Review
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Title: Real Native Genius: How an Ex-Slave and a White Mormon Became Famous Indians
Author: Angela Pulley Hudson
Publisher: University of North Carolina Press
Genre: Mormons; African-American studies; Native American studies; Women studies
Year Published: 2015
Number of Pages: 270
Binding: Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-4696-2443-3
Price: $29.95
Reviewed by Kris Wray for the Association for Mormon Letters
Just when you think you’ve heard it all in Mormon history, someone like Angela Hudson comes along and writes a book on people and incidents most Saints know nothing about. In “Real Native Genius,” Hudson, a history professor from Texas A&M, introduces Warner McCary, born into slavery in the deep south in 1810. When his master died, his will stipulated the family was to be given their freedom, but that Warner was to remain a servant to his older brother and sister. He was finally set free thirty years later. Having become proficient in playing a flute since his youth, along with perfecting a few other tricks good for entertainment purposes, Warner was struck with an ingenious idea: reinvent himself as a Native American performer, whereby he could make a profit peddling his talents to crowds eager to watch. The plan worked well enough for Warner to continue pursuing the act into adulthood.
This was not an isolated phenomenon during antebellum America, as other slaves had and would also claim Indian heritage due to the social and occasional financial benefits that came with it.
Lucy Stanton’s family joined the Mormon Church being led by Joseph Smith Jr. when she was a child. She married an LDS man when in her late teens and they began a family. Some said that at one time she was known to practice a gift of the Spirit which consisted of speaking in tongues, the sound of which had a ring of “Injun” vernacular. At a time when whispers of polygamy were making their way through the grapevine, Lucy’s husband lost faith for some reason and separated himself from the Saints and his family, leaving his wife to take care of their three children by herself.
When Warner McCary, by then known as William McCary, met Lucy Stanton, the two hit it off so well that she accepted his offer of immediate marriage. Already settled into his public role as an American Indian, it’s hard to say if she was told the whole truth of his past. Whatever the case may have been, William was baptized a Mormon, one of the few African-Americans who were baptized in those early days… a fact that remained uncelebrated among misled members of the Church, although the color of his skin gave him away, according to the records available. Shortly thereafter he and Lucy were married by Apostle Orson Hyde.
Brother McCary wasn’t well-suited for conforming to the norm. His practice of Mormonism took a strange enough course that it annoyed other Latter-day Saints. With the help of his loyal companion, William went about creating his own sect of Mormonism, attempting to lead several dozen followers as a former holy man, or Lamanite (Native American) Prophet. They even had their own scandalous version of a sealing ordinance, and possibly dabbled in a form of polygamy. Such behavior secured their expulsion from the fellowship of the Saints. The section on William and Lucy’s confrontation with LDS General Authorities in 1847 is riveting, and contributes important details towards making sense of early Mormonism’s theology of race relations.
About this time, William McCary began transforming himself into Okah Tubbee, a flute player from the Choctaw nation, and more importantly, the esteemed son of his father, Chief Mushulatubbee (an actual Chief of the Choctaw tribe). Lucy Stanton was intrigued enough by his strategy for success to join in it with him, crowning herself a member of the Mohawk tribe named Laah Ceil. The pair traveled, perfecting the necessary nuances needed to be convincing, and showing off their adventurous spirit by dressing up and wooing their curious audiences. The attention was addictive, and making money off the venture must have been a plus.
Angela Hudson’s curiosity and extensive research can be credited for pulling back the curtain on the person of Lucy Stanton, aka Laah Ceil, a task that has eluded most historians before her. This was an especially difficult discovery considering neither Lucy or William McCary left any personal diaries or correspondence behind that have been identified.
When the couple masquerading as Native Americans co-authored their story and had it published in 1848, it served to increase their popularity somewhat, not to mention deepen their own commitment to their new identities. They must have been somewhat blessed in their ability to convince the populace they were the real deal, as they were not caught despite having limited exposure to actual American Indian culture, or at least probably an insufficient amount to trick a true American Indian. Nonetheless, their dedication had taken hold so strongly that when Lucy gave birth to their first child together, they actually named the son Mosholeh, after William’s fantasy father.
McCary began branching out; starting an Indian medicine business that initially had some success. The author of “Real Native Genius” does a stellar job of placing the stories of the McCarys into the larger context of what she refers to as “performing Indianness,” a favorite form of American entertainment. The mystique of Native American tradition and behavior can still be seen in movies, for instance, though it is often an inaccurate portrayal.
Their new-found fame proved to be their undoing, as aspects of their past began to rise to the surface. When their ancestry was questioned and rumors of being charlatans spread, the money dried up and marriage problems followed. McCary and Lucy split up, but were not divorced, after which the wanna-be Indian Chief took another white woman as his wife. When notice of the nuptials reached the ears of the public, accusations of bigamy were thrown around and the fairy tale began to unravel. His shocked bride turned on him, taking him to court.
Though the case was dismissed, the world now knew William McCary was an African-American posing as a Native American. Not all was lost, however, for Lucy traveled to Canada where she and her estranged husband were less known and they rekindled their relationship and occupation selling natural remedies. But the spark had apparently burned out, as the two seem to have again separated after a few years. Lucy subsided off practicing the art of healing and underground medicine, including illegal abortions. When several of her patients died from the procedure she was arrested, tried, found guilty, and sent to prison for seven years. William McCary disappeared, as did their son. Finishing her stint in prison, Lucy traveled to Utah and spent the last years of her life with the children from her first marriage.
In the process of telling the story of these two curious personalities, “Real Native Genius” sheds light on slavery, Mormonism, Native Americans, women, and the beliefs of Americans in the mid-to-late 1800s. It presents a side of life in the United States that in many ways feels foreign to the modern reader.
I recommend this provocative volume not just to historians studying the themes covered within its pages, but also to anyone desirous of reading a captivating book that will open their eyes to people and events nearly forgotten, yet so odd, it’s almost hard to remember it’s not fiction.