User:Hailstone2016/sandbox

David William Bald Eagle was a Chief of the Minneconjou Lakota Oyate, Second World War veteran, and actor. He was born in a tipi on 8th April 1919, in Cherry Creek, on the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Reservation in South Dakota. His name in Lakota translates as Wounded in Winter Beautiful Bald Eagle.

Dave was raised in the Minneconjou Sioux tribe, largely by his grandparents. He grew up speaking Lakota and immersed in Sioux tradition. One of his grandfathers was the warrior White Bull, who led the assault on General Custer at the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

He won his first rodeo at 14. He underwent the traditional sundance cermemony aged 15, and at 17 joined the Fourth Cavalry where he participated in the last years of mounted cavalry before mechanization, and became a formidable boxer. He re-enlisted into the 82nd Airborne – the All Americans – at the outbreak of the Second World War and fought in the landings at Anzio in Italy where he won the silver star. He was severely wounded by German fire while parachuting into France during the Normandy invasion.

After convalescence he pursued a musical career as drummer for Cliff Keyes Big Band from Minnesota, then later for a South Dakota western band. This led him into a dance partnership with Penny Rathburn that won them the district ballroom championships. David and Penny were newlywed and she was expecting their baby when she was tragically killed in a car wreck. Suicidal, Dave turned to anything that would kill him: rodeo, skydiving, dirt track car racing and stunt driving. However instead of killing him it made his name, and he established a career in Hollywood. He was in over 40 movies and trained many western actors - including John Wayne - in techniques for horse and gun handling. He served as Errol Flynn’s stunt double and became friends with Marilyn Monroe and many other stars of the time. Acquaintance with leading Hollywood players did not diminish his aversion to studio politics and he eventually left Hollywood to become a Champion Indian Dancer, winning the National Dance Championships in ’60 and ’61, and return to a successful career in rodeo.

In 1958 he joined Casey Tibbs and a rodeo display team travelling to the World’s Fair in Brussels, Belgium. A chance meeting with a young Belgian girl named Josee Kesterman restored David’s will to live and secured their future together. Josee migrated to the United States and near Cherry Creek they created a home together with their three children.

Dave continued to work as an actor and established a successful ranch on the reservation. His knowledge of oral history and traditions taught to him by his grandparents instilled in him a strong sense of responsibility to his people. This dedication led to his appointment as the traditional Chief of the Minneconjou Lakota Oyate in the late 1990s. In 2001 he was elected as the first Chief of the United Native Nations. His work in conflict resolution led him all over the United States.

Dave’s final film role is in Neither Wolf Nor Dog http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3951908/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_1 which premiered in June 2016 at the Edinburgh Film Festival. http://www.edfestmag.com/neither-wolf-nor-dog/