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Leta Myers Smart

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Leta Myers Smart
Leta Myers Smart, a woman with olive skin and dark hair and eyes, wearing a cloche-style hat
Leta Myers Smart, from a 1931 newspaper
Born
Leta Von F. Myers

March 15, 1893
Nebraska, U.S.
DiedJune 8, 1981 (aged 88)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Other namesLeta Meyers Smart
Occupation(s)Writer, activist
RelativesAntonine Barada (great-grandfather)

Leta Von Felden Myers Smart (March 15, 1893[1] – June 8, 1981) was an American writer, and a member of the Omaha people who was active on the national level for American Indian rights.

Early life

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Myers was born in Nebraska, the daughter of Garry P. Meyers and Dora Von Felden Meyers. Her father was a blacksmith and an alumnus of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School.[2] Antonine Barada, an Omaha folk hero, was her great-grandfather. She described herself as a relative and former secretary of Omaha lawyer Thomas L. Sloan.[3]

Myers attended Hampton Institute from 1910 to 1912. She was denied admission at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School because she was less than a quarter Indian by ancestry.[1] She was listed as 1/16 Omaha in the census of the Omaha Reservation taken in 1932.[4]

Career

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Smart was active in the National Council of American Indians, and in the California Indian Rights Association.[5][6] In 1923, she brought her newborn daughter to Washington, D.C., to demand that the Bureau of Indian Affairs be abolished.[7] In 1931, she questioned the Indian affiliations of entertainer Big Chief White Horse Eagle,[8] and he in turn questioned her Omaha identity.[9] (She was later proven correct; White Horse Eagle was also known as John Delaney, a "professional ethnic impersonator.")[10] She was especially active in establishing the full citizenship of Native Americans.[11] "She has little sympathy with those whose primary interest is the 'romance' of tribal Indian history," reported a Los Angeles paper in 1931, which quoted her as saying "I am not nearly so much concerned over the shape of my grandfather's skull as I am over what is going to happen to me and my child."[12]

Smart spoke to community groups about laws affecting Indian rights.[13] In 1937 and 1938, she testified at Congressional hearings on the land rights of the Agua Caliente Band of Mission Indians,[14][15] though members of the Band rejected her standing to testify about their business.[16] In 1945, she represented Los Angeles at the National Council of American Indians, held in Montana.[17] In 1948, her involvement in a Navajo relief drive sponsored by Will Rogers Jr. came under scrutiny by the city of Los Angeles, particularly her eligibility to be paid by the campaign's funds.[18]

In the 1950s, Smart led the successful effort to remove two statues, The Discovery of America and The Rescue, from the steps of the United States Capitol. She wrote many letters to the National Sculpture Society, arguing that the representations of Native Americans in these statues was disgraceful, shameful, and "deplorable."[19][20]

Publications

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  • "W-H-O" (1920)[21]
  • "On a Nickel" (1921)[21]
  • "A Picture" (1921)[21]
  • "A Young Man's Adventure with Opportunity" (1922)
  • "The Last Rescue" (1959, Harper's)[22]

Personal life and legacy

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Myers married Frank G. Smart in 1921. They had a daughter, Waneta, and later divorced. She and her daughter moved to Los Angeles together in the 1930s.[23] In 1946, Smart spent 30 days in jail after she was convicted of striking Waneta's husband, actor Victor Heyden, with a telephone.[24] She was also prohibited from uninvited visits with Waneta or her husband for two years.[25][26] She died in 1981, at the age of 87, in Los Angeles.

There is a folder of papers related to Smart in the library of the University of Nevada, Reno.[27] Her work is included in Changing is not Vanishing: A Collection of American Indian Poetry to 1930 (2011).[21]

References

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  1. ^ a b Correspondence between F. H. Abbott to Garry P. Meyers in 1912, concerning enrollment of Meyers' daughter Leta V. Meyers; in the archives of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School.
  2. ^ "Garry Myers Student File". Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center. Retrieved 2024-08-05.
  3. ^ "Mineral Bath Plan is Discussed Here". The Desert Sun. 1945-06-01. p. 5. Retrieved 2024-08-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ Leta Von F Smart, in the U.S. Indian Census Rolls, Census of the Omaha Reservation, Winnebago Agency jurisdiction, as of April 1, 1932; via Ancestry.
  5. ^ "Removal of Statues at US Capitol Offensive to American Indians". United States Capitol Historical Society. Retrieved 2024-08-05.
  6. ^ Genetin-Pilawa, C. Joseph. "A Curious Removal: Leta Myers Smart, The Rescue, and The Discovery of America" The Capitol Dome 52(1) (Spring 2015): 2-9.
  7. ^ "Indians Unfairly Treated is Claim". Evansville Press. 1923-04-25. p. 18. Retrieved 2024-08-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ^ "White Horse Eagle Not Osage Indian, Claimed". The Highland Park News-Herald. 1931-08-25. p. 1. Retrieved 2024-08-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ "Big Chief Declares Charges Are False". The Highland Park News-Herald. 1931-09-01. p. 1. Retrieved 2024-08-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ^ McNutt, John (2021-03-07). "BACK WHEN: Visitor brought tall tales to Clallam County". Peninsula Daily News. Retrieved 2024-08-05.
  11. ^ "Crail Backs Indians for Full Citizenship". Los Angeles Evening Post-Record. 1931-04-03. p. 1. Retrieved 2024-08-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ^ "Demand Citizenship for Indians". Los Angeles Evening Post-Record. 1931-04-03. p. 1. Retrieved 2024-08-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ^ "California Indian Bill Will be Discussed". Los Angeles Times. 1941-09-20. p. 3 – via Internet Archive.
  14. ^ United States Congress House (1937). Hearings. U.S. Government Printing Office. pp. 49–50.
  15. ^ United States U. S. Congress House Committee on Indian Affairs (1938). Palm Springs Band of Mission Indians: Hearings on H.R. 7450. pp. 206–219.
  16. ^ United States U. S. Congress Senate Committee on Indian Affairs (1937). Palm Springs Band of Mission Indians: Hearing...on S. 1424...and S. 2589...Oct. 24, 1935, Apr. 6, July 6, 29, and Aug. 16, 1937. p. 233.
  17. ^ "Woman to Represent Indians at Convention". Los Angeles Times. October 13, 1945. p. 3 – via Internet Archive.
  18. ^ "City Opens Investigation into Navajo Relief Drive". The Los Angeles Times. 1948-01-17. p. 4 – via Internet Archive.
  19. ^ Shin, Youjin; Kirkpatrick, Nick; D’Ignazio, Catherine; So, Wonyoung (October 11, 2021). "Columbus monuments are coming down, but he's still honored in 6,000 places across the U.S. Here's where". Washington Post. Retrieved 2024-08-05.
  20. ^ Rosier, Paul C. (2009). Serving their country : American Indian politics and patriotism in the twentieth century. Internet Archive. Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press. pp. 168–170. ISBN 978-0-674-03610-9.
  21. ^ a b c d Parker, Robert Dale (2011-06-03). Changing Is Not Vanishing: A Collection of American Indian Poetry to 1930. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-0-8122-0006-5.
  22. ^ Smart, Leta Myers (October 1959). "The Last Rescue". Harper's Magazine.
  23. ^ "Indian Girl, In Protest, Turns Down Song Bid". The Los Angeles Times. 1941-09-19. p. 14 – via Internet Archive.
  24. ^ "Wife's Mother Hit Him with Phone, Says Actor". The Los Angeles Times. 1946-09-19. p. 2. Retrieved 2024-08-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  25. ^ "Mother-in-Law of Actor Given Term in Jail". The Los Angeles Times. 1946-10-04. p. 13. Retrieved 2024-08-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  26. ^ "Fighting Mother-in-law". Telephony: The American Telephone Journal. 131 (18): 8. November 2, 1946 – via Internet Archive.
  27. ^ Leta Myers Smart Correspondence, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Reno.
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