NATIVE AMERICAN AND FIRST NATION FILMS AND ACTORS
According to rednation.com, no Indigenous person from the United States has even been nominated for, much less won, an Academy Award for acting. In fact, the only American Indian to receive an Oscar was Buffy Marie-Saint who won Best Original Song in 1982 for “Up Where We Belong” which she co-wrote with Jack Nitzsche and Will Jennings for the film An Officer and A Gentleman. In fact, only three Indigenous people from the North American continent have been nominated for either Best Actor or Best Supporting Actor, and they were either from Mexico (Yalitza Aparicio for Roma) or Canada (Chief Dan George for Little Big Man and Graham Greene for Dances with Wolves.) *
When I was a kid, TV shows and movies invariably portrayed American Indians as savages who kidnapped, scalped, or murdered white people. The same stereotypes can still be found in contemporary movies like The Missing (2003) where a white man (Tommy Lee Jones) and his daughter (Cate Blanchett) team up to recover his granddaughter Lilly (Evan Rachel Wood) from marauding Apache renegades. One particularly gruesome scene depicts the Indians roasting a live white man over an open fire. Needless to say, I never watched it again. An even more recent film The Hostiles (2017) attempts to depict a more sympathetic portrait of Native Americans, but it does so by pitting white soldiers and ‘cooperative’ Indians against a renegade group of Comanches who slaughter everyone in their path. The result is that the Native Americans often come off as one-dimensional characters who are either sell-outs or murderers. (Godfrey Cheshire, rogerebert.com).
The social consciousness that developed in the ‘60s and ‘70s ushered in a new trend in films about Native Americans, however. The most noted ones are Little Big Man (1970) which starred Dustin Hoffman as a white man who was raised by Indians and Dances With Wolves (1990) which cast Kevin Costner as a soldier who befriended the Indians he was ordered to watch. In my opinion, Billy Jack fits the category as well. There were four films in the series: Born Losers (1967), Billy Jack (1971), Trial of Billy Jack (1974), and Billy Jack Goes to Washington (1977). Naturally, the protagonist is Billy Jack (Tom Laughlin), a Green Beret and Vietnam War hero, who is part Navajo and has a black belt in the martial arts. He is the self-appointed defender of oppressed people, especially the students at The Freedom School which is run by his girlfriend Jean (played by Laughlin’s wife Delores Taylor).
Jean is a pacifist who opened the
school to help at-risk children, including those of Indian heritage. The movies
try to depict Native Americans as proud people, but actually casts them as
victims who have to rely on half-breed Billy Jack as their savior. In fact, the
problem with all the films mentioned thus far is that the most important roles
either are about white characters or are played by white actors. Nevertheless,
there are productions that cast real indigenous actors in Native roles. The
three that I chose for this post are Powwow Highway (1989), Imprint (2007),
and The Lesser Blessed (2012).
American Northwest: Powwow Highway, 1989 — Cheyenne
In 1998, the movie Smoke Signals (originally titled This is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona) opened in theaters. It was based on a story by Sherman Alexi, whose tribal heritage is Coeur d’Alene and Spokane, and was the first film written, directed, produced, and acted by Native Americans. It’s an excellent movie, and rather well-known. In my opinion, however, Powwow Highway which came out a decade earlier actually took the first step toward bringing Native Americans to the forefront of the Film Industry. Powwow Highway is based on the novel by David Seals, who was of Huron heritage and an active member of the American Indian Movement (You might remember that group from my post on Incident at Oglala). Although the Native Americans didn't write, produce, or direct the screenplay, the plot is steeped in Indian culture and many of the actors have Native heritage. Gary Farmer, who is descended from the “Cayuga Nation and Wolf Clan of the Haudenosaunee/Iroquois Confederacy” (Wikipedia), and A Martinez whose heritage is Mexican, Apache, and Blackfeet fill the lead roles. Farmer has a long resume including the movie Smoke Signals and Martinez has appeared in numerous television shows, including the Longmire series where he portrayed Jacob Nighthorse.
The story starts out in the town of Lame Deer, Montana which is on the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation in the southeastern sector of the state. As the film opens Philbert Bono (Gary Farmer), a chubby Native man who is inordinately naive, sees a herd of wild horses running free, and decides he needs a pony. When he sees an ad for used cars on television, he makes his way to the lot, which looks suspiciously like a junkyard, and trades a $100 bill, a pint of whiskey, and a bag of pot for a car. The paint is peeling off, the vinyl roof is in tatters, the windows don’t work, and the engine is reluctant to start but nevertheless he is delighted with his purchase which he names The Protector.
Meanwhile, down at the Office of the Tribal Council former AIM member and current Indian activist Buddy Red Bow (A Martinez) is working to stop mining on the reservation. Since he is currently the acting Agricultural purchasing agent, tribal chief Joseph entrusts him with $2000 to buy bulls for the tribe. Before Buddy can get to the sale, however, he receives a call from his sister Bonnie (Joanelle Romero) who has been arrested in Santa Fe, New Mexico for drug possession. Even though she is innocent, the police officer throws her in jail and turns her two small children, Jane and Sky (Chrissie McDonald and Sky Seals), over to the Department of Families and Children. Buddy hates to leave when the tribe is getting ready to vote about the mining company but figures he can use the tribe’s money to bail her out and get back to the reservation in time if he hurries. The problem is, he doesn’t have a means of transportation.
Then he sees Philbert tooling around in his new vehicle. The two
men have known each other since they were school kids when Buddy, who has
always been good-looking and popular, cruelly teased the easy-going Philbert
about his weight and clothes. Despite their history, when Buddy asks for a
ride, Philbert agrees to give him a lift because he has always had a crush on
Bonnie. His only condition is that he won’t leave until after the powwow in
Billings. Buddy, who wants to get going immediately, counters by offering
Philbert new clothes, and a sound system and CB radio for the car. There are
some problems in the electronics store, but the men eventually get on the road.
Soon Buddy, who feels confident that everything is going his way, decides to
take a nap.
While Buddy sleeps, Philbert drives through a landscape decimated
by the mining industry. Bored, he turns on the CB radio and meets a trucker
whose handle Light Cloud (Floyd Westerman) is that of a prophet who “is like
Jesus to the Cheyenne.” Light Cloud tells Philbert to go to Sweet Butte (which
in reality is probably Bear Butte) in South Dakota because it is a sacred place
for the Native people. Philbert follows the trucker’s directions and when he
arrives at the mountain, he gets out of the car and starts to climb the
hillside. He stops to rest and has a vision of Light Cloud (Chris Rowland)
offering him a peace pipe. When the vision ends, he sees a coyote which he
follows to the summit of the butte. There he notices that people have left
gifts for the Great Spirit, so he takes his Hersey bar and, instead of eating
it, uses it as an offering.
While Philbert is on his vision quest, Buddy wakes up. Upon seeing
the barren landscape, he thinks that they are close to Santa Fe. However, the Indian
(Bill T. Head) who is parked close by informs him that he is actually in South
Dakota. Though he isn’t happy, he makes the best of things by asking Philbert
to take him to the Pine Ridge reservation so he can visit an old AIM buddy
named Wolf Tooth (Wayne Waterman). When they arrive at the house, Wolf Tooth
says that things on the Rez have gotten so bad, he and his wife Imogene (Margot
Kane) are moving to Colorado right after the Christmas Powwow. Philbert, who
desperately wants to attend a powwow, volunteers to give them a ride …as soon
as the festivities end. To Buddy’s dismay, they accept the offer, making his
delay even longer.
Despite all the detours, Buddy and Philbert eventually arrive in
Santa Fe, and when they get to the jail, they run into Bonnie’s friend Rabbit
(Amanda Wyss). She informs them that she already paid the $2000 bail, but the
jailer won’t release Bonnie until Monday, which means her kids can’t leave the
orphanage and Buddy and Philbert are stuck in Santa Fe for two more days. Buddy
goes in and tries to convince the jailer to release his sister immediately, and
while the men are arguing Philbert wanders down to the basement where he finds
a safe that is full of money with the door open.
After helping himself to a few stacks
of bills, he rescues the kids from the facility where they are staying. Then,
remembering a scene he saw in a movie, he ties a rope around the bars of
Bonnie’s cell, and pulls down the wall with The Protector. He drives to the
front of the jail to pick up Buddy and Rabbit then makes a mad dash out of town
with the cops hot on their trail. When Buddy and Rabbit complain about the
money they had to leave behind, Philbert tells them to look in his coat pockets
which, altogether, contain exactly $4000. Suddenly, the car loses power, and
the brakes go out, but to learn what happens next, you’ll have to watch the
movie.
American Midwest: Imprint, 2007 — Lakota Sioux
Like Powwow Highway, Imprint has a cast that is primarily Native American. Unlike its predecessor, however, the plot begins in a city and moves to the reservation. As the story opens, district attorney Shayla Stonefeather (Tonantzin Carmelo), a Lakota Sioux from the Pine Ridge Reservation, is prosecuting eighteen-year-old Robbie Whiteshirt (Joseph Medicine Blanket) for murdering a white woman. While a crowd of Indians protests outside the courthouse, she succeeds in convincing the jury of eleven whites and one person-of-color, that the white man who testified he saw Robbie kill the woman is a more reliable witness than Frank Whiteshirt (Russell Chewey), who said his brother was only trying to help. Shayla’s victory celebration is cut short, however, when she gets word that her father Sam (Charlie White Buffalo) is critically ill, and she is needed to help care for him.
Before he became ill, Shayla’s father was a noted artist and well-regarded member of his tribe, but now he can’t even feed himself. Shayla asks her mother Rebecca (Carla-Rae) why she took him out of the facility where he’d been staying. Her mother responds that because the doctors kept him drugged up all the time and the staff left him sitting in a chair staring out of a window all day, she brought him home to die with dignity. There is more going on here than Sam’s failing health, however. As soon as Shayla enters the reservation, a wolf starts following her, and inside her parent’s house, there is an eerie feeling, especially when she is upstairs in her room. The sensation seems to come from her brother Nathaniel’s (Tokala Black Elk) abandoned bedroom, which is next to hers. He disappeared years before, and she believes he is dead.
Things get even creepier after Shayla retires for the night. First,
her father starts to yell, then when she goes downstairs to see what is going
on, loud thumping noises begin sounding from overhead. She knows that many
people on the Rez hold hard feelings against her and concludes that someone has
climbed onto the roof to harass or harm her. Fortunately, when she calls the
police to report the intruder, the officer who shows up is Tom Greyhorse
(Michael Spears), her high school boyfriend.
The drama escalates when Shayla’s current boyfriend, lead
prosecuting attorney Jonathan Freeman (Cory Brusseau) calls to inform her that
the police shot and killed Robbie Whiteshirt when he tried to escape while they
were taking him to the prison. Tom, who has also heard this news, theorizes
that what Shayla heard is Robbie’s spirit, but she rejects the suggestion
immediately. When she gets up the next morning, however, she finds that Rebecca
has called a Medicine Man (Dave Bald Eagle) to cleanse the house of troubled
spirits by burning sage and saying prayers. Later, when he and Shayla meet in
town, he tells her that she will only learn what is going on when she starts to
listen, but she brushes him off as superstitious. Suddenly, a man who has been
talking on a pay phone nearby drops the receiver and walks away. As it knocks
against the wall, it becomes a heavy metal hook. Rather than reading this as a
message, however, Shayla decides it is her mind playing tricks on her.
The community has planned a big party for Sam’s birthday and John
travels from Denver to attend. Even though Shayla warns him not to use his
charms on her mother, he tries to score points by speaking Sioux. Just as
Shayla feared, his posturing does not go over well with Rebecca or Sam who
hatefully glares at him. Many people come to the festivities, and everyone is
having fun until Frank Whiteshirt arrives and attempts to stab Shayla. While
everyone else is focused on her, Jonathan picks up the knife and keeps it. He
tells Shayla that he needs to get back to the city, making her leave the party to
drive him to the airport. On the way, he tries to convince her to come back to
Denver, but she refuses.
After his plane takes off, Shayla returns to the house, and is
nonplussed to find it empty. Then she notices that the answering machine is
blinking and finds a message from her mother saying that she and Shayla’s
father are staying in town overnight. As soon as the message ends, she hears
loud thuds from upstairs and skittering shadows run past her. Frightened, she
tries to run outside, but hits her head and passes out. While she’s laying on
the porch unconscious, she dreams of unidentifiable men shouting at each other
and fighting.
When Shayla comes to it is morning and her neighbor’s horse is
nuzzling her. As she looks around, she spies the wolf standing in the yard
watching her. Since this is his fourth appearance, she surmises that he wants
her to follow him, so she climbs on the horse and does so. The wolf leads them
through a hilly landscape and across a shallow stream to the Wounded Knee
Memorial which commemorates the 1890 massacre of over two hundred unarmed
Lakota men, women, and children by the U.S. Calvary. Standing at one of the
graves is the Medicine man. Though she is unwilling to believe in him, Shayla
is unable to resist him, and when he asks her to listen for the screams of her
slain ancestors she obeys. She fails to hear anything, however, and he suggests
that she go to a sweat to purify herself to be ready for what is coming. Still
skeptical, she ignores his advice and returns home.
As Shayla walks across the yard, she looks at the barn, and feels
a growing sense that something terrible occurred there. Her parents are home,
so she asks her mother what happened the night her brother disappeared. Rebecca
says that Shayla’s father caught Nathaniel and his friend Alan, in Nathaniel’s
bedroom using drugs. Beyond that, she only knows that Shayla’s father and Alan
got into a fist fight, and after it was over the boys disappeared. Strongly
feeling that the barn holds the answer, Shayla decides to search it. Sure
enough, she digs around and finds a trap door in the floor. It’s too heavy for
her to lift on her own, so she looks for a tool and notices a hook like the one
she’d seen in her vision hanging from a rope. She uses it to haul the trap door
open and climbs down where she finds Nathaniel’s motorcycle buried under a pile
of junk. Convinced this is proof that her father killed the boys, she goes
inside and bitterly accuses him of murdering her brother. Her ire is so palpable
that it brings him to tears, and later that night, he dies of a broken heart.
John comes back to attend the funeral, and while he and Shayla are
standing at the graveside, she sees Nathaniel standing under a tree. She looks
away for a few seconds, and when she looks back, he is gone. After the service,
she tells John that Frank Whiteshirt is saying he bribed his witness to win a
conviction against Robbie. Unable to keep up the pretense any longer, he admits
that Frank is right, but that he needed the conviction for his upcoming run for
state senator. When she hears this, Shayla immediately breaks off their relationship.
After that, she goes to the house and tells Rebecca to go in her bedroom, close
the door, and stay there no matter what happens.
Next Shayla goes to her room, and as the house becomes quiet, she begins
hearing knocking and yelling in Nathaniel’s room. When she enters, she sees the
shadows of one person attacking two other people and concludes that she is watching
her father murder her brother and his friend. Unexpectedly, Tom arrives and
just as she starts to tell him what she witnessed, someone rushes in and stabs
him in the back. And that’s as far as I’m going. This movie is really entertaining,
and if you want to know how it ends, you’ll have to watch it for yourself.
Canada: The Lesser Blessed, 2012 — Dogrib Tłı̨chǫ
Members of Canada’s First Nations are also producing movies about what it’s like to be indigenous in their country. If you look on Amazon you will find there are actually quite a few films available, but before you rent any, check Netflix. I know for a fact that it is running There Is Something In the Water which is about the contamination of the groundwater that feeds into black and Native communities in Nova Scotia. For this post, however, I chose The Lesser Blessed. The film is based on the novel by Richard Van Camp who is Dogrib Tłı̨chǫ of the Dene nation and most of the actors are of indigenous ancestry. Supporting actor Kiowa Joseph Gordon, who won the Best Supporting Actor Award at the American Indian Film Festival for playing Johnny Beck, for instance, is descended from the Hualapai nation of Arizona. The story, which is about a Dogrib teenager named Larry Sole (Joel Evans), takes place in Fort Smith where the author grew up. It is located in the Northwestern Territories of Canada and has a population that is sixty-five percent indigenous, primarily Dogrib and Cree.
My decision to discuss a film thAt focuses on Canada’s Native
children proved propitious given that the remains of more than two hundred
indigenous minors were discovered recently on the grounds of the Indian
Residential School in British Columbia. Although Canada’s residential schools
closed in 1996, Larry still grapples with many problems common to First Nation
children. He is growing up in a single parent household with his mother Verna
(Tamara Podemski) whose history includes both spousal abuse and alcoholism. Her
boyfriend Jed (Benjamin Bratt) is loving and kind and would make a good
step-father for Larry, but she is afraid to commit due to the lingering trauma
she suffers from her marriage.
Although many of his classmates’
backgrounds are similar to Larry’s, his case is more extreme because he is
scarred not only emotionally, but also physically with a torrent of thick burn
scars covering half of his torso. He uses a hoodie pulled tightly around his
neck to conceal his appearance just as he uses reticence to hide his
thoughts. As his last name suggests, Larry is a solitary person
whose standoffishness is exacerbated by several things. First, he has a crush
on the prettiest girl in school, Juliet Hope (Chloe Rose), who is an orphan
that earns her keep in her Auntie’s (Krista Bridges) house by babysitting.
Second, the class bully Darcy McManus (Adam Butcher) heckles him constantly.
Third, despite being exceptionally intelligent and well-read, like most of the
indigenous students, he frequently encounters prejudice and discrimination from
the school’s primarily white faculty.
Rather than leaving him behind, however, Juliet and Johnny include
Larry in their activities, and he feels so close to them that he begins to
share some of his innermost thoughts. He even tells Johnny that he accidentally
let some Huskies kill Darcy’s puppy, which caused the rift between them. In
return, Johnny gives him tips on how to stand up for himself. Unbeknownst to
Larry, however, Johnny’s advice is suspect because he is jealous of how much Juliet likes him. One night when he is burning with envy over Johnny’s and Juliet’s relationship, Larry takes it out on Darcy, pummeling him to the ground
and breaking his nose. To retaliate, Darcy tells everyone at school Larry’s
biggest secret, a detail that Larry has not even revealed to his closest
friends.
Throughout the film Larry has flashbacks about his father that tie
sexual abuse and a cabin engulfed in flames together. Since Darcy doesn’t know,
or really care about the causes of what happened, however, he just tells people
that Larry killed his father by setting him on fire. Thus, when Larry walks
into school the day after the fight, some of the kids look at him askance while
others intentionally bump into him and call him a monster. Even Johnny and Juliet
regard him differently. Finally, she asks Larry if the rumor is true, and after
he admits that it is, he runs away.
He wanders out onto the frozen plain where he relives what occurred on the night his father died. He is thinking about committing suicide when Jed finds him and takes him back home. At first, Larry stays around the house, getting the scuttlebutt from those few kids who will still speak to him. The only rumor he cares about, however, is that Johnny dumped Juliet when he learned she was pregnant. More concerned with her feelings than his own, Larry goes to a dance that is being held at the school. When he walks in, everyone avoids him except Juliet, who offers to dance with him if he will bring her a drink. By the time he gets back from the kitchen, however, she is gone, and Darcy is waiting for him. With the help of his minions, Darcy beats Larry up badly enough to put him in the hospital.
I’m not
going to reveal anymore. The Lesser Blessed is well worth watching, which
is what you will have to do to learn what happened the night of the fire and
how the story ends.
Discussion
I didn’t summarize after each movie as I usually do because common themes run through all three films. One is the persistence of visions because Hispanics have nothing on the Indians when it comes to magical realism. Further, the characters who see them are those who seem the least worthy. Philbert is quixotic, Shayla is skeptical, and Larry is traumatized. Nevertheless, all three of them rise to the occasion as a result of their visions which awakened and, in the process, transformed them.
Another theme is that the protagonists are outsiders. The Cheyenne consider Philbert too much of a dreamer to be taken seriously, the Pine Ridge residents consider Shayla an Apple (red outside, white inside) who is a traitor to her people, and classmates and teachers alike shun Larry because of his past. By the end of the films, however, the character’s experiences redefine who they are. In fact, in Powwow Highway, both leading characters change. Buddy, who has always been tied to the here and now, learns a more profound understanding of his Indian culture from Philbert, and Philbert, who has always felt to his Native culture emotionally, learns to how use it to fight for his people in the real world.
A third commonality between the stories is that they highlight
problems that plague Native communities. Reservations are fraught with poverty,
primarily as a result of unemployment, and this contributes to a high incidence
of substance abuse and fractured families. At first glance, Shayla’s background
seems to be an exception, until you learn that relations in her family, which
were always strained, shattered when her brother vanished years before.
One ongoing problem for Native people
that is not addressed in these films is that of missing and murdered
women. Not only is the rate of violence against indigenous
women far higher than it is for any other group, but the perpetrators are often
from a different race (primarily white). In the United States, tribal police
officers only have power within the boundaries of their reservations, which
means Indians do not have legal recourse if the crime occurs off the
reservation or the criminal leaves the area. (Until recently, they were also
forbidden to arrest non-Indians who committed crimes on reservations, but the
rule changed in the last few years.) At the end of the day, the American
criminal justice system is charged with the responsibility of preventing
violence against Native women, including those who are kidnapped or forced into
the sex trade, when it occurs off the reservations. Unfortunately, the courts
seldom pursue these cases. In the film There’s Something in the Water, a water-protector postulates that
the high rate of violence against First Nation females in Canada results from
the fact that Native women are the people who fight for indigenous rights.
Summary
Although indigenous actors might not receive Oscars for their work, many are exceptionally talented. These include Gary Farmer, Adam Beach, Tantoo Cardinal, Graham Greene, and Wes Studi, just to name a few. Along with the films discussed here, Indians have appeared in celebrated movies like Dances With Wolves, Geronimo, Little Big Man, and The Last of the Mohicans (although Irish Actor Daniel Day Lewis plays the Mohican Hawkeye). Television shows like Longmire, which depicts the Cheyenne Reservation in Wyoming, and Blackstone, which takes place on a fictional First Nations Reserve in Alberta, Canada are also excellent.
Roger Ebert loved Powwow Highway, and although I could not find a rating on Rotten Tomatoes (possibly because it is over thirty years old), 72% of viewers on IMDB liked it. Of the three movies in this post, this one is the most difficult to find. The only place it’s streaming is on the Criterion Channel, which requires a subscription. Right now, however, Roku is offering a seven-day trial, so if you have a Roku you can see it for free. You can also buy the DVD on eBay and Amazon but be careful that it’s for Region 1. Also, some sellers consider it a collector’s item (as do I) and charge a lot for it. The amount I paid was reasonable only because I bought it years ago.
There are no critics reviews for Imprint on Rotten Tomatoes and the audience only gave it a rating of 58%, which similar to the 5.7 (57%) score on IMDB. I think that’s because the producers didn't publicize the movie, and they categorized it as a horror film when it’s really more about Native people returning their roots and embracing their heritage. Even there are no big-name stars in the film, I really enjoyed it. In fact, I liked it so well that I watched it, bought it, and watched it some more. One good thing is that it is easy to find. You can stream it on Amazon Prime for $4 or buy it there for $8. There are also sellers on Amazon and eBay who carry the DVD, but it can cost $25 or more used.
Critics and audiences alike
gave The Lesser Blessed a
rating in the 50% to 58% range (I’m starting to wonder if
racism is at play here), but it did better on IMDB, 6.7 (67%). Along
with Kiowa Gordon winning Best Supporting Actor, Anita Boron was nominated for Best
Adapted Screenplay at the Canadian Screen Awards and for Best Feature Film
for Youth at the Zlín International Film Festival for Children and Youth.
Once again, I liked it well enough to buy it. Having come out more recently than
the other two, the movie is a lot easier to find. It is streaming on Kanopy for
free, or you can rent it on Amazon, Google Play, and Apple for a nominal fee.
It is also for sale at sites like Amazon, eBay, and Thriftbooks.com for less
than $10.
*The website reelrundown.com also
includes Ben Johnson who was born on the Osage Reservation and had a Cherokee
mother. In 1971 he won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Sam
the Lion in The Last Picture Show.
https://www.rednationff.com/american-indian-brando-the-oscar/
https://www.sbs.com.au/guide/article/2017/10/11/evolution-native-american-representation-westerns
https://www.spokesman.com/stories/1997/may/02/its-a-cinematic-revolution-first-movie-written/
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