Native Americans in popular culture media is the Lone Ranger's sidekick, Tonto, most famously portrayed by Native American actor Jay Silverheels. James Fenimore Cooper featured a character called "The Sagamore" in his novel "The Last of the Mohicans". Rick, the protagonist of Simon Spurrier's novel, "The Culled" (2006, book 1 of The Afterblight Chronicles), belongs to the Haudenosaunee people and is guided through crises by the sachem. Another character, named Hiawatha, saves Rick's life and advises him the Tadodaho have said Rick and Hiawatha are aligned. Throughout Sherman Alexie's poem, "How to Write the Great American Indian Novel" he states that all of the Indians
Jay Silverheels was the father of three girls (Marilyn, Pamela and Karen) and a boy Jay Anthony Silverheels, who later became an actor. Silverheels suffered a stroke in 1976, and the following year, Clayton Moore rode a paint horse in Silverheels' honor in the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parade. Silverheels died on March 5, 1980, from complications of a at age sixty-seven, in Calabasas, Los Angeles County, California. He was cremated at Chapel of the Pines Crematory, and his ashes were returned to the Six Nations Reserve in Ontario. In 1993, Jay Silverheels was inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers