Origins of the Saltine Warrior
Cover of the Orange Peel feat. the “portrait” of the Saltine Warrior in 1931.
In 1931,
The Syracuse Orange Peel, a campus humor magazine, published “The True Story of Bill Orange” and the Saltine Warrior was born. The article claimed that the remains of an ancient warrior were found during excavation of the Women’s Building, which was being relocated so that Hendricks Chapel could be built
5. The article claims excavation revealed the ancient location of an Onondagan “fortress or tribal house” which had been destroyed by a fire but included the remains of arrowheads, flint instruments, and fragments of textile.
The Orange Peel credits Dr. Burges Johnson for the announcement of the archaeological findings.
The Orange Peelwrites “for nearly two years campus experts have been working quietly upon those textile fragments” in order to reveal “the portrait of an early Onondagan chief” painted by Hibbardus Kleine, “undoubtedly one of those intrepid Jesuit explorers” first to visit the area. The name of the Chief depited in the portrait was “O-gee-ke-da Ho-schen-e-ga-da”, which
The Orange Peel claimed translates to mean “The Salt (or salty) warrior” in English
6. The Saltine Warrior immediately became the official emblem of Syracuse University.
Saltine Warrior bronze statue in Shaw Quad, 1976.
The Saltine Warrior became a huge source of pride for Syracuse University athletics and student body. 20 years after the
Orange Peelarticle, the senior class of 1951 commissioned a bronze statue of the warrior by renowned sculptor, Luise Kaish
7. The statue currently stands in the south-east corner of Shaw Quadrangle next to the Shaffer Art Building.
For 45 years, many people believed the legend of the Saltine Warrior was true. This was due in large part to media reports as factual by
The Daily Orange, The Alumni News, and downtown Syracuse papers
8 9. In 1936, students in a Newhouse interpretive writing class conducted research on the Saltine Warrior and unveiled the legend as a hoax
9. Seaman Jacobs, the 1931 editor of
The Orange Peel admitted that “we created the character” in the article which was written by Burgess Johnson
11. Burgess Johnson was actually the Director of Public Relations for Syracuse University, and not a doctor of anthropology as the
Orange Peel article alluded. The restored ancient portrait of “O-gee-ke-da Ho-schen-e-ga-da” by Hibbardus Kleine was actually a painting by fine arts professor Hibbard Klein
12. For 45 years, what many people believed to be a true story turned out to be the carefully constructed marketing ploy of Syracuse University’s public relations department to fulfill a mascot void.
