Description
Tsianina Redfeather, a prolific singer and performer, was born in Eufaula, within the Muscogee Creek nation, in 1882. In 1917, she travelled to England and France with the YMCA to entertain the troops and her journey was eventful , her ship was torpedoed almost two days out from Liverpool. She made it safely to Britain and was stationed at the YMCA hut in London before heading to France. Redfeather’s shows, in which she dressed in a beaded headdress and buckskin dress, made quite the impression on the British press, who declared her the “Army’s Hiawatha.” Her motivations for performing for the U.S. Army had very little to do with any sense of loyalty to America though. She said: “Here I was , helping defend the homeland which in turn had robbed us of our heritage. Amazing! I wondered if I had all of my marbles!” Instead, her war experience gave her “an even deeper pride in my heart for being an American Indian.”
Bibliographic sources
Details text from https://blogs.kent.ac.uk/bts/2018/10/29/first-world-war-native-stories/