At his last press conference President Biden cited a John Wayne Western in which a Native American leader characterizes Union troops as “ lying dog-faced pony soldiers.”
“Well, there’s a lot of lying dog-faced pony soldiers out there about global warming,” the President said. “But not anymore. All of a sudden, they’re all realizing it — there’s a problem. And there’s nothing like seeing the light."
When the President first used the expression in 2020 Slate was unable to connect it to John Wayne, and concluded:
"[I]t seems at least as likely that Biden is thinking of a different film: Pony Soldier, a 1952 Western from director Joseph M. Newman starring Tyrone Power as a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
“Pony Soldier,” in the context of the film, is a Native American nickname for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and although no one calls Power a “lying, dog-faced pony soldier,” a chief does say,
“The pony soldier speaks with a tongue of the snake that rattles,”
