Page 79 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - September 2021

Around the Campfire: Fake Indians 79

Around the Campfire:

Fake Indians

Continued from Page 78

Sylvester Clark Long, also known as Chief
Buffalo Child Long Lance was a “colored” man
who escaped North Carolina, went to Canada,
and starting impersonating being an Indian. He
traveled the Wild West show circuit and starred
in a Hollywood movie. He learned a few words
of Cherokee, but later claimed to be a Blackfeet
born in Canada. He also wrote a book that was
soon proved to be fake. He was possibly the first
fake Indian author, having written in the early
1920s. He committed suicide in 1931 after he
was exposed as a fraud.

Johnny Cash claimed to be part Cherokee to get
a movie part. He played the great chief John
Ross in a TV movie about the Trail of Tears,
when Pres. Andrew Jackson forced them at
gunpoint to give up their homes in Georgia and
march 1,500 miles to Oklahoma. When the
movie was over, Cash basically said he was telling—but it does concern me when people Correlation and Causality. This is a bias that
funning us, that he wasn’t really a Cherokee. He ignore natural, often-psychological explanations occurs when events that are actually unrelated
went on with the rest of his life as a country for happenings and immediately believe they are occur together. Our bias tends to make a causal
singer. supernatural. Even worse, it is our desire to connection, believing that one thing actually
believe in the supernatural that can make us caused the other. For example, we read an

One of the people who faked his way to the top victims of charlatans and con artists, and we astrological forecast that foretells that we will
was our Indian counselor at Cal State Hayward need to be able to defend ourselves. have a difficult few days ahead, and then bad
when I was there in 1972-74. He only lasted one things happen to us. We see the two as
year there. The Indian students would not go to So, if science tells us that supernatural connected, even though they aren't, and it
him for help; there was a good counselor who phenomena are not real, why do people still strengthens our belief in astrology.
was Chicano, and they went to him. believe in them? Part of the reason is due to
cognitive biases that fool us into believing that In actuality, these biases work hand-in-hand to
The fake Indian spent most of his year we have solid evidence for the paranormal. lead us to believe in supernatural phenomena,
compiling a filmography of Indian films. The even though systematic research suggests that
following year he got hired as the assistant Hindsight Bias. Have you ever had a these forces don’t really exist.
director of the same program on another premonition that something was going to
campus. After two years there, he got hired as happen? Say that a family member was sick. Is the belief in the supernatural dangerous? In
the director of the same program on a third Then, a day or two later, you find out that your most instances, not at all. However, when
campus. He was the Peter Principle in action. [] father has come down with pneumonia. You tell unscrupulous characters try to trick us, telling us
yourself, “I knew it all along!” Is this evidence that they have some power to predict the future
that you have clairvoyance, or is it simply or protect us from harm, and then offering to
hindsight bias? Hindsight bias is the human provide supernatural services for a hefty fee,
Why We Believe in the tendency to believe that we knew something was then we need to be on our guard. In these cases,
going to happen, but only after hearing about the healthy skepticism is called for. []
Supernatural, but event’s occurrence. Hindsight bias makes us

Shouldn’t think that we (or others) can actually tell the
future.

by Ronald E. Rigglo, PhD Confirmation Bias. Have you ever gone to a
fortune teller or seen a show featuring a mind
reader? They seem to have some supernatural
ability to know us, and our future. The fortune-
Do you believe in the paranormal? teller, for example, tells you that you will meet a
“tall, dark stranger,” and a few days later

As a research psychologist, I am trained to be someone meeting that description waltzes into
skeptical. As much as I might like to believe in your life. The reality is that confirmation bias
supernatural phenomena, I know that research makes us believe in fortune-telling because of
doesn’t support the existence of mental confirmation bias—our tendency to look for
telepathy (mind reading), clairvoyance information that confirms initial beliefs (e.g.,
(predicting the future), telekinesis (moving meeting the stranger), and to ignore
things with your mind), or ghosts. Often, what disconfirming evidence (e.g., all of the other
we believe is supernatural is actually caused by people we met who don’t fit the description).
natural phenomena. (See my posts on “everyday
mind reading” and “intuition.") Confirmation bias may also lead us to believe
that we have psychic powers as things that we

I’m not here to tell you what you should believe predict will happen, actually happen—but we
in—some of my friends and family members ignore and/or tend to forget all the times we
believe in ghosts, astrology, and fortune- predict an outcome that doesn’t occur.