Louis Francis Sockalexis (October 24, 1871 – December 24, 1913), nicknamed the Deerfoot of the Diamond, was an American baseball player. Sockalexis played professional baseball in the National League for three seasons, spending his entire career (1897–1899) as an outfielder for the Cleveland Spiders. A Penobscot, Sockalexis is often identified as the first person of Native American ancestry to play in the National League and Major League Baseball. Early life Louis Sockalexis was born on the Penobscot Indian Island Reservation near Old Town, Maine, in 1871. His grandfather was Chief of the Bear Clan. In his youth, Sockalexis' athletic talents were noticeable. It was reported that Sockalexis could throw a baseball across the Penobscot River from Indian Island to the shore of Old Town. Sockalexis and his father entertained crowds at the Bangor Race Track by playing catch across the entire track. He attended High School in Van Buren's St. Mary's. In the summer of 1893, members of the Holy Cross baseball team played in an amateur "county league" in Maine. Sockalexis played for one of the teams in the league. His hitting, base running, and fielding all stood out to the Holy Cross players. Future Major League Baseball catcher Doc Powers was one of the Holy Cross players, and encouraged Sockalexis to return with them to Worcester, Massachusetts and enroll at Holy Cross. After completing his secondary education, Sockalexis began his college career in 1894 at the College of the Holy Cross. While there, he participated on the school's baseball, football, and track teams. Sockalexis spent those summers playing baseball in the Trolley League along the coast of Maine. After the end of the 1895-96 baseball season, the Holy Cross baseball coach accepted a position at the University of Notre Dame in February 1897. When that happened, Sockalexis decided to transfer to Notre Dame. In his two seasons at Holy Cross, Sockalexis compiled a .444 batting average. Sockalexis biographer Ed Rice challenges this entire Notre Dame-Giants account, since there is (1) no known newspaper account of it and (2) it sounds too remarkably like the account that actually occurred when the Cleveland team played the Giants for the first time in the Polo Grounds. In 1897, the Notre Dame baseball team played an exhibition game against the New York Giants at the Polo Grounds. In a sign of things to come, Sockalexis had to deal with taunts, racism, and