Native American Chief Bald Eagle, who appeared in the Oscar-winning 1990 film Dances With Wolves, has died aged 97. Born 8 April 1919 in a tepee on the Lakota reservation in South Dakota, he was the grandson of Chief White Bull, who fought in the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876. He served in the US Army during World War Two, winning the silver star in Italy and being seriously wounded while parachuting into Normandy during D-Day. He then became a drummer and ballroom dancer before setting off for Hollywood where he trained stars including John Wayne in horse and gun handling, and served as Errol Flynn’s stunt double. He appeared in more than 40 films. Off screen he became the face of South Dakota’s Lakota people and was elected as the first Chief of the United Native Nations in 2001, addressing indigenous people worldwide. His last film Neither Wolf Nor Dog premieres this year and the director said: “He was an astonishingly beautiful man. The sparkle from his eyes when he smiled or was being mischievous was a joy to behold.”
He was a Sun Mercury Mars in Aries trine Saturn in Leo so resilient and courageous. He had a Fire Water chart – definitely effervescent. With a Jupiter Pluto conjunction in Cancer trine Uranus, which Nelson Mandela, born the previous year also had – confident, lucky, designed for times of change. Both had Saturn and Neptune in Leo not conjunct, but the energy was there in fighting for fairness. Both had a crusading Sagittarius North Node.
Wow…that is a life well lived.