Thurman Lee Haas was born on February 3, 1920, on the Pottawatomie Indian Reservation in central Oklahoma, which is home to the Kickapoo Tribe. His parents, Reuben Claude Haas and Ann Maud Waldrip, were members of the Oneida Indian Nation, who were forcibly relocated from New York State to the Northwest Territory, which later became the State of Wisconsin, over a century earlier.
As a youth, Thurman spent a significant amount of time on hunting trips in rural Oklahoma with his pony, Pet, and his dog, White Man. The dog once saved his life by dragging him ashore after he had fallen into the Red River. Thurman's early life was marked by a strong connection to his Native American heritage.
After serving in the US Army until the early 1950s, Thurman began appearing in small movie roles, and his acting career received a significant boost when Walt Disney cast him as Chief Red Stick in Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier (1955). Throughout his career, Thurman played Native Americans in approximately eight out of every ten projects he appeared in.
In his free time, Thurman wrote and contributed stories to popular men's magazines of the day. One such story earned him a letter of praise from renowned writer John Steinbeck. Tragically, Thurman's life was cut short in Los Angeles on November 21, 1966, although the cause of his death remains unknown. He was survived by his wife, Nancy Scott, and their three children. Much of the information about Thurman's life comes from public records and a newspaper article promoting the Disney movie, Savage Sam (1963).
