Perth Amboy evening news., 1920-04-09
The Great Outdoors
Indians as ~Trapsbooters.

INDIANS as IrapshoOterS.
There was a time when about all
the shooting in this good old L.. S. A.
was done by Indians But that was
before your time n mine. The In
dian was the pioneer with the bow
and arrow and most red skins were
proficient I'm this method of shoot
ing. Then came the white man with
shot guns and rifles and since that
time the Indian has been more or less
thrust into the background.
Hundreds of red skins took TO the
white mans weapons. but very few
Indians could hit the mark with the
accuracy of the white man; there
fore. We haven't found many Indians
among the ranks of the trapshootcrs.
Indians have played glorious parts in
baseball, football, track athletics-
not one, but many-but in the shoot
ing game VIC know of only three In
dams who ave figured to any extent
and one of the three Is Nationally
known outside of his trapshooting
/ ability. -
We have reference to Charles A.
(Chief) Bender, n OF the noblest
of the ~Chippewas. Bender's fame as
a t~rapshooter is nothing compared to
his reputation as a baseball pitcher
: For years he was the mainstay of the
pitching department of the Philadel-
phia Athletics-in the days when the
Athletics commanded the respect of
all baseball clubs and the admiration
of the baseball public.
Bender was-and he says he still IS
"a marvellous pitcher. For a dozen
years with the Athletics he was the
king pin OF them all. No loss a per-
sonage han Connie Mack said more
than once Bender was the best
money pitcher In baseball. We
know that any time Mack wanted a
game real bad that Bender a his
chief reliance. When the Chief
knew that much depended upon his
pitching that a series, the leadership
in the league. or a pennant depended
upon his pitching. you could depend
upon the Chippewa to pitch with his
head as well as his arm.
Bender as Good a o as Pitcher.
And for craftineSs we don't know
of any one h has any thing on
ender. We have heard of Bender for
many years, but he Is only IS years
old now and last year for the Rich
mond Club of the Virginia League he
pitched and won 20 out of 81 games.
We doubt very much IL this record
has ever been cquallod. This year
Bender will pitch and manage the
New Haven Club in the Eastern
League, and he will have another In
dian, Myers, "a q battery mate.
ia AAA@S NAANN a
would like to take up the life of a
4 professional t~rapshooter and If he
does we believe hat he will be just as
successful as he has been on the base
ball diamond. Bender is a natural
shot. He likes boil field and trap
shooting: would rather shoot than eat
as the saying goes, and is never hap
pier than when he is shooting-no
whether the birds be live or inami-
nate, IL the Chief q gun and he
is at home.
He is a different Bender, too with a
shotgun. Bender on the pitching
mound is sedate. phlegmatic and
rarely eve smiles. His expression
seldom changes. Winning or losing
But with a gun in his hanads his ex-
preston changes to II of joy. He
appears as happy as a boy Just finding
a full stocking after Santa Claus has
, departed. That is what makes us be-
lieve hat Bender would develop into
one of the greatest of all shooters. He
likes to shoot and when n likes to
do something 1t Is usually done well.
Bender for a number of years has
been shooting in the Philadelphia
ITrapshooters' League and is usually
to be found near the top in the av-
erages. Four years ago Bender with
Christy Mathewson. Harry Davis and
Otis Crandall toured the country
trapshooting and Bender averaged 92
per cent. on 81 targets shot under
the most adverse conditions. If Ben
der ever joins the ranks of the profess
sional shooter We believe he will be
heard from.
Other Indians Who Shoot.
The other Indians who have become
fairly prominent In the trapshoeting
sport are NJ. II. Mcdaniel, a full
blooded Choctaw, of Durant, Okla.
who won the Western Handicap In
1917, and Hayes Little Bear,
a Usage of Pawhuska, Okla.
Mcdaniel won the Western Handicap
Of Omaha shooting from 20 yards
| with q score of 81 in 100 targets. In
the same shoot he won second place
In the Preliminary Handicap with 90
breaks, from 10 yards.
Mcdaniel was SO pleased with his
winnings of the Western Handicap
that he contributed $4,000 to the
American Red Cross. 1t is worth
mentioning hat Mcdaniel has some
oil wells on his Oklahoma property.
Ha, yes. Little Bear participates In
more shooting tournaments than the
other Indians and he is frequently
to be found in the events through
Kansas, Oklahoma and Missouri and
whenever he shoots you can look for
hi ~ame among those who won.
The Indian of the Yakima (Wash.)
Reservation have formed a gun club
known as the Tipi Indian Gun Club
of White Swan and Chief Red Fox
of the reservation hopes to induce
every band of Indians in the country
to join the great body of trapshooters.