Willie Boy escaped?

Historian to Talk About Willie BoyThe posse chased him for more than a dozen days over 600 miles of desert, finally reporting that Willie Boy killed the girl and then himself. Authorities at the time claimed that Willie Boy killed Carlota because she was slowing his escape. The posse reported that Willie Boy killed himself to avoid capture, and posse members later burned his body. A plaque commemorates that site on Ruby Mountain, near Landers.

Trafzer disagrees, supporting a belief held by many Indian people--that Willie Boy escaped and lived for many years after. The UCR historian contradicts the tales famously told by Harry Lawton in the 1960 book “Willie Boy” and made more famous in the 1969 Robert Redford film “Tell Them Willie Boy is Here,” and revived in 1994 by James Sandos and Larry Burgess in “The Hunt for Willie Boy.”

The posse accidentally killed Carlota, mistaking her for Willie Boy, Trafzer said his research shows. Willie Boy then set a trap for the posse, shooting one member and watching the rest run away. Many Indians have said for years that Willie Boy escaped and died of tuberculosis in Nevada many years later. Trafzer agrees.

The case illustrates how the power of oral narrative often is disregarded as part of the historical record, according to Trafzer, whose teaching and research emphasize how oral narratives hold the history of Southern California Indian nations.Comment:  For more on the subject, see The Best Indian Movies.