Willie Boy

Willie Boy (Chemehuevi) lived during the late 19th and early 20th century. He became well-known through sensational media portrayals of the "last Western manhunt." After he was involved in the 1909 death of Chemehuevi leader William Mike, Willie Boy was pursued by a sheriff’s posse across the Mojave Desert and Coachella Valley of Southern California. The events are the subject of many articles, books, and the 1969 Western film Tell Them Willie Boy is Here.

Willie Boy was born and raised along the Colorado River by his mother, Mary Snyder. He was reported to be 28 years old in 1909, so his year of birth is inferred to be 1880 or 1881. The Chemehuevi knew him as a gifted runner, athlete, and spiritual man. In 1909, he moved to the Oasis of Mara, home of the Twenty-nine Palms Band of Chemehuevi. He fell in love with a distant cousin, Carlota Mike, whose father, William Mike, was the band's leader. Their families objected to Willie and Carlota's relationship. Under Nuwuvi law followed by the Chemehuevi, the two were too closely related to marry. On September 26, 1909 in Banning, California, William Mike died of a gunshot wound during an argument with Willie Boy.

At this point, accounts of the events diverge. Willie and Carlota fled. The Riverside County Sheriff's Department formed a posse that pursued the pair through the desert and mountains over several days. On September 30, Carlota died of a gunshot wound. According to Native American accounts, posse member John Hyde killed Carlota with a long-range shot. Coroner's evidence supports this account. Yet by the posse's account, Willie killed Carlota.

The posse reported that Willie died by suicide at Ruby Mountain in October 1909, ending the manhunt. This is the account popularized in contemporaneous media reports and the 1969 film. A photograph taken by R. W. Madison of the Los Angeles Record purports to show Willie's deceased body.

According to Native American oral traditions across the southwest, Willie Boy did not die in 1909. Rather, he escaped the posse and lived with the Nuwuvi community in Pahrump, Nevada. His relatives reported that he died of tuberculosis in a Nevada sanatorium in 1927 or 1928, though other Chemehuevi elders have reported dates as late as 1947.