Pow-Wow Smith is an intriguing figure in the history of comic books, an educated Sioux/Lakota Indian who became the sheriff of a predominantly White community. The first four years of his stories were set in the present, thereafter set in the Old West. The reasons for the shift are explored as well as the narrative tensions of Smith living his life straddling indigenous and White culture.

The Origin of Pow-Wow Smith (1949)

Pow-Wow Smith was introduced to the readers of DC Comic’s Detective Comics #151, on its cover dated September 1949. The following pages are scanned from a reprint of that first story to give you a sense of how it juxtaposed the traditional life of Lakota/Dakota Indians and that of White people–at least as understood by the White author, Don Cameron. (Sioux is a term given to the Lakota/Dakota people by another tribe and so is not the preferred designation of its people, as common as that designation became.) That said, Cameron was a conscientious author by all accounts and his portrayal of Smith in the stories he wrote for him were clearly conceived of with good intentions. The artwork in his earliest appearances (and most of his later ones) my comic book great, Carmine Infantino. .

As a youth, the story goes, the talented young man earned his given name of Ohiyesa or “Winner.” Later, his settling a conflict with words rather than fists led a group of white loggers to give him what they seemingly felt was a harmless nickname of “Pow-Wow” and among his white associates the nickname stuck. As he grew into adulthood, Ohiyesa’s friendship with a white youth named Jimmy led to his interest in attending college to be with his friend.

At the college, Ohiyesa excels at both sports and academics. Both youth obtain degrees in criminology and become police officers. But his tribe’s concern that he would abandon all traditional ways prove unfounded.

The Inspiration for Pow-Wow Smith

Pow-Wow Smith was created by writer Don Cameron and artist Carmine Infantino. Infantino drew Smith as a handsome indigenous man, fit and in no way embodying any stereotypical features. Infantino may have been overly successful in that regard, as Smith also had decidedly Anglo features, though in his earlier appearance high cheekbones are subtly indicated. If not for the character being portrayed with light red skin he could have easily been mistaken for being white.

Cameron’s inspiration for the Pow-Wow Smith character is fairly easy to discern. Pow-Wow’s Sioux name was given as Ohiyesa, a word the narrative correctly indicated means “winner” or “always wins.” It is clear that the character was patterned after a real-life and well known Dakota man named Charles Eastman (1858-1939), who hardly coincidentally also had a Dakota name of Ohiyesa. Eastman was known for several popular books on Native American life as well has helping found the Boy Scouts of America and over 30 Indian chapters of the YMCA. Highly educated, Eastman graduated from Dartmouth where he was captain of the rugby team and a track star. He went on to get his medical degree and practiced on both Lakota and Dakota reservations. The parallels are obvious, with the lone exception of the medical career.

Challenges of an Indian Lawman in the New West

“Pow-Wow” divides his time between the world of white people and the more traditional realm of his people. Ohiyesa is an expert detective, using modern detective techniques at the same time respecting the traditions of the Lakota/Dakota. At the same time, he feels a tension between the two. Occasionally his people question his commitment to them and traditional ways.

Smith occasionally encountered prejudice in his interactions with white people, but when he did, it was almost always expressed by bad guys.

Stories often explored aspects of Native American culture as Smith pursued bad guys as a deputy and faced other dilemmas as he went back and forth between his communities. And sometimes an entire story took place within his tribe, leading some readers of his stories in Detective Comics to believe that his adventures were set in the Old West.

A good example of the intersection of the two cultures was a story in Detective Comics #173 (7/51) in which Smith is asked to help set up a modern police force in a neighboring tribe. The narration in the opening page of the story provides insight into how the writer was framing the adventure.

Pow-Wow stories were consistently positive in tone, and Smith’s heroic efforts generally recognized by those in his community, both Indian and White.

Smith only rarely left South Dakota, but one story had him visiting New York City and two others are set in Hollywood.

Writers generally avoided a “fish out of water” approach in these stories. The Indian lawman was educated in an Eastern college after all.

The Pow-Wow Smith stories were consistently well written and enjoyed excellent artwork throughout, rendered by Carmine Infantino, Bruno Premanini (best known for his work on Doom Patrol) and for the last couple years of his Detective run by Leonard Starr, later the acclaimed writer/artist of the comic strips Mary Perkins, On Stage and Annie.

Pow-Wow Smith’s final appearance in Detective Comics was in issue #202 (12/53). This was also the end of the stories of the modern-day detective, though readers would be forgiven if they didn’t notice.

Pow-Wow Smith Back in the Old West (1954)

With 1954, narratives of the contemporary Pow-Wow Smith are supplanted by stories of a 19^th century Indian deputy by the same name. These stories of the Old West begin in Western Comics #43 (2/54) and continue for eight years years until issue 85 thereafter.

There never has been an explanation for the switch in time frames that I’ve seen in the limited articles about Pow-Wow Smith. He appears to have been a popular feature in Detective Comics as indicated by the appearance of the message “Also a new mystery featuring Pow-Wow Smith, Indian Lawman” at the top of the cover on every issue. Editors at DC clearly believed he warranted being the cover featured lead series of a comic book, but not quite ready to star in a comic book entirely devoted to him. So to what existing anthology comic book should his stories be moved?

The Wyoming Kid had been the star of DC’s Western Comics since its second issue back in 1948. He was the epitome of a generic cowboy hero, with little to recommend him. It may also be that sales on the title were slipping. Whatever the case, Julius Schwartz, an editor at DC comics, was slated to take over the editorial reins of the title beginning with issues published in 1954. The stars aligned and Schwartz opted to make one immediate change in the Western Comics line-up. A feature entitled Cowboy Marshall was dropped and Pow-Wow Smith took his place. He also replaced the Wyoming Kid as the cover featured character, though the Kid’s stories would continue. The other notable change Schwartz made was to have Carmine Infantino, one of his favored artists, resume drawing the feature.

The only potential problem with Schwartz’ plan was that none of the other features in Western Comics were set in the present. Some cowboy heroes like Roy Rogers over at Dell had comic books set in the contemporary West but they were the exception that proved the rule. Would mixing Old West and New West characters be confusing to readers? Whatever the rationale, the editorial decision was made to start having Pow-Wow’s stories set in the Old West.

No explanation for the shift in time frame was provided. Alert readers must have assumed this Pow-Wow Smith was an ancestor of the Pow-Wow they knew, albeit one with the exact same name, face and wardrobe!

In truth, the shift was not very jarring at all. Pow-Wow continued to solve mysteries as sheriff of an accepting community of white people who generally held him in high regard. There were no more big city adventures, but the mix of Native American lore and Smith’s straddling of two cultures continued. While he participated in his people’s rituals, Pow-Wow clearly didn’t believe in what were portrayed as superstitions.

Any seeming supernatural occurrences always had a logical explanation.

The Tonto Syndrome Reversed: White Sidekicks

There was this instance in the modern setting of a cocky collegiate wannabe lawman named Eddie Graves learning humility as he fought alongside Pow-Wow Smith. Graves first first met Smith under very unfortunate circumstances. In Detective Comics 178 (12/51), the fellow tackles Pow-Wow, who is crouching hidden to better apprehend a gang of criminals. Graves, the worst kind of eager beaver, mistakenly thinks Smith is some random Indian seeking to harass white folks!

Nothing is made by Smith of the racism inherent in this mistake. And Smith must subsequently help the impulsive white guy out a bad jam.

Once Pow-Wow’s stories are set in the Old West, Smith is portrayed as the sheriff of the small town of Elkhorn, just outside his reservation in Red Deer Valley. As such, it is Smith who now has a deputy named Hank Brown. Brown is smart, fit and courageous and considers Smith his best friend. That said, it is clear that Ohiyesa is the older and wiser of the two, often gently conveying a lesson or two to his deputy.

For a brief period beginning in 1958, editor Julie Schwartz decides to drop a character named Rodeo Rick from the line-up to allow current writer Gardner Fox to write longer stories for Pow-Wow Smith. Earlier stories in Western were typically six pages in length. In issues 68 and 70-76 Pow-Wow stories increased to 12 pages, allowing them to more fully develop.

Pow-Wow Gets an Arch Foe and a Girlfriend

By the late 1950s, the super-hero revival was fully underway and new superhero comic books like the Flash, Green Lantern, and the Justice League had already arrived or soon would. And sales of Western comic books were on a notable slide after over a decade of being the dominant action genre in the business. Pow-Wow Smith was getting some mild tweaks. A romantic interest named Fleetfoot was introduced–the daughter of the chief–and for the first time, Pow-Wow faced a bad guy who came back for more.

His name was Tony Morley, but he was better known as The Fadeaway Outlaw. A master of disguise, Morley also was skilled at creating illusions and pre-planning escape routes that could leave the impression that he’d disappeared in thin air. On one occasion he had a mask of a Native American face on the back of his head, so all he needed to do was turn around to create the impression of another person. The Fadeaway Outlaw appeared in two issues of Western Comics, #62 (4/57) and #73 (2/59) and might have had other comebacks if not for the feature’s impending demise.

And after a decade of no hint of romance at all, Pow-Wow Smith was finally shown falling in love with Fleetfoot, the daughter of his tribe’s chief no less.

As it turned out, these efforts at goosing up interest in the feature were insufficient to boost sales of the struggling comic book. Schwartz made a final change in hopes of saving the title, dumping the long running masked hero Nighthawk, replacing him with Matt Savage, Trail Boss, with issue 77 (10/59). It was all for naught as Western Comics gave up the ghost, its last issue (and Pow-Wow’s as well) being issue #85 (2/61).

Editor Schwartz must have known that issue #85 would be the last issue of Western Comics as he saw to it that Gardner Fox and Carmine Infantino produced one of the sweetest swan songs for a comic book character, Within a matter of issues, Pow-Wow was now clearly resolved to become engaged to his sweetheart. But in true comic book fashion, complications ensued.

For the better part of the story, Pow-Wow struggles to capture the robbers, losing a key element necessary for the engagement ceremony to be complete.

Pow-Wow Smith Waiting for his Encore

Ultimately linking the Pow-Wow character to the Old West likely hurt his chances of being revived, as Western television series and comic books were clearly fading in the early sixties, never again to achieve their earlier popularity in popular culture with only a few notable exceptions.

Western characters were not often revived in the subsequent decades. And if there was call for a Western character they were rarely a straight shooter like Pow-Wow. More violent iterations took their cue from Clint Eastwood movies with names like Jonah Hex and Scalphunter. And in the more politically aware seventies, Pow-Wow’s name was likely something of an embarrassment, however a stalwart character he might have been. There was one brief reappearance of the modern day Pow-Wow Smith in a special anniversary issue, Detective Comics #500 (3/81). In a story designed to honor the raft of back-up features in Detective Comics, Pow-Wow joined Batman, Slam Bradley, Jason Bard, Captain Compass, Mysto, the Human Target, and Roy Raymond, TV Detective to solve a crime.

Pow-Wow Smith and his Western Comics co-star Nighthawk also were featured in an Old West tribute in Robin Annual #6 (8/97) The two heroes joined the Boy Wonder to battle an evil version of another fifties cowboy feature, the Trigger Twins. Otherwise a full fledged attempt to redeem and resurrect the character have never happened.

The Cultural Significance of Pow-Wow Smith

Next to Tonto and Turok, Son of Stone, Pow-Wow Smith was the most enduring and featured Native American hero in the history of comic books. He was a highly featured element of Detective Comics, which sported a shout out to a new “Pow-Wow Smith, Indian Lawman” story every issue. While exact sales figures for Detective Comics in 1949 are no longer available, a reasonable estimate would be close to a million copies per issue. And no Native American Indian characters other than Tonto and Turok were cover featured in a comic book for as long as Pow-Wow was in Western Comics until a good fifty years later with the gritty reservation thriller, Scalped, in 2007.

Scalped featured bad-ass Dashiell “Dash” Bad Horse confronting organized crime, poverty and drug addiction on the reservation–a far cry from the idealized picture painted by the Pow-Wow Smith feature. While Scalped lasted sixty issues, the character of Dash Bad Horse had less cultural impact given the far smaller number of issues comic book titles were selling by that time. each issue sold. The title is still worth a look for its effective, if grim, storytelling.

All that said, unlike Tonto and Turok, there was an embedded message of tolerance, acceptance and affirmation built into the premise of an Indian sheriff protecting a White community all the while remaining true to his Sioux/Dakota heritage. The series is long overdue for a collection featuring stories from both time periods. Infantino’s artwork, especially when he began to ink his own pencils, are a beauty to behold and Gardner Fox shows more heart in his stories than was typical in his superhero work. The character, despite his embarrassing nickname, is also worthy of a revival as well, and hopefully not a dark reimagining as the character has always been one of hopeful reconciliation and understanding between disparate cultures.

For another article on 1950s Native American heroes, check out this one on Five Native American superheroes from that same era. And check out this timeline of Native American heroes from the late thirties to the present.

Mark Carlson-Ghost

Key Comic Book Appearances of Pow-Wow Smith

Detective Comics 151-202 (9/49-12/53)

Western Comics 43-85 (2/54-2/61)

Detective Comics 500 (3/81)

Robin Annual v2/6 (8/97)