Tosawi Marshall spent several careers busting stereotypes

Suddenly, Tosawi Marshall found herself the new executive director of the Fort Worth-based American Indian Chamber of Commerce of Texas.

"It was a battlefield commission," joked Marshall, 47, who was seeking to become assistant to Executive Director Diana Woodward.

But Woodward said she was taking the opportunity of Marshall’s timely application "to run away" and accept a job with a member company, Brenco Systems.

Marshall took over July 31 after a life that it would be a gross understatement to call varied.

Having grown up in California and New Mexico, Marshall said she got tired of being pigeonholed as "just an Indian" by school officials.

"Music was my escape. I’d practice three or fours hours just so I didn’t have to deal with the real world," she said, even though she was initially thwarted from joining the school orchestra. Later, she became proficient on the piano, flute, piccolo and oboe and performed with professional orchestras.

After music, she tried show business as a stunt woman, getting hit by cars, jumping off buildings and being set ablaze for films and TV shows. Once her costume caught fire when it was not part of the script.

Though uninjured, she gave up stunts, turning to behind-the-camera work such as casting and consulting on sets, costumes and things Native American for such TV series as Walker, Texas Ranger and movies like Jet Li’s Once Upon a Time in China and America (1997).

Killing inaccurate stereotypes became her trade.

During the filming of Once Upon a Time in the South Texas town of Brackettville, Marshall explained that American Indians did not ride horses in loincloths "like Tarzan."

Before Walker shot its first episode with a Cherokee character, played by a Lakota Sioux, Marshall worked to scrub the dialogue of such Hollywood Indianspeak as "how" and "ugh," she said. The bosses evidently liked what she did, as they kept her on for every season.

After show business, she did stints of back-office work like payroll processing. Then she inquired at the chamber.

"I’m a workaholic," she said when we asked about her latest challenge, helping direct the organization, which has more than 200 company members.

Thumbs down on design for parking lot

A city board has sent the Fort Worth Club back to the drawing board after shooting down the club’s design for a temporary parking lot at the southwest corner of Fifth and Taylor streets downtown.

Last week, some members of the Downtown Design Review Board told club representatives that the design wasn’t functional but that mostly they didn’t care for the materials or style for three types of bollards, or posts, that would be placed on the perimeter, including at a pedestrian entrance.

In one, a 4-foot brick bollard would be built in a herringbone pattern and would include a bronze plaque of the Fort Worth Club emblem and a plastic light globe on top.

Board member Ames Fender acknowledged being "nitpicky" but said he was concerned that what was on paper would not look good when built. "Whatever gets built is not going to resemble what’s in that drawing," he said. "I see too much confusion."

Looking for comments?