared in her first film, The White Squaw. Young Deer began acting and directing in 1909, completing several one-reeler Westerns that year.

During the early silent movie era, Indians were generally portrayed in a positive way. Directors often sought out real Indians to act as Indians on film. Movie historian William K. Everson, in American Silent Film, suggests that "during this period the Indian became accepted as a symbol of integrity, stoicism, and reliability . . ." As such, Red Wing and Young Deer were an asset to any movie-making company.

At first, Red Wing and Young Deer worked mainly with the New York Motion Picture Company, founded in 1909 by Adam Kessel, Charles Baumann and Fred J. Balshofer. When Balshofer moved to Bison Pictures, Red Wing and Young Deer joined him there.

During his early years as a director, Young Deer was praised for his depiction of complex, strong, heroic Indians. His movies addressed racism, prejudice, miscegenation, and assimilation. Unfortunately, as the twentieth century entered its teens, changing social mores and increasing censorship eroded the film industry's earlier values so that Young Deer's later works began to reflect watered-down values.

Red Wing was in great demand as an actress. She was beautiful, vibrant, and sympathetic. Audiences liked her brave sacrifices on film. Furthermore, she frequently performed her own stunts--everything from riding horses at breakneck speed to being trapped in burning buildings. At the time, it was also common practice for actors to serve as crew members, designing and building sets, placing props, and doing any other necessary production work.

Film Western stories often revolved around inter-racial marriage. Usually a white man wed an Indian woman, although occasionally the roles were reversed. The tales involved family issues and society's reaction to the marriage. Often there were tragic endings.

The French-owned Pathe Company had been criticized for producing Westerns that were not authentic, so in 1910 they hired Red Wing and Young Deer to improve their image. This proved beneficial to everyone. At first, the couple worked mostly in New Jersey. Later they moved to Pathe West Coast studio in Los Angeles, where Young Deer became studio head. However, this was sometimes frustrating as J. A. Berst, in charge of American operations, continually tried to micro-manage from New York City.

The highlight of Red Wing's career occurred when director Cecil B. DeMille chose her to star in his 1913 movie version of Edwin Milton Royle's popular stage play, The Squaw Man. This was the first full-length feature film made in Hollywood. It was six reels and predated DeMille's Birth of a Nation by two years.

In The Squaw Man, DeMille, who co-directed with Oscar Apfel, cast Red Wing as the noble Indian maiden Nat-u-Rich. In the story, a white Englishman, Captain James Wynnegate, accepts blame for embezzlement in order to protect the real wrongdoer's family. Then he goes to America. Later, during a fight scene, Nat-u-Rich saves his life. They marry and have a child. Eventually, proof of his innocence surfaces. James then wants his son to have a European education but opts to stay with Nat-u-Rich. Reminiscent of Shakespearean-like melodrama, Nat-u-Rich kills herself, believing the father and son would be better off assimilated into European white civilization.

The story represented current attitudes. Some whites believed that Indians were inferior, could not change, should hold only menial jobs, and that inter-racial marriage was not practical. Some whites and Indians believed assimilation was desirable and inevitable. Red Wing and two of her siblings had been educated at pro-assimilation schools. She went to Carlisle; her siblings Julia and David attended Hampton University in Hampton, Virginia. One source states that Young Deer had also attended Hampton.

Red Wing and Young Deer were somewhat ambivalent about assimilation and miscegenation, which could explain why their overall body of film work at times depicted both points of view. According to Smith, "On New Year's Day 1913, Young Deer entered a float in the Tournament of Roses Parade for the Pathe Company. The entry reflected his support for Indian assimilation at the highest social levels, . . ."

Prevailing stereotypes appear in an article written by Margaret Price for the Grand Rapids [MI] Press, April 25, 1913. While Price probably meant to flatter Red Wing, she seemed surprised to find her civilized.

"Red Wing is . . . young, well educated and ambitious. She . . . is the little wife of busy Young Deer, . . . I found Red Wing sitting cross-kneed on his bed, half wrapped in a wonderful Indian blanket, her raven hair falling in 2 thick braids, one on either shoulder. . . She has traveled extensively and she is as used to life in a big New York hotel as she is to the back of a Pinto on the barren plains out west. . . ."

"Red Wing's home is a delightful mixture of Americanism and Indinism [sic]. She has a gas stove and a bathroom and regular dining room furniture, etc., just as there might be in a regular American home. But her walls are dotted with all sorts of Indian trophies. Her portieres are wonderful Indian beadwork. Her rugs are Indian and scores of her ornaments on table and walls are Indian, too."

Red Wing and Young Deer's major involvement with movie making was almost finished by the 1920s. Young Deer made documentaries in France during World War I, but upon his return to America in 1919, he was no longer in demand. During the 1930s he worked occasionally as a second-unit director on independently produced low budget B-movies and serials. Young Deer died in New York City in April 1946.

Princess Red Wing continued acting into the 1920s. Then she became an advocate for Native American rights until her death in New York on March 13, 1974 at age 91.

It is believed that Red Wing inspired the song, Red Wing -- words by Thurland Chattaway, music by Kerry Mills--copyrighted in 1907. Now in the public domain, the song has achieved a folk song-like status and has several variations.

Lillian St. Cyr sang Red Wing publicly at the Hippodrome Theater in New York about 1914. She also performed it in July 1964 during an inter-tribal powwow held at the Native American Historic Site, Wyalusing Rocks, Pennsylvania.

Unrelated to the song performances, the Omaha World-Herald in 1965 chronicled some of Red Wing's visits to Nebraska. "Some people living in Thurston County recall that she appeared personally in local theaters while on a visit to her home folks, in conjunction with a picture in which she was a supporting player. This was, I believe, in the early Twenties."

"Mrs. R. R. Reed, Omaha, writes that Redwing has visited my grandmother's home many times. The last time I saw her was 30 years ago. I remember she was dressed in a long, white buckskin dress, hat and boots. Diamonds on three fingers of both hands. Quite fat but still beautiful."

"Margie Carson, Herman, Neb., quotes from a letter received from Miss St. Cyr...I don't travel around as much as I used to, but New York is my headquarters and I make costumes (Indian) and headdresses or war bonnets for theatrical trade and television...I haven't been to Nebraska since the Powwow at Winnebago..."

Red Wing and Young Deer certainly deserve recognition and remembrance for their outstanding contributions to the film industry.

See Chapter 3 in Andrew Brodie Smith, Shooting Cowboys and Indians: Silent Western Films, American Culture, and The Birth of Hollywood (University Press of Colorado, 2003) and obituary in New York Times, March 14, 1974. See also filmography below.

For more information, consult "900 Famous Nebraskans" on the Internet at www.nsea.org or www.beatricene.com/gagecountymuseum or www.nebpress.com.


Princess Red Wing and James Young Deer Filmography