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Elwood Towner

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American lawyer and antisemitic speaker
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), who also adopted the title of Chief Red Cloud, was an American attorney, tribal advocate, and antisemitic speaker.

A mixed-race Native American Hupa from Portland, Oregon, Towner was active as a speaker during the late 1930s, making speeches throughout the American Northwest, where he "defended Hitler while excoriating Jews." 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. 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.

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. 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. 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. In 1937, Towner was sentenced to 60 days in jail for assault for abusing his wife.

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. ^ 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. ^ "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. ^ 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. ^ 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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