Fort Wallace
Fort Wallace was a US Cavalry fort built in Wallace County, Kansas to help defend settlers against Cheyenne and Sioux raids. All that remains today is the cemetery, but for a period of over a decade Fort Wallace was one of the most important military outposts on the frontier. Today, Fort Wallace is represented by a operated museum nearby in the town of Wallace, with relics from the fort as well as photos, reproduction items, literature covering the post's history and the settlement of the Great Plains. A casting of the plesiosaur discovered by Dr. Turner and Scout William Comstock is on display. Facades of some of the buildings from Fort Wallace and from the Old Town of Wallace are featured in the Milford Becker Addition opened in 2017; the old Fort Wallace cemetery still exists, is located next to the Wallace Township Cemetery at 38°54′23″N 101°33′36″W. Fort tours Fort Wallace Fort Wallace Attacked, June 22nd, 1867
Arkansas River
The Arkansas River is a major tributary of the Mississippi River. It flows to the east and southeast as it traverses the U. S. states of Colorado, Kansas and Arkansas. The river's source basin lies in the western United States in Colorado the Arkansas River Valley, where the headwaters derive from the snowpack in the Sawatch and Mosquito mountain ranges, it flows east into the Midwest via Kansas, into the South through Oklahoma and Arkansas. At 1,469 miles, it is the sixth-longest river in the United States, the second-longest tributary in the Mississippi–Missouri system, the 45th longest river in the world, its origin is in the Rocky Mountains in Lake County, near Leadville. In 1859, placer gold discovered in the Leadville area brought thousands seeking to strike it rich, but the recovered placer gold was exhausted; the Arkansas River's mouth is at Napoleon and its drainage basin covers nearly 170,000 sq mi. In terms of volume, the river is much smaller than the Missouri and Ohio Rivers, with a mean discharge of about 40,000 cubic feet per second.
The Arkansas from its headwaters to the 100th meridian west formed part of the U. S.-Mexico border from the Adams–Onís Treaty until the Texas Annexation or Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Name pronunciation varies by region. Many people in western states, including Kansas and parts of Colorado, pronounce it ar-KAN-zəs, People in Oklahoma, parts of Colorado, the majority of the remaining United States pronounce it AR-kən-saw, how the Arkansas state is always pronounced according to a state law passed in 1881; the path of the Arkansas River has changed over time. Sediments from the river found in a palaeochannel next to Nolan, a site in the Tensas Basin, show that part of the river's meander belt flowed through up to 5200 BP. Whilst it was thought that this relict channel was active at the same time as another relict of Mississippi River's meander belt, it has been shown that this channel of the Arkansas was inactive 400 years before the Mississippi channel was active; the Arkansas has three distinct sections in its long path through central North America.
At its headwaters beginning near Leadville, the Arkansas runs as a steep fast-flowing mountain river through the Rockies in its narrow valley, dropping 4,600 feet in 120 miles. This section supports extensive whitewater rafting, including The Numbers, Brown's Canyon, the Royal Gorge. At Cañon City, the Arkansas River valley widens and flattens markedly. Just west of Pueblo, the river enters the Great Plains. Through the rest of Colorado and much of Oklahoma, it is a typical Great Plains riverway, with wide, shallow banks subject to seasonal flooding and periods of dwindling flow. Tributaries include the Salt Fork Arkansas River. In eastern Oklahoma the river begins to widen further into a more contained consistent channel. To maintain more reliable flow rates, a series of large reservoir lakes have been built on the Arkansas and its intersecting tributaries including the Canadian, Neosho and Poteau rivers; these locks and dams allow the river to be navigable by barges and large river craft downriver of Muskogee, where the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System joins in with the Verdigris River.
Into western Arkansas, the river path works between the encroaching Boston and Ouachita Mountains, including many isolated, flat-topped mesas, buttes, or monadnocks such as Mount Nebo, Petit Jean Mountain, Mount Magazine, the highest point in the state. The river valley expands as it encounters much flatter land beginning just west of Little Rock, Arkansas, it continues eastward across the plains and forests of eastern Arkansas until it flows into the Mississippi River. Water flow in the Arkansas River has dropped from 248 cubic feet per second average from 1944-1963 to 53 cubic feet per second average from 1984–2003 because of the pumping of groundwater for irrigation in eastern Colorado and western Kansas. Important cities along the Arkansas River include Colorado; the I-40 bridge disaster of May 2002 took place on I-40's crossing of Kerr Reservoir on the Arkansas River near Webbers Falls, Oklahoma. Since 1902, Kansas has claimed Colorado takes too much of the river's water, resulting in a number of lawsuits before the U.
S. Supreme Court that continue to this day under the name of Kansas v. Colorado; the problems over the possession and use of Arkansas River water by Colorado and Kansas led to the creation of an interstate compact or agreement between the two states. While Congress approved the Arkansas River Compact in 1949, the compact did not stop further disputes by the two states over water rights to the river; the Kansas-Oklahoma Arkansas River Basin Compact was created in 1965 to promote mutual consideration and equity over water use in the basin shared by those states. It led to the Kansas-Oklahoma Arkansas River Commission, charged with administering the compact and reducing pollution; the compact was approved and implemented by both states in 1970, has been in force since then. The McClellan–Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System begins at the Tulsa Port of Catoosa on the Verdigris River, enters the Arkansas River near Muskogee, runs via an extensive lock and dam system to the Mississippi River. Through Oklahoma and Arkansas, dams which artificially deepen and widen the river to sustain comme
Lakota people
The Lakota are a Native American tribe. Known as the Teton Sioux, they are one of the three Sioux tribes of Plains, their current lands are in South Dakota. They speak Lakȟótiyapi—the Lakota language, the westernmost of three related languages that belong to the Siouan language family; the seven bands or "sub-tribes" of the Lakota are: Sičháŋǧu Oglála Itázipčho Húŋkpapȟa Mnikȟówožu Sihásapa Oóhenuŋpa Notable Lakota persons include Tȟatȟáŋka Íyotake from the Húnkpapȟa band. Siouan languages speakers may have originated in the lower Mississippi River region and migrated to or originated in the Ohio Valley, they were agriculturalists and may have been part of the Mound Builder civilization during the 9th–12th centuries CE. In the late 16th and early 17th centuries, Dakota-Lakota speakers lived in the upper Mississippi Region in present-day Minnesota, Wisconsin and the Dakotas. Conflicts with Anishnaabe and Cree peoples pushed the Lakota west onto the Great Plains in the mid- to late-17th century.
Early Lakota history is recorded in their Winter counts, pictorial calendars painted on hides or recorded on paper. The Battiste Good winter count records Lakota history back to 900 CE, when White Buffalo Calf Woman gave the Lakota people the White Buffalo Calf Pipe. Around 1730, Cheyenne people introduced the Lakota to horses, called šuŋkawakaŋ. After their adoption of horse culture, Lakota society centered on the buffalo hunt on horseback; the total population of the Sioux was estimated at 28,000 by French explorers in 1660. The Lakota population was first estimated at 8,500 in 1805, growing and reaching 16,110 in 1881; the Lakota were, one of the few Native American tribes to increase in population in the 19th century. The number of Lakota has now increased to more than 170,000, of whom about 2,000 still speak the Lakota language. After 1720, the Lakota branch of the Seven Council Fires split into two major sects, the Saône who moved to the Lake Traverse area on the South Dakota–North Dakota–Minnesota border, the Oglála-Sičháŋǧu who occupied the James River valley.
However, by about 1750 the Saône had moved to the east bank of the Missouri River, followed 10 years by the Oglála and Brulé. The large and powerful Arikara and Hidatsa villages had long prevented the Lakota from crossing the Missouri. However, the great smallpox epidemic of 1772–1780 destroyed three-quarters of these tribes; the Lakota crossed the river into short-grass prairies of the High Plains. These newcomers were the Saône, well-mounted and confident, who spread out quickly. In 1765, a Saône exploring and raiding party led by Chief Standing Bear discovered the Black Hills the territory of the Cheyenne. Ten years the Oglála and Brulé crossed the river. In 1776, the Lakota defeated the Cheyenne; the Cheyenne moved west to the Powder River country, the Lakota made the Black Hills their home. Initial United States contact with the Lakota during the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804–1806 was marked by a standoff. Lakota bands refused to allow the explorers to continue upstream, the expedition prepared for battle, which never came.
Some bands of Lakotas became the first Indians to help the United States Army in an Indian war west of the Missouri during the Arikara War in 1823. In 1843, the southern Lakotas attacked Pawnee Chief Blue Coat's village near the Loup in Nebraska, killing many and burning half of the earth lodges. Next time the Lakotas inflicted a blow so severe on the Pawnee would be in 1873, during the Massacre Canyon battle near Republican River. Nearly half a century after Fort Laramie had been built without permission on Lakota land, the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851 was negotiated to protect travelers on the Oregon Trail; the Cheyenne and Lakota had attacked emigrant parties in a competition for resources, because some settlers had encroached on their lands. The Fort Laramie Treaty acknowledged Lakota sovereignty over the Great Plains in exchange for free passage on the Oregon Trail for "as long as the river flows and the eagle flies"; the United States government did not enforce the treaty restriction against unauthorized settlement.
Lakota and other bands attacked settlers and emigrant trains, causing public pressure on the U. S. Army to punish the hostiles. On September 3, 1855, 700 soldiers under American General William S. Harney avenged the Grattan Massacre by attacking a Lakota village in Nebraska, killing about 100 men and children. A series of short "wars" followed, in 1862–1864, as refugees from the "Dakota War of 1862" in Minnesota fled west to their allies in Montana and Dakota Territory. Increasing illegal settlement after the American Civil War caused war once again; the Black Hills were considered sacred by the Lakota, they objected to mining. Between 1866 and 1868 the U. S. Army fought the Lakota and their allies along the Bozeman Trail over U. S. Forts built to protect miners traveling along the trail. Oglala Chief Red Cloud led his people to victory in Red Cloud's War. In 1868, the United States signed the Fort Laramie
Oglala
The Oglala are one of the seven subtribes of the Lakota people who, along with the Dakota, make up the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ. A majority of the Oglala live on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, the eighth-largest Native American reservation in the United States; the Oglala are a federally recognized tribe. However, many Oglala reject the term "Sioux" due to the hypothesis that its origin may be a derogatory word meaning "snake" in the language of the Ojibwe, who were among the historical enemies of the Lakota, they are known as Oglala Lakota. Oglala elders relate stories about the origin of the name "Oglala" and their emergence as a distinct group sometime in the 18th century. In the early 1800s, Europeans passed through Lakota territory in greater numbers, they sought furs beaver fur at first, buffalo fur. The trade in fur changed the Oglala way of life. 1868 brought the Fort Laramie Treaty, in its wake the Oglala became polarized over this question: How should they react to continued American encroachment on their territory?
This treaty forfeited large amounts of Oglala territory to the United States in exchange for food and other necessities. Some bands turned to the Indian agencies—forerunners to the Indian reservations—where they received beef and other rations from the US government. Other bands held fast to traditional ways of life. Many bands moved between these two extremes, coming in to the agencies during the winter and joining their relatives in the north each spring; these challenges further split the various Oglala bands. The Great Sioux Reservation was broken up into five portions; this caused the Red Cloud Agency to be moved multiple times throughout the 1870s until it was relocated and renamed the Pine Ridge Reservation in 1878. By 1890, the reservation included 5,537 people, divided into a number of districts that included some 30 distinct communities; the respected Oglala elder Left Heron once explained that before the coming of the White Buffalo Calf Woman, "the people ran around the prairie like so many wild animals," not understanding the central importance of community.
Left Heron emphasized that not only did this revered spirit woman bring the Sacred Pipe to the tribe but she taught the Lakota people many valuable lessons, including the importance of family and community. The goal of promoting these two values became a priority, in the words of Dakota anthropologist Ella Cara Deloria, "every other consideration was secondary — property, personal ambition, good times, life itself. Without that aim and the constant struggle to attain it, the people would no longer be Dakotas in truth, they would no longer be human." This strong and enduring connection between related families profoundly influenced Oglala history. Dr. John J. Saville, the U. S. Indian agent at the Red Cloud Agency, observed in 1875 that the Oglala tribe was divided into three main groups: the Kiyuksa, the Oyuĥpe and the True Oglala. "Each of these bands are subdivided into smaller parties, variously named designated by the name of their chief or leader." As the Oglala were settled on the Pine Ridge Reservation in the late 1870s, their communities looked something like this: Oyuȟpe Tiyošpaye True Oyuȟpe.
Other members include: Black Elk Wakaŋ Makaicu Oglala Tiyośpaye True Oglala Caŋkahuȟaŋ. Other members include: Short Bull. Hokayuta Huŋkpatila Iteśica Payabya Wagluȟe Kiyaksa Tiyošpaye True Kiyaksa Kuinyan Tapišleca By 1830, the Oglala had around 3,000 members. In the 1820s and 1830s, the Oglala, along with the Brulé, another Lakota band, three other Sioux bands, formed the Sioux Alliance; this Alliance attacked surrounding tribes for hunting reasons. Women have been critical to the family's life: making everything used by the family and tribe, they have processed a variety of crops. Women have controlled the food and movable property, as well as owned the family's home. In the Oglala Lakota society, the men are in charge of the politics of the tribe; the men are the chiefs for political affairs, war leaders and warriors, hunters. Traditionally, when a man marries, he goes to live with his wife with her people. First used in 1961, this flag was approved by the Oglala Sioux Triba OST Council on March 9, 1962, as the flag of the Oglala Sioux Tribe.
The circle of eight teepees on the flag represent the nine districts of the reservation: Porcupine, Medicine Root, Pass Creek, Eagle Nest, White Clay, LaCreek, Wounded Knee, Pine Ridge. The red field represents the blood shed by the tribe in defense of their lands and an allegorical reference to the term "red man," by which they were referred to by European Americans; the blue represents the sky, as seen in all four cardinal directions during the worship of the Great Spirit, the elements. It represents the Lakota spiritual concept of heaven or "the Spirit World" to which departed tribal members go. American Horse American Horse Bryan Brewer Crazy Horse Crow Dog (Ka
Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation
The Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation is home of the federally recognized Northern Cheyenne tribe. Located in southeastern Montana, the reservation is 690 square miles in size and home to 5,000 Cheyenne people; the tribal and government headquarters are located in Lame Deer the home of the annual Northern Cheyenne pow wow. The reservation is bounded on the east on the west by the Crow Reservation. There are small parcels of non-contiguous off-reservation trust lands in Meade County, South Dakota, northeast of the city of Sturgis, its timbered ridges that extend into northwestern South Dakota are part of Custer National Forest and it is 40 miles east of the site of the 1876 Battle of the Little Bighorn. According to tribal enrollment figures as of March 2013, there were 10,050 enrolled tribal members, of which about 4,939 were residing on the reservation, with 91% of the population Native American and 72.8% identifying as Cheyenne. More than a quarter of the population five years or older spoke a language other than English.
Members of the Crow Nation live on the reservation. Traditional Cheyenne spiritual culture, like most traditional Indigenous spiritual ways, values the peoples' connection to their landbase, sees the land itself, as well as special sites like Bear Butte, as sacred. Numerous Cheyenne work as foresters and fire fighters; this spiritual perspective is evident in traditional communities like Lame Deer and Birney and when the 2006 vote on development coal and coalbed methane on the reservation split along modernist vs traditional lines. A historical buffalo jump, burial sites of Cheyenne chiefs and spiritual leaders, the site of Custer's last camp before the Battle of the Little Bighorn, the Cheyenne Indian Museum, Ten Bears Gallery, St. Labre Indian School, the Ashland Powwow are sites of special interest in the Ashland area; the Northern Cheyenne are related to the Southern Cheyenne. Following the Black Hills War and earlier conflicts in Colorado, the Northern Cheyenne were forcibly moved to Oklahoma and restricted to lands of their southern relatives.
Unable to acclimate swiftly to the heat of western Oklahoma, having to grow their food instead of hunting or gathering as were their ways, the brutal conditions in the barracks where they were held, the northerners began dying. In desperation, a small band left the reservation and headed north in 1878, an odyssey that came to be known as the Northern Cheyenne Exodus; the Northern Cheyenne settled around Fort Keogh. In the early 1880s, many families began to migrate south to the Tongue River watershed area and established homesteads in the northern edge of the Powder River Basin, which they considered their natural home; the Northern Cheyenne were allies of the Lakota in the Black Hills War of 1876–1877. The United States government established the Tongue River Indian Reservation, which consisted of 371,200 acres of land, under the executive order given by President Chester A. Arthur on November 16, 1884 The boundaries did not include the Cheyenne who had homesteaded further east near the Tongue River, therefore those people who had were helped by the St. Labre Catholic Mission.
This changed though when on March 19, 1900, President William McKinley extended the reservation to the west bank of the Tongue River, for a total of 444,157 acres. Those Cheyenne who had homesteaded east of the Tongue River were relocated to reservation lands west of the river. Lame Deer, with about 4,000 residents, of which 92% are American Indian, is the capital of the Northern Cheyenne nation. Chief Dull Knife College is located there. To the west is Muddy, Montana with about 600 residents, 94% American Indian, further west Busby, Montana with about 700 residents, 90% American Indian. Busby was the site of the Tongue River Boarding School, opened in 1904; the school would become quite active in basketball, with their team playing a winning game against the Harlem Globetrotters and winning a State championship in the 1950s. The Busby White River Cheyenne Mennonite Church is located in Busby. Ashland, Montana, is to the east. In 1884 a Catholic boarding school, the St. Labre Indian School, was established there.
The 460 residents of Ashland are about 75% American Indian. They are very active in basketball; when Busby became part of their district, they had notable rivalry basketball games in the late 1940s and on. Birney, population about 100, 86% Indian, is south of Lame Deer and Ashland. Part of Birney, "White Birney", lies south of the reservation. Colstrip, Montana, is a neighboring industrial city devoted to coal mining and electrical generation. Located 20 miles north of the reservation, it has a population of about 2,300 residents, of which 240, or 11%, are American Indians, it is where some Cheyenne attend public school or live for work. Chief Dull Knife College named Dull Knife Memorial College, is an open admission Native American tribal community college and land grant institution, it is located on the reservation, in Lame Deer, has a current enrollment of 141 students. On average, more than half of the graduates move on to four-year colleges; the college is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Universities.
It is member of the American Indian Higher Education Consortium and American Association of Community Colleges. The reservation is the recipient of a 2010 Promise Neighborhoods grant from the United States Department of Education, through the l
Hook Nose
This is the article on the Northern Suhtai, Northern Cheyenne warrior who died at the Battle of Beecher Island 1868 Roman Nose known as Hook Nose, was a Native American of the Northern Cheyenne. He is considered to be one of, if not the greatest and most influential warriors during the Plains Indian War of the 1860s. Born during the prosperous days of the fur trade in the 1820s, he was called môséškanetsénoonáhe as a youth, he took the warrior name Hook Nose, which the whites interpreted as Roman Nose. Considered invincible in combat, this fierce warrior distinguished himself in battle to such a degree that the U. S. military mistook him for the Chief of the entire Cheyenne nation. Following the Sand Creek Massacre in November 1864, Hook Nose became a principal figure among his people, leading retaliatory strikes against Euro-American settlements at the Battle of Julesburg along the Platte Road and Powder River regions of south-central Wyoming and in the Platte valley of Nebraska, western Kansas, eastern Colorado.
The Native American author and physician Charles A. Eastman wrote of Hook Nose that, "Perhaps no other warrior attacked more emigrants along the Oregon Trail between 1860–1868."Contrary to popular myth, Hook Nose was never a chief, nor a leader of any of the six Cheyenne military societies. However, known to all plains Indians as a great warrior, the acknowledged leader during combat, Hook Nose's reputation spread among the whites who credited him with initiating most hostilities between the Cheyenne and U. S military. A member of the Crooked Lance Warrior Society, Hook Nose continually refused seats among the Cheyenne Chiefs and headsmen, never held a position of authority within his tribe. Physically imposing in stature, there are several historical references to Hook Nose's flamboyant, intimidating personality and battle prowess. Isaac Coates, General Winfield S. Hancock's surgeon, observed a verbal confrontation between Hancock and Hook Nose outside Fort Larned in April 1867. Coates wrote in his journal.
He is one of physically, of his race. He is quite six feet in height, finely formed with muscular limbs, his appearance, decidedly military, on this occasion so, since he wore the uniform of a General in the Army. A seven-shooting Spencer carbine hung at the side of his saddle, four large Navy revolvers stuck in his belt, a bow strung with arrows, were grasped in his left hand, thus armed and mounted on a fine horse, he was a good representative of the God of War. Following the implementation of the Little Arkansas Treaty in 1865, Hook Nose moved south, pledging to assist his friends, Bull Bear, Grey Beard, the Cheyenne Dog Soldiers, defend their ancestral hunting grounds along the Smoky Hill River and within the Republican Valley, he was killed by American soldiers during the Battle of Beecher Island on September 17, 1868, while attempting to charge the island in the Arikaree River, annihilate General Forsyth's command. He was known as "Roman Nose" among the Americans; some of his other aliases were Arched Nose, Woo-kay-nay.
Hook Nose was known by his peers as being willing to protect his people. Hook Nose was known as a warrior with many bold tactics to fight against his enemies. Hook Nose was known to be a spiritual individual and practiced traditional Cheyenne medicine. Hook Nose and his peers believed it was this medicine that protected him and made him such a great warrior. Hook Nose was a Northern Suhtai, a band within the Northern Cheyenne tribe. A common mistake is to confuse him with a supposed son of the Minniconjou Lakota Sioux Lone Horn and brother of Spotted Elk and Touch the Clouds called Roman Nose, he died during the Battle at Beecher Island in 1868. "He had refused a chieftaincy when young, on the grounds that he spent the major portion of his time in battle rather than in council". Although Hook Nose never accepted the role of chief, many of his peers respected him as a leader and protector of his people and their resources. "Roman Nose, was a leader of Indian warriors and a member of the crooked Lance Society of the Cheyenne Indian Tribe".
Hook Nose's intentions might have been to protect his people. "Roman Nose, the fierce Dog Soldier Warrior, was considered a'bad' Indian. He wanted the white man evicted from the plains, his lance meant to sweep the lands clean of whites fences, houses and the'iron horse'". Hook Nose's leadership, battle tactics, spirituality are a few things that made him known to many. Although he died young, Hook Nose left an impact on the west during his time. Hook Nose's battle tactics and leadership skills were not only known by his tribe, but by other people who encountered him. "His bravery came and spotless. Witnesses of Hook Nose's warfare talked about his tactics and leadership abilities. "A common battle tactic of his was to ride up and down the line of army troops within rifle range, getting them to discharge their weapons and waste their ammunition." Hook Nose used deadly and malicious tactics to protect himself, his people, his culture. "Roman Nose was a prominent Southern Cheyenne warrior best remembered for his key role in the ongoing battle against white advancement in the west throughout the 1860s
John Ford
John Ford was an American film director. He is renowned both for Westerns such as Stagecoach, The Searchers, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, as well as adaptations of classic 20th-century American novels such as the film The Grapes of Wrath, his four Academy Awards for Best Director remain a record. One of the films for which he won the award, How Green Was My Valley won Best Picture. In a career that spanned more than 50 years, Ford directed more than 140 films and he is regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers of his generation. Ford's work was held in high regard by his colleagues, with Orson Welles and Ingmar Bergman among those who have named him one of the greatest directors of all time. Ford made frequent use of location shooting and long shots, in which his characters were framed against a vast and rugged natural terrain. Ford was born John Martin "Jack" Feeney in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, to John Augustine Feeney and Barbara "Abbey" Curran, on February 1, 1894.
His father, John Augustine, was born in Spiddal, County Galway, Ireland, in 1854. Barbara Curran was born in the town of Kilronan on the island of Inishmore. John A. Feeney's grandmother, Barbara Morris, was said to be a member of a local gentry family, the Morrises of Spiddal. John Augustine and Barbara Curran arrived in Boston and Portland in May and June 1872, they married in 1875 and became American citizens five years on September 11, 1880. They had eleven children: Mamie, born 1876. John Augustine lived in the Munjoy Hill neighborhood of Portland, with his family, would try farming, working for the gas company, running a saloon, being an alderman. Feeney attended Portland High School, Maine, where he was a successful fullback and defensive tackle, he earned the nickname "Bull" because of the way he would charge the line. A Portland pub is named Bull Feeney's in his honor, he moved to California and in 1914 began working in film production as well as acting for his older brother Francis, adopting "Jack Ford" as a professional name.
In addition to credited roles, he appeared uncredited as a Klansman in D. W. Griffith's 1915 The Birth of a Nation, he married Mary McBride Smith on July 3, 1920, they had two children. His daughter Barbara was married to singer and actor Ken Curtis from 1952 to 1964; the marriage between Ford and Smith lasted for life despite various issues, one of which could have proved problematic from the start, this being that John Ford was Catholic while she was a non-Catholic divorcée. What difficulty was caused by the two marrying is unclear as the level of John Ford's commitment to the Catholic faith is disputed. A strain would have been Ford's many extramarital relationships. John Ford began his career in film after moving to California in July 1914, he followed in the footsteps of his multi-talented older brother Francis Ford, twelve years his senior, who had left home years earlier and had worked in vaudeville before becoming a movie actor. Francis played in hundreds of silent pictures for filmmakers such as Thomas Edison, Georges Méliès and Thomas Ince progressing to become a prominent Hollywood actor-writer-director with his own production company at Universal.
John Ford started out in his brother's films as an assistant, handyman and occasional actor doubling for his brother, whom he resembled. Francis gave his younger brother his first acting role in The Mysterious Rose. Despite an combative relationship, within three years Jack had progressed to become Francis' chief assistant and worked as his cameraman. By the time Jack Ford was given his first break as a director, Francis' profile was declining and he ceased working as a director soon after. One notable feature of John Ford's films is that he used a'stock company' of actors, far more so than many directors. Many famous stars appeared in at least two or more Ford films, including Harry Carey Sr. Will Rogers, John Wayne, Henry Fonda, Maureen O'Hara, James Stewart, Woody Strode, Richard Widmark, Victor McLaglen, Vera Miles and Jeffrey Hunter. Many of his supporting actors appeared in multiple Ford films over a period of several decades, including Ben Johnson, Chill Wills, Andy Devine, Ward Bond, Grant Withers, Mae Marsh, Anna Lee, Harry Carey Jr.
Ken Curtis, Frank Baker, Dolores del Río, Pedro Armendáriz, Hank Worden, John Qualen, Barry Fitzgerald, Arthur Shields, John Carradine, O. Z. Whitehead and Carleton Young. Core members of this extended'troupe', including Ward Bond, John Carradine, Harry Carey Jr. Mae Marsh, Frank Baker and Ben Johnson, were informally known as the John Ford Stock Company. Ford enjoyed extended working relationships with his production team, many of his crew worked with him for decades, he made numerous films with the same major collaborators, including producer and business partner Merian C. Cooper, scriptwriters Nunnally Johnson, Dudley Nichols and Frank S. Nugent, cinematographers Ben F. Reynolds, John W. Brown and Georg
