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Featured every Sunday in the
Living Section of the San Bernardino SUN
March 7, 2004 Issue

The Hunt for Willie Boy;
Indian-Hating & Popular Culture
By James A. Sandos and Larry E. Burgess

A New perspective on Willie Boy's Story in Paintings and Print
The Wild West is the most uniquely American cultural phenomenon. The hyperbole, isolation and survival-of-the-fittest conditions in the life of the cowboy, the blending of cultures and the topography, the near-anarchy lawlessness and countless other elements lend the American West an aura of romance and mystique. Stories in black and white of doomed desperados lure us like magnets but any shades of gray in them loose our attention. It is nearly impossible to reconstruct truthfully and accurately episodes in the cultural history of the American West once they pass into the realm of lore and legend.

Such is the case of Willie Boy - the San Bernardino and Riverside counties' desperado whose pursuit by three posses in the autumn of 1909 came to be regarded as the "West's last famous manhunt."

Totally smitten, Willie Boy, a 28-year-old Chemehuevi and Carlota, the 16-year-old daughter of William Mike, another Chemehuevi, had run away while living at the Twentynine Palms reservation. But the lovers were caught, brought back and to avoid further contact between his daughter and Willie Boy, William Mike moved his family to Banning where they harvested fruit at the Gilman Ranch. On September 26, 1909, under the cover of night, Willie Boy fatally shot William Mike and, taking Carlota with him, headed towards the Morongo Pass.

The next morning, a white posse and two Indian trackers - John Hyde, a Yaqui and Segundo Chino, a Chemehuevi - set out to find the lovers and bring Willie Boy back to justice. But instead of the lovers, some days later the posse found Carlota's dead body. Willie Boy was blamed for her death and immediately was labeled a double murderer. Willie Boy was a runner and consequently was able to get considerably ahead of the first posse in spite of the hindrance Carlota may have caused. But the second posse, assembled after Carlota's dead body was found and taken back to Banning, closed in on Willie Boy near a ravine beneath Ruby Mountain. Dismounting to check the tracks, the posse members realized that they had walked into the fugitive's ambush. One of Willie Boy's shots hit Charlie Reche. Once night descended, the posse carried back to town the wounded man. While leaving the steep and rocky path, the posse heard another shot echo into the silence.

Later a third posse rode to the ambush location where they found Willie Boy's body. He had shot himself with the last shot the second posse had heard echo as they were descending. The members of this last posse piled wood on top of Willie Boy's body and set it on fire. Today only a bronze plaque at the death location with the all-too-inadequate inscription "Willie Boy 1881 -1909; THE WEST'S LAST FAMOUS MANHUNT" hints of the drama and tragedy that had taken place there.

Willie Boy became the last villain of the West. His murderous deeds were reported elaborately in the press. According to these reports Willie Boy had gotten drunk, stolen a riffle, had shot William Mike in his sleep and then had abducted Carlota. The Indian trackers had found all sorts of written signs left by Carlota telling the posse that Willie Boy was abusing her, beating her and had even raped her. The last sign she wrote told them that Willie Boy was about to kill her.

Much of this account does not hold together under scrutiny. In 1994 James A. Sandos, a history professor at the University of Redlands and Larry E. Burgess, also a historian with a Ph. D. from Claremont Graduate School who is also the director of the Smiley Public Library in Redlands, published the book "The Hunt for Willie Boy; Indian-Hating & Popular Culture," which examines the story from what some call an ethno-historical perspective. Whatever the authors' methodology (elaborated on in the book) the conclusions at which they arrive differ considerably from what had been reported in the press. Willie Boy had not been drunk and William Mike's death had occurred during a fight over the gun. More than likely Carlota had gone with Willie Boy willingly, as the two of them had fled together once already. A bullet from the posse, intended for Willie Boy, killed Carlota. Most ridiculous of course, are the signs Carlota had supposedly written since "California Indians did not have a written language."

The book is an antidote to the false press that vilified Willie Boy. Now, to counter the fading images of the Robert Redford 1969 film, "Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here," one can view the art exhibit "The Hunt for Willie Boy" by artist Thom Ross at the EOS Gallery in Redlands (304 E. Citrus). Ross paints true stories from the Western folklore. The Willie Boy paintings currently on exhibit convey, at least to me, the facts in Willie Boy's story in the context of the seductive American West. The book is an excellent companion to the exhibit. The only thing it lacks (which might not exist) is a photo of Carlota, forcing the reader to conjure up the girl who had so bewitched a man as to make him lose his mind completely. But she is pictured by Ross in the first painting of the Willie Boy series, "Moonlight Flight." White dress billowing, hair undulating, Carlota holds Willie Boy's hand as they flee the scene of her father's murder. The rest of the paintings - dusky men on almost white backdrop have a curiously haunting quality and capture the spirit of the images we have of the West.

Ophelia Georgiev Roop
Library Director
San Bernardino Public Library

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