Wes Studi

Wes Studi's has had one long enjoyable acting career. He was raised in Nofire Hollow Oklahoma, speaking Cherokee only until he started school. At 17 he joined the National Guard and later went to Vietnam. After his discharge, Studi became politically active in American Indian affairs. He participated in Wounded Knee at Pine Ridge Reservation in 1973. Wes is known for his roles as a fierce Native American warrior, such as the Pawnee warrior in Dances with Wolves. In the Last of the Mohicans he plays the Huron named Magua, which was his first major part. Soon after he got the lead role in Geronimo: An American Legend. He was in Skinwalkers, The Lone Ranger, and The Horse Whisperer. He played the Indian out in the desert in The Doors movie, and he was also in Avatar. Studi also plays bass and he and his wife are in a band called Firecat of Discord. Wes Studi also serves as honorary chair of the national endowment campaign, of the Indigenous Language Institute that's working to save Native Languages. He and his family live in Santa Fe New Mexico, and Wes has been in several other movies, TV shows and movies, and mini series. He also received an Academy Honorary Award, becoming the first Native American and the second North American Indigenous person to be honored by the Academy, the first was Buffy Sainte-Marie.