When I was a kid, my wild Sicilian granny, Rose, told me that Iron Eyes Cody — the Native American chief who appeared in that memorable and groundbreaking 1971 television public service announcement urging us all to “Keep America Beautiful” — was her cousin. I was little, but I remember thinking how could that be…as no one in my family is Native American; on my father’s side, we are all just plain ol’ Sicilian trash. Well, fast forward to 2002 and yours truly watching an episode of The Sopranos where in one scene members of the Mafia threaten to expose Cody’s Sicilian ancestry in order to embarrass Native American activists.
So Granny wasn’t mad after all! She just knew a little something about this guy’s actual Italian heritage long before anyone else did. So, at her 90th birthday party in January, I asked her about it again, and it seems that Iron Eyes Cody is, in fact, related to us. Maybe that explains why I used to BELLY CRY every single time I saw that commercial when I was little — it would just destroy me. Still does, I am afraid.
Love you, Cuz!
Iron Eyes Cody, the bastard lying, Indian-impersonating, Native American-culture-appropriating Sicilian Trash that he was.

About muffybolding
Muffy Bolding is a mother/writer/actor/knitter/feminist/withered debutante who likes the smell of asparagus pee, and remains obsessed with the bathroom hygiene of her three children -- despite the fact that they are 23, 19, and 16. She is blissfully married to a cute Jewish boy who looks like Willie Wonka, but remains tragically in love with the dead poet, Ted Hughes. She has the mouth of a Teamster, and her patron saint is Rocco (pestilence relief.) Ms. Bolding lives in Southern California, where she enjoys typing words, making movies, and plucking the rings from the fingers of the dead. She was the co-creator and Editor-in-Chief of the award winning satire zine, Fresno Lampoon, and in between writing screenplays, carnival barking, and savagely threatening her trio of darling larvae with a wooden spoon, she currently publishes the zine, "Withered Debutante." More of her work can also be found in the anthology, "Mamaphonic: Balancing Motherhood and Other Creative Acts", the compilation zine, "Mamaphiles III: Coming Home", as well as in The Cortland Review and hipmama.com. She is currently writing and producing for film and television, and working on a book of essays entitled, "Inside A Chinese Dragon." She has slept around, but not nearly as much as she would have liked.
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