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Show *.---*• ^ I p T T T T " the parentage of the subject, the place and date of his r gffiijffiffij ;l R : l j j ] f V birth, and other customary essentials. But even here one c a T n ^ W ^ f iTgrJJnd, owing to contradictory statements, some of which run counter ,;0 Dan's own assertions. Tlu "official" name of our subject was Dennis Donovan (Donovan being the maiden name o / h i s mother), as shown by his record as an inmate of Sawtelle Soldiers'Home in Los An^es which also recorded the aliases Dan DuBois and Joseph Dubois. The family name, t th'e way, has been recorded indiscriminately both as Dubois and Du Bois, the latter & m being preferred by the present members of the family. So much for his patronymic" Dan, however, was known by other names: The Navaho called him Besh-be_na "Iron Shirt," because, wounded in many places from head to feet, neither Indian tor white was able to kill him. The Zuiii called him Tato-thlana (from Spanish tato; y^nger brother,' and Zuni thlana/big). To the Apache he was known as Don Ignaao 39/ar as can be gathered from the fragmentary data available, which have been sifted as caref^ly aS possible, Dan was born about the year 1833 on a plantation between where "two r ^ r s forked" above New Orleans. This is hardly in consonance with Dan s statement v/nen he was inducted into the Sawtelle Soldiers' Home in Los Angeles m; 1923, • that he w a s born in California and was a resident of Los Angeles. Was this because Dan believe^ he would have a better chance for admittance to.the Home if he claimed to be a Califor/i}an> Moreover, the family name DuBois comports more closely with the French of Louisiana than with the relatively few Frenchmen who came to California; and, besides, Dan Sfyoke French-of a sort. . However that may be, Dan's father is said to have been a slave-trader, a business that had its effect on Dan's later life, he always being with the underdog in any fight, as we shall teter see. • ,. , If we may judge by the various bits of information available, and what seemed to be an ave/^on t o any intimate connection with the Catholic Church, of which Dan claimed to be a member, the following information communicated to me by Mrs. Garduno, Dan s daughter by his Navaho wife, may be regarded as surprising: "In 1905 my husband and I were going to Mexico on vacation, and Father George Juillanj, w h o was pastor in Gallup, asked me to see my uncle, the Bishop, who was in San An!o n i 0 j Texas. Then I told him that even if he was my granduncle, I didn't have the nerve, a s he wouldn't believe me. He offered to give me a letter of introduction, and if • that f^ied to write back to Gallup, and he would get more witnesses to prove that I was mv fat'her's daughter. But I just could not go. He said the Bishop always knew where my fairer was through the priests. Later I asked my father, and he said the Bishop would have j,een very glad to meet me. Later Father Juillard told me the Bishop had died in Monttf r ey, Mexico." Again we encounter contradictions and inconsistencies regarding Dan's coming to CalifQfnia. One statement is that he ran away from home and as a mere boy "went West," .V1--.-..-.«i.^..-^ri«f'*jr« mm SSmS Stea |
