Jay Silverheels appears in the Thrilling Adventure Hour serialized segment "Tales from the Black Lagoon". Notes Bibliography Jay Silverheels Jay Silverheels (born Harold Preston Smith, May 26, 1912 – March 5, 1980) was a Mohawk Canadian actor and He was well known for his role as Tonto, the faithful Indian companion of the Lone Ranger in the long-running American western television series "The Lone Ranger". Silverheels was born Harold Preston Smith in Canada, on the Six Nations of the Grand River, near Hagersville, Ontario. He was a grandson of Mohawk Chief A.G. Smith and Mary Wedge, and one of the 11 children
Contemporary Native American issues in the United States were first performed by European Americans dressed in mock traditional attire. Examples included "The Last of the Mohicans" (1920), "Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans" (1957), and "F Troop" (1965–67). In later decades, Native American actors such as Jay Silverheels in "The Lone Ranger" television series (1949–57) came to prominence. Roles of Native Americans were limited and not reflective of Native American culture. For years, Native people on U.S. television were relegated to secondary, subordinate roles relative to the white protagonists as shown in notable works like "Cheyenne" (1957–1963) and "Law of the Plainsman" (1959–1963). By the 1970s some