Osley Bird Saunooke

Osley Bird Saunooke was a professional wrestler and politician who served as the 16th Principal Chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians from 1951 to 1955 and from 1959 to 1963. He won the heavyweight title in 1937 from Thor Johnson and held it for fourteen years.

Career

During the Great Depression, Saunooke began wrestling professionally and at one time weighed in at. Billed as Chief Saunooke, he won the Super Heavyweight title in 1937 from Thor Johnson and held it for fourteen years. After taking part in more than five thousand matches, including seventeen main events in New York City's Madison Square Garden, he retired from the ring in 1951 and returned to Cherokee to enter business and wrestling promoter.
Also in 1951, Saunooke entered politics by becoming the 17th Principal Chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. Saunooke served two nonconsecutive terms, from 951 to 1955 and from 1959 to 1963. In 1962, Saunooke was elected vice-president of the National Congress of American Indians. Saunooke is also credited with developing the Cherokee Reservation into a model reservation. Various tribes from all over the United States came to study governmental and sanitation systems installed under Saunooke's administration.

Personal life

Born on July 19, 1906, to a Cherokee father and English mother, Saunooke was descended from a lineage of Indian chiefs for five generations. Saunooke attended Haskell Institute, where he was also a member of the football team. Afterwards he served in the U.S. Marines Corp, drove a taxicab, and worked in the wheat fields and on the railroad in the Midwest. In 1935 he married Bertha Smith, and they became the parents of five children. Saunooke passed-away on April 16, 1965, in Asheville, at the age of 58.

Legacy

Since 1978, the Chief Osley B. Saunooke wrestling invitational takes place every year at Cherokee High School.