Actor and Activist Floyd Westerman Dies
By ROBERT JABLON - 3 hours ago
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Floyd Red Crow Westerman, an American Indian
activist, actor and folk singer who appeared in "Dances with Wolves"
and performed with Willie Nelson and other musicians, has died. He was
71.
Westerman died Thursday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center of
complications from leukemia, said his son, Richard Tall Bear
Westerman.
The entertainer appeared in dozens of movies and television shows,
including in recurring roles as Uncle Ray Firewalker on "Walker, Texas
Ranger" and George Littlefox on "Dharma & Greg."
His most memorable movie role was in Kevin Costner's 1990 Oscar-
winning Western epic, "Dances with Wolves." He played the Sioux leader
Ten Bears, who befriends Costner's character.
A respected musician, Westerman worked with Nelson, Bonnie Raitt,
Harry Belafonte, Jackson Browne and others. His debut album, released
in 1970, was titled "Custer Died For Your Sins." Last year he released
"A Tribute to Johnny Cash" to positive reviews.
"He always said he was a musician first and he just acted for the
money," his son said Friday.
Westerman completed work in September on the upcoming Costner film
"Swing Vote."
He was an activist for environmental causes, and for the rights of
American Indians and other indigenous people. In the 1990s, Westerman
toured the world with Sting to raise money to preserve rain forests.
"He was really, really politically conscious," his son said. "He said
the Iraq war is just another land grab, like they did with Oklahoma
and the Midwest in America. Back then it was about land and gold, and
now it was about oil."
Westerman was born Aug. 17, 1936, on the Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota
Sioux reservation in South Dakota.
He left the reservation as a youngster to attend a government boarding
school. In keeping with policies at the time, the school frowned on
his culture.
"They cut his hair and they wouldn't allow him to speak the language,"
his son said. "He was a survivor of everything that the government has
tried to do to Native Americans."
Westerman graduated from a reservation high school, spent two years in
the Marines and earned a degree in secondary education from Northern
State College in South Dakota.
He made his movie debut in 1989's "Renegades," playing the father of
Lou Diamond Phillips' character. He was a shaman in Oliver Stone's
1991 movie "The Doors."
Survivors include his wife, Rosie, and daughters Jennifer Westerman of
Arizona, Chante Westerman of Wa****ngton state, Nicky Jackson of
Minneapolis, and Chenoa Westerman of South Dakota.
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