Reznet

A Man Called Horse

By Gemma Givens

 

BERKELY, Calif.--No, Michael Horse wasn’t in that movie, but he’s been in plenty of others.

The Native American actor played Tonto in “The Legend of the Lone Ranger,” Agent George Steelman in the 1993 TV show “The Untouchables” and Deputy Tommy “Hawk” Hill in David Lynch’s TV series, “Twin Peaks.”

He also acted in the Canadian TV series, “North of 60” and lent his voice to a variety of animated movies, TV series and video games. His “filmography” on the Internet Movie Database lists 59 acting roles.

The 57-year-old actor, artist and activist is of Yaqui, Mescalero Apache and Zuni descent. Horse was born on the Pasqua Yaqui Reservation in Arizona.

A graduate of the Indian Art Institute of New Mexico, Horse began his career sculpting. He then continued a long family tradition of making jewelry, and he mastered an old reservation style of painting called ledger art.

Horse’s artwork can be found in museums and galleries around the world, including the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C., the Autry National Center of the American West in Los Angeles, the Heard Museum in Phoenix, the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art in Indianapolis and the KIVA Fine Art gallery in Santa Fe, N.M.

Horse resides in the San Francisco Bay Area, where his art is featured in the Gathering Tribes gallery in Albany, Calif. He can often been seen there on weekends working on a new ledger painting.

Givens is Michael Horse’s daughter.

Gemma Givens, Guatemala Mayan, is a freshman at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

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