Andrew Sockalexis (January 11, 1892 – August 26, 1919) was an American track and field athlete who competed in the 1912 Summer Olympics.

[1][2] Andrew Sockalexis was born on January 11, 1892, in Old Town, Maine, a member of the Penobscot Indian Nation.

Harold Reynolds, the Boston Post Commissioner, stated that Andrew finished strong and running like the champion he should have been.

Andrew married a fellow Penobscot, Pauline Shay, from his reservation village at Indian Island, Maine on November 16, 1913.

[4] Calling the account given below in this section, in his chapter "The Race That Did Not Happen," author Ed Rice, in his book Native Trailblazer [5] states the year itself, 1916, is damning to all the details.

Since DeMar won six of his men's record seven victories at the Boston Marathon starting in the early 1920s that alone makes the account a complete myth and fabrication.

This following account seems to be blending in facts from a 1912 19-mile run from Old Town to Bangor where DeMar won and Sockalexis finished second...and a 1913 Memorial Day 15-mile run in Bangor where Sockalexis collapsed on the track in his 10th mile, DeMar finished in seventh place and the race was won by Clifton Horne from the greater Boston area.

As they came to the 12 mile marker, Andrew was ahead of his friend Clarence DeMar by a couple of hundred yards and was easily going to win the race.

Andrew crossed the finish line in Bangor and as he stopped running, he started to cough up blood and collapsed.