ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

Floyd 'Red Crow' Westerman was an actor and activist - tribute to this American Indian celebrity

Updated on February 1, 2013

Floyd Red Crow Westerman the American Indian and star

Floyd 'Red Crow' Westerman will be remembered for many reasons, including his great talents as an actor and singer that made him the star that he was, but first and foremost he was an American Indian. Red Crow was born in South Dakota in 1936 on the Lake Traverse Reservation.

He was given the name Floyd Kanghi Duta Westerman but in Sioux "Kanghi Duta" translates as Red Crow, so this part of his name is not a nickname he was given later on in life as you may think.

As a boy Red Crow was forced to go to an off-reservation school and he comments on how this was done to his people in his songs. His early experiences in life were to influence him later on when he became an outspoken political activist and singer-songwriter.

At the age of 10 he attended the Wahpeton Boarding School, and this was where he met up with Dennis Banks of the American Indian Movement (AIM).

Red Crow in Indigenous Native American Prophecy

Floyd Red Crow Westerman on Amazon

Floyd Westerman the singer and actor

Before he established himself as an actor for film and television, Floyd Westerman had carved out a career for himself as a country and western and folk singer. He wrote his own material and also covered songs by other writers and recorded and released a number of albums.

The double album The Land is Your Mother and Custer Died for Your Sins is an excellent collection of his songs. It is a mix of straight country and western numbers along with blues and folk, as well as the traditional songs, Rabbit Dance Song and Sioux Rabbit Song. Other titles include Custer Died for Your Sins, Missionaries, B.I.A., Wounded Knee and his own The Land is Your Mother.

There are strong elements of protest in the lyrics and a reflection on the terrible past that his people have suffered. He often performed live accompanying himelf on acoustic guitar.

As well as his recordings and own material, Floyd Westerman collaborated with fellow singer-songwriters Jackson Browne, Willie Nelson, Bonnie Raitt, Joni Mitchell, and Buffy Sainte-Marie. Red Crow also went on tour with Sting in the 1990s to raise funds for rain forest preservation.

Floyd Westerman made many appearances in films and played a number of roles in his acting career. He was in the part of the “shaman” for rock legend Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone’s The Doors.

Westerman played the role of Chief Ten Bears in Dances with Wolves , and he was the character known as Standing Elk in the family movie, Tillamook Treasure in 2006.

Before his death in December 2007, Floyd Westerman completed work for the film Swing Vote in September of the same year.

On TV, Westerman had many appearances too, including playing the role of Uncle Ray on Walker, Texas Ranger , and One Who Waits on Northern Exposure . He was in LA Law, Roseanne and made several appearances on the popular X-Files series.

There is a video doing the rounds on YouTube that gives the impression that Red Crow is a Hopi Elder, and in it he does refer to the Hopi which supports this belief. Floyd Red Crow Westerman may not have been a member of the Hopi tribe but he was most certainly a Native American elder, and a man with much great wisdom to share.

Home Videos Channels Watch this video in a new window Floyd Red Crow Westerman - Just Another Holy Man

Floyd Westerman album cover

Floyd Westerman's double album The Land Is Your Mother and Custer Died For Your Sins
Floyd Westerman's double album The Land Is Your Mother and Custer Died For Your Sins

Floyd Westerman's death

Floyd Red Crow Westerman passed on to the spirit world on 13 December, 2007, in the Cedars Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, after losing the battle against leukemia with which he had been suffering. He is survived by his five children.

In his song They Didn't Listen, Floyd Westerman sang:

"And I told them not to dig for uranium, for if they did, the children would die. They didn't listen, they didn't listen, they didn't listen to me. And I told them if the children die, there would be no keepers of the land. "

Perhaps they didn't listen when he wrote it but many of Red Crow's fans have had ears to hear what he had to say. Floyd Red Crow Westerman lives on in this world in the wisdom of his songs.

Copyright © 2012 Steve Andrews. All Rights Reserved.

A memorial tribute to Floyd Red Crow Westerman

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)