Elwood Towner

Elwood Towner
Bornc. 1897
Siletz Reservation, Lincoln County, Oregon, U.S.
DiedOctober 6, 1954(1954-10-06) (aged 57)
Multnomah, Portland, Oregon, U.S.
Resting placeWillamette National Cemetery
Portland, Oregon
Occupation(s)Attorney, tribal advocate, pro-Nazi speaker
Years active1930s–1940s
SpouseEvelyn M. Redpath

Elwood Alfred Towner (c. 1897 – October 6, 1954),[1][2] who also adopted the title of Chief Red Cloud, was an American attorney, tribal advocate, and antisemitic speaker.[3][4]

A mixed-race Native American Hupa[5] from Portland, Oregon,[3] Towner was active as a speaker during the late 1930s, making speeches throughout the American Northwest,[4] where he "defended Hitler while excoriating Jews."[6] He was drawn to the ideals of William Dudley Pelley, specifically Pelley's stated goal of 'setting free' Native Americans from reservations and replacing them with Jews.[7] He was also active within the American Indian Federation, and garnered support for the organization through Fascist organizations such as the German American Bund and the Silver Legion of America.[4][6][8]

Early life and career

Towner was born on the Siletz Reservation in the late 1890s, and attended the Chemawa Indian School in Salem as a young boy.[4] He served in the U.S. Marine Corps during the First World War as a private, graduating from Willamette University College of Law in 1926.[4][8] He advocated for Native clients, calling for the closure of the Chemawa school in 1933 as a part of the "emancipation" of Indians, and opposed the federal government's dam projects on the Columbia River.[4] In 1937, Towner was sentenced to 60 days in jail for assault for abusing his wife.[4]

References

  1. ^ "Elwood Alfred "Chief Red Cloud" Towner". FindAGrave. March 3, 2000. Retrieved July 19, 2021.
  2. ^ "Elwood Alfred Towner | 3 Jun 1897 - 6 Oct 1954 | burial record". BillionGraves. Retrieved 2021-05-11.
  3. ^ a b Hart, Bradley W. (2018-10-02). Hitler's American Friends: The Third Reich's Supporters in the United States. St. Martin's Publishing Group. p. 49. ISBN 978-1-250-14896-4.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g "The strange case of the Northwest's Native American Nazi | Crosscut". crosscut.com. Retrieved 2020-05-10.
  5. ^ Townsend, Kenneth W. (2018). First Americans: A History of Native Peoples, Combined Volume: A History of Native Peoples, PowerPoints. Routledge. p. 469. ISBN 9781351665186. Retrieved 28 April 2021.
  6. ^ a b Beekman, Scott (2005-10-17). William Dudley Pelley: A Life in Right-Wing Extremism and the Occult. Syracuse University Press. p. 121. ISBN 978-0-8156-0819-6.
  7. ^ "Portrait and brief biographical Information on Elwood A. Towner, "Chief Red Cloud."". WorldCat. OCLC. Retrieved November 20, 2022.
  8. ^ a b Toy, Eckard V. (1989). "Silver Shirts in the Northwest: Politics, Prophecies, and Personalities in the 1930s". The Pacific Northwest Quarterly. 80 (4): 139–146. ISSN 0030-8803. JSTOR 40491076.


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