William Henry Dietz Contested heritage What about Dietz's heritage was contested? Dietz's Indian heritage was first contested in 1916 after former neighbors who settled on the Pacific Coast heard he was posing as an Indian.
Was he living on an Indian reservation or had he before?
Was William Henry Dietz living on an Indian reservation or had he before?
Dietz's Indian heritage was first contested in 1916 after former neighbors who settled on the Pacific Coast heard he was posing as an Indian. In December 1918 the Federal Bureau of Investigation looked into his heritage after he fraudulently registered for the draft as a "Non-Citizen Indian" with an allotment. The Bureau found he had taken on the identity of James One Star, an Oglala man of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation 12 years his senior who had disappeared in Cuba in 1894. Dietz also claimed he was the head of an American film company that produced propaganda films for the war.  Dietz divorced De Cora in November 1918, charging her with abandonment. It is not clear how much she knew about his true identity. She died six days after his indictment.  Dietz was tried in Spokane, Washington in June 1919 for the first offense. One Star's sister, Sallie Eaglehorse, testified after seeing him for the first time at the trial that Dietz was definitely not her brother. Still, the judge instructed the jury to determine whether Dietz "believed" he was an Indian, not whether it was true. Despite that others had witnessed his birth in the summer of 1884 or had seen him the following day, Dietz's mother Leanna claimed he was the Indian son of her husband who had been switched a week or more after she had a stillbirth. Dietz's acting ability along with his mother's fallacious testimony (to protect him from prison) resulted in a hung jury, but Dietz was immediately re-indicted. The second trial resulted in a sentence of 30 days in the Spokane County Jail after he pleaded "no contest". CANNOTANSWER
In December 1918 the Federal Bureau of Investigation looked into his heritage after he fraudulently registered for the draft as a "Non-Citizen Indian" with an allotment.
William Henry "Lone Star" Dietz (August 17, 1884 – July 20, 1964) was an American football player and coach. He served as the head football coach at Washington State University (1915–1917), Purdue University (1921), Louisiana Tech University (1922–1923), University of Wyoming (1924–1926), Haskell Institute—now known as Haskell Indian Nations University (1929–1932), and Albright College (1937–1942).  From 1933 to 1934, Dietz served as the head coach for the National Football League's Boston Redskins, where he tallied a mark of 11–11–2.  He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 2012.

Early life
According to census records and to his birth certificate, he was born William Henry Dietz, or "Willie," on August 17, 1884, in Rice Lake, Wisconsin, at 16 West Humbird Street.  His father William Wallace Dietz, settled in the area in 1871 and was elected county sheriff in 1877. His father married Leanna Ginder in November 1879.

"Willie" attended Oklahoma's Chilocco Indian Agricultural School, where he may have feigned some kind of Indian identity for the first time according to researcher Linda Waggoner. She wrote, "Naturally, visitors to the St. Louis World's Fair exhibit, including Dietz's future wife, Winnebago artist Angel De Cora (1871–1919), thought Dietz was a Chilocco student." Waggoner traced Dietz' heritage in several articles in Indian Country Today Media Network and at a 2013 symposium at the National Museum of the American Indian.

Contested heritage
Dietz's heritage was first contested in 1916 after former neighbors who settled on the Pacific Coast heard he was posing as a Native American. In December 1918 the Federal Bureau of Investigation looked into his heritage after he registered for the draft as a "Non-Citizen Indian" with an allotment. The Bureau found he had taken on the identity of James One Star, an Oglala man of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation 12 years his senior who had disappeared in Cuba in 1894. Dietz also claimed he was the head of an American film company that produced propaganda films for the war.

Dietz was tried in Spokane, Washington in June 1919 for the first offense. One Star's sister, Sallie Eaglehorse, testified after seeing him for the first time at the trial that Dietz was definitely not her brother. Still, the judge instructed the jury to determine whether Dietz "believed" he was a Native American, not whether it was true. Despite that others had witnessed his birth in the summer of 1884 or had seen him the following day, Dietz's mother Leanna claimed he was the Native American son of her husband who had been switched a week or more after she had a stillbirth. Dietz's acting ability along with his mother's fallacious testimony (to protect him from prison) resulted in a hung jury, but Dietz was immediately re-indicted. The second trial resulted in a sentence of 30 days in the Spokane County Jail after he pleaded "no contest".

Dietz's true heritage remains controversial.  Although he is recognized as an "Indian athlete" by Dan Snyder, owner of the Washington Football Team (formerly known as the Washington Redskins), Indian Country Today Media Network ran a series of articles in 2004 exposing Dietz as a white man masquerading as a Native American. In 1988, the National Congress of American Indians attempted to meet and discuss the issue with the team's former owner, Jack Kent Cooke, but Cooke refused a meeting.

Playing career
Dietz played at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, with teammate Jim Thorpe, under famed coach Pop Warner.

Coaching career
In 1921, Dietz took a coaching position with Purdue University in Indiana. After Angel De Cora died in 1919, he married Doris O. Pottlitzer, a middle-aged local journalist, on January 29, 1922. The week previous to their marriage, Purdue officials fired him for illegal recruiting. In spring 1933, George Preston Marshall, owner of the Boston Braves, hired Dietz to replace Coach Lud Wray. In 1937, the team moved to Washington, D.C.

For the rest of his life, Dietz continued to promote himself as Lone Star Dietz, the son of W. W. and Julia One Star of Pine Ridge. He took on his last coaching job in 1937 for Albright College in Pennsylvania; in 1964, still married to Doris, Dietz died in Reading, Pennsylvania. Later in life, Dietz was an active painter exhibiting his work at Lafayette College with in an exhibit curated by Francis Quirk. He and Doris were so poor that former teammates purchased his headstone. It reads: "William ‘Lone Star’ Dietz
born in South Dakota."

George Preston Marshall, owner and founder of the Boston Braves, sought to rename the franchise in 1933 after leaving the stadium the team had shared with the baseball team of the same name. Marshall was said to have named the Redskins in honor of Dietz, who claimed to be of the Sioux Nation, by analogy with the Red Sox who shared the team's new home, Fenway Park. A 1933 news article quotes Marshall as saying he named the team because of real Indians on the team. However, Marshall is only talking about why he specifically chose Redskins. Dietz was hired before the name change and is cited in many articles and by Marshall as being a reason he kept the Native American theme when changing the team name.

Recognition
Dietz was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2012.

Nickname

Dietz named himself "Lone Star" after James One Star, the alleged nephew of an Oglala Buffalo Bill Performer sometime after the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. "Lone Star" and "One Star" are the same name in Oglala.

Personal life
Dietz divorced De Cora in November 1918, charging her with abandonment. It is not clear how much she knew about his identity.  She died six days after his indictment. Later in life, Dietz was an active painter exhibiting his work at Lehigh University with sculptors Joseph Brown and Jose deRivera in a 1955 exhibit curated by Francis Quirk.

Head coaching record

College football

NFL

College baseball

References

Further reading
Keep A-goin': the life of Lone Star Dietz (2006) , hardback; , softcover (2006) 
Doctors, Lawyers, Indian Chiefs (2008)  softcover devotes a chapter to Lone Star Dietz
At last, Lone Star in the Hall of Fame (May 22, 2012 by Cougfan.com)

External links
 
 

1884 births
1964 deaths
Albright Lions football coaches
Carlisle Indians football coaches
Carlisle Indians football players
Haskell Indian Nations Fighting Indians football coaches
Louisiana Tech Bulldogs baseball coaches
Louisiana Tech Bulldogs football coaches
Ole Miss Rebels football coaches
Purdue Boilermakers football coaches
Washington State Cougars football coaches
Wyoming Cowboys football coaches
Boston Redskins head coaches
College Football Hall of Fame inductees
People from Rice Lake, Wisconsin
Players of American football from Wisconsin
American football tackles
The Poospatuck Reservation is an Indian reservation of the Unkechaugi band in the community of Mastic, Suffolk County, New York, United States. It is one of two Native American reservations in Suffolk County, the other being the Shinnecock Reservation. The population was 436 at the 2020 census.

The Unkechaugi are descendants of the Quiripi-speaking Native Americans, who occupied much of southern New England and central Long Island at the time of European encounter in the colonial era. Historically they spoke an Algonquian language. They have retained a community; the reservation is the smallest in New York State. The current 55 acre reservation was originally set aside for the Unkechaugs as a 175-acre plot by William "Tangier" Smith after he purchased large tracts of land from Unkechaug John Mayhew in 1691. It is located in Mastic on the north side of Poospatuck Creek, on the east side of Poospatuck Lane, and south of Eleanor Avenue.  Poospatuck is situated in the southeast corner of Suffolk County's present-day Town of Brookhaven; and is the township's sole Indian reservation. It is about 70 miles or 1½ hours east of New York City.

The reservation and its people are recognized as Native American by the state of New York but it has not received federal recognition from the US Bureau of Indian Affairs. This means that it does not control sovereign territory and may not conduct Indian gaming on its land.

Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the Indian reservation has a land area of , and a water area of . The reservation reports the size of the reservation is actually .

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 271 people, 93 households, and 67 families residing in the Indian reservation. The population density was 3,040.9/mi2 (1,162.6/km2). There were 100 housing units at an average density of 1,122.1 inhabitants/mi2 (429.0 inhabitants/km2). The racial makeup of the Indian reservation was 1.48% White, 12.92% African American, 79.34% Native American (mostly Unkechaug people), no Asians, no Pacific Islanders, 0.74% from other races, and 5.54% from two or more races. 4.80% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There were 93 households, out of which 47.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 29.0% were married couples living together, 32.3% had a woman whose husband does not live with her, and 26.9% were non-families. 24.7% of all households were made up of individuals, and 2.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.91 and the average family size was 3.51.

In the Indian reservation the population was spread out, with 36.5% under the age of 18, 10.0% from 18 to 24, 30.3% from 25 to 44, 17.3% from 45 to 64, and 5.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 27 years. For every 100 females, there were 78.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 79.2 males.

The median income for a household in the Indian reservation was $13,125, and the median income for a family was $17,500. Males had a median income of $47,500 versus $20,250 for females. The per capita income for the Indian reservation was $8,127. 36.6% of the population and 36.8% of families were below the poverty line. Out of the total people living in poverty, 46.6% were under the age of 18 and 25.0% were 65 or older.

References

Poospatuck (state) Reservation, New York United States Census Bureau

American Indian reservations in New York (state)
Brookhaven, New York
Geography of Suffolk County, New York
Eastern Algonquian peoples
Native American tribes in New York (state) Seymour v. Superintendent of Wash. State Penitentiary, 368 U.S. 351 (1962), was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States that the state of Washington did not have jurisdiction to try an Indian (Native American) for a crime committed within the boundaries of the Colville Indian Reservation, even if the crime was committed on land now owned by a non-Indian.

Background

History
Paul Seymour was an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, a group of twelve Indian tribes that are based at the Colville Indian Reservation.  The reservation is located in the western part of Oregon and the eastern part of Washington.  The reservation was established by the executive order of President Ulysses S. Grant on 2 July 1872.  In 1892, Congress opened up part of the reservation to white settlement.  In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson, with Congressional authorization, opened up more reservation land for settlement.

Lower courts
Seymour was charged with burglary in Okanogan County, Washington and pleaded guilty to attempted burglary.  He was sentenced to  years in the state penitentiary.  While incarcerated, he filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the Washington Supreme Court.  The state Supreme Court denied the petition on the grounds that the offense did not take place in "Indian country".  Indian country is defined in federal law as including all land within an Indian reservation, and within Indian country, only the Federal government has jurisdiction over crimes committed by Indians.  The court reasoned that the Congressional action that had opened the Colville Indian Reservation to settlement had reduced or diminished the size of the reservation and since the crime was committed outside of the diminished reservation, it was not in Indian country.  The court denied the writ.  Seymour then appealed to the United States Supreme Court, which agreed to hear the appeal and granted a writ of certiorari.

Opinion of the court

Arguments
Glen A. Wilkinson argued the case for Seymour.  Washington Assistant Attorney General Stephen C. Way argued the case for the state of Washington.  At the request of the court United States Solicitor General J. Lee Rankin filed a memorandum with the court.

Unanimous opinion
Justice Hugo Black announced the opinion of a unanimous court.  Black looked to the statutes that affected the Colville Indian Reservation and noted that the 1892 act expressly reserved the southern half for use of the tribes under control of the federal government.  The 1916 presidential proclamation merely set forth the procedure for settlement, and neither the proclamation nor the enabling act had any language terminating the reservation.  Black further noted that a 1956 statute recognized the continued existence of the reservation, and a 1953 statute explained how the state could obtain jurisdiction once certain conditions were met.  Black observed that those conditions had not yet been met.  The statutes opening up the reservation to settlement merely allowed non-Indians to move onto the reservation and did not end reservation status.

Black stated that "Since the burglary with which petitioner was charged occurred on property plainly located within the limits of that reservation, the courts of Washington had no jurisdiction to try him for that offense."  The case was reversed and remanded to the Washington Supreme Court.

References

External links
 

1962 in American law
United States Supreme Court cases
United States Supreme Court cases of the Warren Court