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Harry W. Lawton collection on Willie Boy
MS 152
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Title: Harry W. Lawton collection on Willie Boy
Date (inclusive): 1889-1996, undated
Collection Number: MS 152
Creator:
Lawton, Harry W., 1927-2005
Extent:
12.81 linear feet
(15 boxes, 1 flat file folder)
Repository:
Rivera Library. Special Collections Department.
Riverside, CA 92517-5900
Abstract: This collection is comprised of correspondence, photographs, research notes, newspaper clippings, and other materials related
to the Willie Boy manhunt of 1909. Topics include the Willie Boy manhunt, Harry W. Lawton's book,
Willie Boy: A Desert Manhunt, the motion picture,
Tell Them Willie Boy Was Here, and the legal case concerning the book,
The Hunt for Willie Boy: Indian-Hating and Popular Culture. The collection includes four artifacts from the Willie Boy manhunt, which include three tin cups and a horse stirrup, Sheriff
Frank Wilson's original report on the manhunt, a bone fragment purported to be from Willie Boy, scrapbooks, typescripts, screenplays,
and posters.
Languages: The collection is in English.
This collection is open for research. Some materials have been restricted while being consulted on under CalNAGPRA and NAGPRA
as required by state and federal law, and are noted as such within this finding aid.
Copyright Unknown: Some materials in these collections may be protected by the U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.). In addition, the reproduction,
and/or commercial use, of some materials may be restricted by gift or purchase agreements, donor restrictions, privacy and
publicity rights, licensing agreement(s), and/or trademark rights. Distribution or reproduction of materials protected by
copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. To the extent other restrictions
apply, permission for distribution or reproduction from the applicable rights holder is also required. Responsibility for
obtaining permissions, and for any use rests exclusively with the user.
[identification of item], [date if possible]. Harry W. Lawton collection on Willie Boy (MS 152). Special Collections & University
Archives, University of California, Riverside.
Gift of Harry W. Lawton, in 2002.
Processed by Melissa Brewer, 2011.
Harry Wilson Lawton (1927-2005) was a journalist and author known for his nonfiction novel Willie Boy: A Desert Manhunt (Paisano
Press, 1960). Lawton wrote for the Riverside Press-Enterprise in the 1950s and later taught in the University of California,
Riverside Department of Creative Writing. He helped found the Malki Museum on the Morongo Reservation. The Western film
Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here (Universal Pictures, 1969) was based on Lawton's book, written and directed by Abraham Polonsky.
Willie Boy (born 1882) was a Chemehuevi man pursued by a Riverside and San Bernardino County sheriff's posse in Southern California
in September and October 1909. The Riverside County manhunt began after Willie Boy was involved in the death of Chemehuevi
leader William Mike in Banning, California. He and Carlota Mike, William Mike's daughter, fled toward the Mojave Desert. The
two intended to marry, but per tribal law were too closely related to do so. Carlota was killed during the manhunt, and in
October 1909, the posse claimed to have found Willie Boy's body.
Lawton's
Willie Boy: A Desert Manhunt reflected the posse's version of events, culminating in Willie Boy's death by suicide. The film
Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here further reinforced this version of events by depicting Willie Boy shot by a posse member. According to oral testimonies by
Nuwuvi (Southern Paiute and Chemehuevi) elders, as well as elders of other Native American peoples of the Southwest, Willie
Boy did not die at Ruby Mountain as reported. Rather, he escaped to live with the Nuwuvi community in Pahrump, Nevada, and
died years later of tuberculosis.
In 1995, Lawton sued historians James Sandos and Larry Burgess, whose book
The Hunt for Willie Boy: Indian-Hating & Popular Culture (University of Oklahoma Press, 1994) was critical of the factual accuracy and racial politics of Lawton's
Willie Boy: A Desert Manhunt. The lawsuit was settled out of court.
This collection consists of typescripts, correspondence, photographs, research notes, newspaper clippings, and other material
related to the 1909 Willie Boy manhunt, created and collected by Harry Lawton. This includes material on the history of the
manhunt itself, Lawton's 1960 book,
Willie Boy: A Desert Manhunt, the 1969 motion picture,
Tell Them Willie Boy Was Here, and Lawton's 1995 lawsuit against historians James Sandos and Larry Burgess, authors of
The Hunt for Willie Boy: Indian-Hating & Popular Culture.
The collection is arranged into four series as follows:
- Series 1. Willie Boy manhunt, 1900-1910, undated
- Series 2. Willie Boy: A Desert Manhunt, 1953-1994, undated
- Series 3. Tell Them Willie Boy Was Here, 1960-1982, undated
- Series 4. Litigation materials regarding The Hunt for Willie Boy: Indian-Hating and Popular Culture legal case, 1900-1996, undated
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the
library's online public access catalog.
Authors
California
Willie Boy
Nuwuvi (Southern Paiute) people
Chemehuevi
Indigenous peoples in literature
Indigenous peoples and mass media
Motion pictures -- Production and direction
Articles
Books
Correspondence
Documents
Exhibit scripts
Financial records
Galley proofs
Magazines (periodicals)
Newspapers
Photocopies
Photographs
Posters
Research notes
Scrapbooks
Typescripts
Nonfiction novel