John Boncore (January 7, 1952 – March 12, 2013), also known as John Pasquale Boncore, Dacajeweiah ("Splitting the Sky"), John Boncore Hill, John B. Hill, and John Hill, was a political activist and actor who first garnered media attention for his role in the 1971 Attica Prison revolt in upstate New York.

Biography

Boncore was born in Buffalo, NY, to a Mohawk/Cree mother and an Italian-American father. His father and eleven co-workers died in 1957 after entering a storage tank at U.S. Rubber without respirators. Boncore's family fell into poverty thereafter and he and five siblings were later sent to foster care after being removed from their mother's care. Boncore was physically abused due to being placed in racist households during his time in foster care and ended up homeless after fighting back against one his oppressive foster parents. At the age of 19, he was sentenced to four years in Attica prison for robbing a store out of desperation and hunger after sleeping on the streets of New York city.

In 1993, Boncore met Sandra Bruderer, a Cree woman whom he later married, at a First Nations/Native American sovereignty conference in Edmonton. In 2001, the two self-published a co-written autobiography of Boncore entitled The Autobiography of Splitting the Sky: From Attica to Gustafsen Lake (ISBN 0-9689365-0-4). Boncore also acted in roles in the TV series Men In Trees, Alice, I Think and Da Vinci's City Hall, and in the films The Last Rites of Ransom Pride (2010) and Deepwater (2005).