Lillian St. Cyr

(1883-1974) born at Winnebago, Thurston County. Actress, considered the first Native American actress to become a movie star, she became known as Princess Red Wing, appeared in films from 1909 to the early 1920s, often in Western films with Tom Mix and other stars, and played lead role in Cecil B. DeMille’s first film in 1914; graduated in 1902 from Carlisle, Pennsylvania Indian Industrial School, she became active in American Indian affairs in New York and Washington after retirement from acting career. Consult obituaries in New York Times, March 14, 1974, p. 40 and Time, March 25, 1974, p. 91 and David Ragan, Who’s Who In Hollywood, Vol 2 (Facts On File, 1992) 1397 and Andrew B. Smith, Shooting Cowboys and Indians: Silent Western Films, American Culture, and the Birth of Hollywood (University Press of Colorado, 2003) 71-103 and Crete /NE/ News, August 4, 2004, p. B-2.

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