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For us, there's
no happy ending.

They're not gonna wake
up one morning and say,

"Okay, we're gonna give
you back the land."

We got our suitcases.

We're gonna go back to
England or Spain or whatever,

and then somehow
we're gonna bring back

all the people we murdered.

It's not gonna happen.

My name is Frank Garcia Berumen.

My mother belongs to Huichol
people from Northern Mexico.

And I still have my mom.

My dad passed away,

but he was a mestizo from
the center of Mexico as well.

You know, I taught
history, I taught English.

And what was missing
was Native history,

basically here in this country,

it's black and
white perspective,

politics, you name it, so forth.

When I was growing up, I
remember the stereotypes.

And then, of course, Indians
always going hoo hoo like this,

and then the Native women
walking with tight pants,

you know, that sort of thing.

It was kind of just insulting.

My name is Hanay Geiogomah.

I'm a member of the
Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma,

and I am a emeritus
professor of theater

in the UCLA School of
Theater Film and Television.

I'm a writer,
director, and producer,

and all-around
champion of the cause.

I grew up in Oklahoma,
in southwestern Oklahoma.

And there were a number
of tribes in that area

who were on the
different tribes,

we were like, there,
we were like here,

and then all around
here was white people.

It was like being in a
kind of an open space

where you're just
con constricted and,

but you knew that the white
people controlled everything.

They controlled the
rents and the houses.

They owned the houses,
they ran the schools,

they ran the businesses.

Everything was theirs.

It was all, and they controlled
the land base, everything.

And we were there as the
Indians. We were the Indians.

We weren't part of them.

We were there and among
them, but we were not them.

And they, the only thing that
they've been good for so far

for us is to be characters in
the cowboy and Indian movies.

And the cowboy and Indian
movies was woo, woo, woo

and all of that.

And that's how we were seen.

We were seen as those
kinds of Indians

when we were growing up.

Behind the barricade!

Get ammunition and plenty of it!

My name is Irene Bedard.

Irene is the goddess of peace,

the Greek goddess of peace.

And then I am also

on my father's side French
Canadian, Bedard, and Cree.

He had a, his mother was Cree.

So my Cree name means iron
woman, to the core of the earth.

I even had a birthday
cake one year,

I don't remember, maybe
I was six or seven

where it was
cowboys and Indians.

And we all wanted
to be the cowboys

because the Indians were
the bad guys, you know?

I remember being
chased down the street

by kids with baseball bats,

and I'd have to, you know,

run home with my little
brothers and sisters

and the other kids on the block.

And it was part of being
a part of a culture

that was so marginalized.

But, of course, what
if we've been shown

over and over again,
this violence,

this idea of this
savage, this, you know,

not even so many after
that, so many decades

of not even Native people
portraying Native people,

so there's no cultural
perspective that's
being shown there.

My name is Darrell
Redleaf Fielder.

I am Hidatsa and Lakota.

I was born on the Fort
Berthold Indian Reservation

in North Dakota, on my
mother's reservation.

I have to say,

I am the first Native American
hairstylist and makeup artist

in the entertainment business

that has kind of
risen to the heights

that I have risen to.

I think when I look
back, when I was a kid

and watching movies
and westerns and stuff,

and I would see Native
American people,

they were always portrayed
as, you know, what's the word?

The bad guy.

They were always
portrayed as the bad guy.

I mean, that was always
disconcerting to me,

you know, even as a child.

Tie her up.

Savages! Animal!

Apaches!

I'm Tantoo Cardinal

and I was born in Fort
McMurray, Alberta, Canada.

Well, at the time
that I was born,

my mother was
called a half breed,

but that's since been changed
and cleaned up a little bit.

So now we're referred
to as Metis people,

and now we are included
in the Constitution.

I was born in 1950, and at that
time, we were still illegal.

Our language was subverted.

Our religious practices,
for lack of a better term,

our communication with
the greater force,

creative force was unlawful.

I grew up in a time when
languages were disappearing.

People were ashamed
to speak the language.

They were, my grandmother
spoke to me in Cree,

and she spoke to
relatives in Dene,

but I was not allowed to
respond in the language.

And that was her way
of protecting me from

what would happen to you if
you were a language speaker.

I think from
the very beginning

when Europeans came, obviously
they had a different culture.

We had a different
culture, you know,

different language,
different religion.

And so the the fact that for
them we wouldn't be subdued

by them, and we resisted,
then they immediately said,

"Well, these people
aren't civilized.

They're primitive and so
forth," compared to them.

Especially the church.

They wanted to, like I said,

kill the savage
and save the man.

And so the image has always
been that we're savages,

that we're primitive,
we're violent, you know,

we cannot control our violence.

We cannot control our sexuality.

And of course, throughout
the 1800's, the press,

the media here focused on
the violent character of it.

There was never any
discussion about

what we're doing is wrong.

These people are, are human
beings. We need to respect them.

At the end of the
Indian wars, at the end

of the 1800's, they develop
a nostalgia for the Old West,

after it ended.

There was Buffalo
Bill's Wild West Show

and other shows that
travel around the world,

basically romanticizing
the Old West.

You know, typically you
had the, the Indian trying

to stop the hero

and, you know, rape the
white woman and so forth.

Near the end of the 1800's,

you had the motion
picture evolution.

And one of the first
images was Native people.

There was a short
called "Ghost Dance".

The Ghost Dance and the
Lakota people were dances

that they did within
the reservation.

It was part of a
movement of a nostalgia

because people were
depressed, sad,

hungry and so forth.

And it reawakened their
sense of identity.

And so this short film
of "The Ghost Dance",

was the first image that
I'm aware of Native people.

And some companies, like
Path actually, had Native

performers and
writers and so forth.

And so they were pretty popular.

They focused mostly on
the, on mixed marriages,

about the defects of people
that were somewhat tainted

because they had Indian blood,

that we couldn't
control our sexuality

and violence, that
kind of scenario.

Even popular stars, like
Douglas Fairbanks Senior

made some of these films
to tell the stories.

And, you know, so he
was like a mixed blood.

They lived in the forest,

his tribe was gone,
everybody was dead.

He had no friends.

But it was interesting
because Fairbanks had a lot of

Native American performers.

People like Charles Stevens,
who for a long time people

thought he was the grandson
of Geronimo was one of them.

And he went on,

Charles Steven went on
to a long, long career.

So yeah, I mean, even
big stars were fascinated

by that genre for a while.

One of my favorite
American Indian theme movies

from the silent era
was "The Squaw Man".

I think a lot of people
respond to "The Squaw Man"

because it actually has
a real human story in it.

And the interesting thing
that the difference was that,

that there was no dialogue,
of course, it's silent.

So you were, you were
watching the faces,

you were watching the emotions,

you were watching the
physical expressions.

This is what a real Indian
looks like without any special

effects or sound or corny
dialogue that somebody wrote

that they would never
say in the first place.

For a period about 15 years.

It was, that type of
movies were very popular.

It reminded people of what
they had lived through,

at least the older people

and what young people were
learning now in school.

And that was basically gone.

Main part of
America at that time,

this was in the early 1800's,

was on the eastern side
of the United States.

And they sent Louis and Clark
out to explore the rest of it.

And saw all, came all the
way to the Pacific coast

and saw that America was
a huge, huge, huge country

with all kinds of
resources and everything.

And they went back and told,
told the people in the east,

this is a country, we don't
have to stay just right here.

We should be moving this way.

The Indians were there,

and they knew that the
Indians were there,

and that they'd have
to deal with them.

So the, arrogantly,
the American government

took it upon itself to
say, this is our destiny.

Our destiny is to take
our country all the way

to the Pacific Ocean, and
that's what we're gonna do.

And nobody's gonna
stop us. Nobody.

The Indians aren't
gonna stop us.

Mexico's not gonna stop us.
France is not gonna stop us.

England's not gonna stop us.

We're going, this is, we're
gonna take this whole continent

and make it America.

And whoever gets in
the way, too bad.

And the Indians were in the way.

A Manifest Destiny
was a belief.

It was like, I call it the tumor

of the Doctrine of Discovery.

The Doctrine of
Discovery, believe it

or not, even today
is a legal term.

It's a legal doctrine.

There's been many tribes that
tried to get back their land.

But because they were
discovered by Europeans,

and when they discovered, as
in the land belonged to them.

They've lost many in
the Supreme Court.

They've lost Supreme Court cases

because the Doctrine of
Discovery still exists

in the courts in this country.

And so then Manifest Destiny
simply meant that the belief

that they were destined by God

to expand from sea
to shining sea.

And so then anything you did
on the way of doing that was,

you know, God was happy with it.

And so then by any
means necessary,

and that essentially
was Manifest Destiny.

You can see this from the
very beginning in the speeches

and writings of George
Washington, you know,

Thomas Jefferson,
Andrew Jackson,

even Lincoln believed in it.

So, and of course, today we
still have the image somehow

that of American exceptionalism,

like we're unique in the world

because of all the wonderful,
good things that we did.

But the reality is,
it's totally different.

In the United States,

the first Indian
war was in 1789.

Every single tribe in the
United States was attacked

by this country in the
so-called Indian Wars.

And so the policy
of the United States

was essentially
extinction or reservation.

Several thousand people.

And they were forced
to, to like go on wagons

and walk this whole distance
through the wilderness

and across rivers
and everything.

And many people died.

Illnesses, just
accidents, was a very,

very terrible experience
for the tribe.

They called it the
Trail of Tears.

It's still very graphically
present in the memories

of the Cherokee
people, also the Creeks

and some other tribes as well.

But primarily for the
Cherokees, the Trail of Tears.

Most people think we're in
the past, that we don't exist,

because most reservations
were initially

established in far away places,

so that settlers could
not bump into 'em

as something bad could happen.

They stopped recognizing
more than a hundred tribes

and so as federal reservations.

So it meant that the land
then was they could take it,

which they did, which they did.

Now sometimes people
think that it was kind of

a wonderful place
to be and so forth,

but there was diseases,
brutality, starvation

or near starvation and so forth,
and people couldn't leave.

If you left, they would track
you down and either kill you

or bring you back
into the reservation.

So essentially that history
was romanticized in US history.

It was justified.

Genocide was
justified in the fact

that they wanted the land.

And more than 600
treaties were signed

with the United
States government,
but all were violated.

What happens in the 1930's
with the Great Depression,

some people look for
scapegoats, you know,

they want a catharsis of
some sort, their anger,

to raise their anger.

Some people, I think resented

Native people becoming
citizens, you know,

making them equal
to white people.

1925, Native people were
finally given citizenship.

And so then it was a little
incentive for Native people then

to be able to participate
in voting and so forth.

And so then in the 1920's, you
have a series of some films

"The Vanishing Americans",
you know, among others

that were positive in nature.

But all these films were
box office failures.

So it wasn't wise to
invest in stories about us.

We became minor characters,
incidental characters.

And then essentially,
whenever the story

or the screenplay
kind of got boring,

they had Indians screaming
and attacking people, right?

Basically faceless
people with no life,

no culture, nothing else.

"The Stage Coach"
is a very important

western for a lot of reasons.

Unfortunately, the stereotypes
were more the same.

You saw this, hundreds
of Apache attacking

a stage coach,
screaming and so forth.

You know, the film made
Ford an important director,

and of course, was
very well directed.

The characters, the script,
but the Native images

just are terrible.

Totally, completely terrible.

There was another movie
called "Geronimo" in 1939.

It's kind of bloodthirsty
image of Geronimo.

Geronimo has always been
the most hated Indian

in the United States
then, yesterday and today.

And so then it was, you
know, a sensationalist,

violent prone film.

It had, it didn't
have much of a plot

other than these blood thirsty

savages attacking stage coaches,

burning buildings,
that sort of thing.

Geronimo's the most
hated Indian ever,

because he was a leader
of the last tribe

that resisted Manifest Destiny.

And not only that,
there's a period also

where the last six months

of the war against
the United States,

where the United States had
5,000 troops on the border,

and they didn't catch
a single Apache,

didn't kill a single Apache.

So it was the fact
that this Indian,

this savage could outwit West
Point graduates, you know,

Civil War generals,
which is incredible.

So it humiliated them in
front of their own people.

And I think they never
forgave 'em for that.

I think that part of the
reason that the Apache,

not only Geronimo and the
warriors, but the women

and the children were given
27 years in prison, you know,

is unprecedented, even
for Native people, is part

of the reason they wanted
to completely wipe 'em out

and move 'em away from any
media or anything else.

And so I think essentially
that's the reason,

and that's never
gonna change I think.

That group of films,

you know, are very important.

But it also perpetuated
basically some of
the worst images

of indigenous people.

Presents for my brothers,
the Cheyenne, the red hyenas.

"The Plainsman" was 1936.

There's a scene where they
put on the women's clothing

and this, the brassieres

and whatnot, it is kind
of comical, tragic comic.

Oh.

It was an attempt to
undermine a community

that clearly was
here before them.

And so the idea was
to denigrate him,

and he did that by making
him look foolish, childlike.

And stupid as well.

And bumbling,
unable to understand

what the world was
like at that time.

And of course, I mean the
permanent stereotype of

that Indian males
lusted after white women

and wanted to seduce them and
rape him and the whole thing.

And so then that scene is
troubling and shocking.

And, you know, and it's what
makes it even worse is that

you start by ridiculing them

and then they commit this
horrible, you know, crime.

All the policy
kind of perpetuated

that attitude that, you know,
Native people were primitive.

They weren't civilized,
even the institution

that you think would be
supportive, the churches,

they wanted to civilize you.

The boarding schools
developed in the early 1800's

precisely to, you
know, what they called

to kill the savage,
but save the man.

And so then kids in
reservations were taken

by force from the parents,
sent to boarding schools

where many of them died
of diseases and so forth.

And this went on into
the early 1900's.

On the one hand,
we have a Navajo

as we find him in the desert.

Few of these boys

and girls have ever
seen a white man.

Yet, through the agencies
of the government,

they are being rapidly
brought from their state

of comparative savagery

and barbarism to
one of civilization.

My mom went to
the boarding school

and it really harmed
her in so many ways.

And also, you know, in
that way harmed all of us.

Its intent was to
rip families apart.

And it worked, you know,

and it, we, even though we
stayed together as a family,

there was a lot of
harm that came out of

that multi-generational trauma.

I have a picture of her

and her twin sister, Ruth,
my Auntie Ruth, you know,

and they're in their parkas

and they look like they,
how they looked, you know

how we all probably
looked for tens

of thousands of years.

And they're so cute.

You know, they're,
they were little.

And they were plucked, taken
away, far away to a village

and separately because they
didn't want them to be together.

That was part of it,
is separating families

and abuse, all, physical,
mental, emotional,

spiritual, sexual abuse.

My mother went
to boarding school

and my aunts went
to boarding school.

I didn't, luckily.

You were humiliated.

And in the boarding
schools, severely punished.

I spoke with an old woman

who told me that she was
caught speaking her language.

So the nun made her kneel
in front of the class

and put a brand new
clothes pin on her tongue,

so that the students
would see what happens

to you when you speak
that devil language.

My father was, went
to boarding schools in,

when he grew up in
the '20's and '30's,

they were all sent
to boarding schools.

So he was traumatized in his
life by that, where he had

to cut his hair, he
couldn't speak his language,

and the nuns would beat them
if they spoke their language.

And now it's coming to
light in the stories

that we're seeing exactly what
was happening and the trauma

and the abuse and the murder

and everything that has gone on.

But this has been
going on for 500 years.

It's kind of ironic
that people came here

for religious freedom
being one of them,

and the first thing they do
is get rid of our systems

and outlaw our
relationship with Creator.

We had to be Christians,

and that was the intent of
the residential schools.

Get rid of the red
and leave the man.

Didn't even mention
women, you know.

I think that World War II
was, more than World War I

an opportunity for the US
armed forces, essentially to,

to recruit high numbers
of Native people,

emphasizing that
they were warriors.

And so that was a
huge attraction.

It was also a way to get out
of the reservation, you know,

with poverty and
alcoholism and whatnot.

And so then many of them did,

and many of them became
highly decorated soldiers.

That experience
definitely changed

them at the Native community.

They saw the world,
they saw, you know, good

and bad white people.

They saw the Nazis,

they saw people that
were not like them.

They saw good people,
bad people, you know,

different geographies,
different countries, languages.

And so then that made a huge,
huge difference, you know,

and when they went back home,
you know, they were honored

by their tribes for fighting
for the medals and so forth.

And also I think that
it, very instrumental

in developing a
Native identity within

the United States of America.

Because before it was,

you belong to your tribe
in the reservation,

but most of them had never left.

So you had huge numbers

of Native males join
the armed forces

in all theaters of war.

Ira Hayes was a Pima, a
small tribe in Arizona.

And he is famous, of course,
for being one of the Marines

that raised the
flag in Iwo Jima,

who were battle in the
Pacific in World War II.

During his service,
he suffered a lot

of discrimination and racism.

He was often called chief, you
know, they did the tomahawk,

you know, kind of shined.

When he came back, basically
he started drinking.

He had trauma and also,
you know, survival guilt.

So he drank himself to death.

And also the fact that of course
many were traumatized like

Ira Hayes, you know, that
never got the proper attention

or the proper opportunities
because of racism and so forth.

It made us stronger.

And it made 'em, you know,
give 'em a real sense that

they were part of this country.

And now that they were citizens

and veterans, they had
the right to demand things

and they had representatives

and that they had to
hold 'em accountable.

That also did a lot in the sense

of public relations
in the media.

They began to cover us more

and see us as human beings
rather than the screaming guy on

the horse kidnapping women
and children and so forth.

So sociological factors were
instrumental in Hollywood

also becoming more
conscientious about

how they portrayed us as well.

And so then what
happened with, I think

how Ford changed his
attitude about Native people

was the fact he
served in the Pacific

with a camera unit, and
he saw himself the heroism

and contributions
of Native soldiers,

especially the Navajo.

And so I think that
really softened

and informed him to have
a different attitude

about Native people.

And there's numerous
stories about when he went

to Monument Valley
to film, he would use

as many Navajo for the film.

And oftentimes he would
also was very generous,

you know, would contribute
to charitable organizations,

to housing, to
clothing and so forth.

So it really changed
him, I think,

profoundly the World War II.

And I think from
that point onward,

he looked for a script that
would make, be an apology.

It wasn't until "Cheyenne
Autumn", he was able to do that.

You made one of the most
heroic marches in history.

You deserve to go back
to your own homeland

and stay there in peace.

I'm sure that the people of
this country will understand

and will agree when
they hear the facts.

Now, will you take the gamble?

The people, who
will tell them?

Who will tell the people
about Fort Robinson?

I will.

I promise you.

That Ford was
romanticizing the soldiers.

I'm not saying that all
of 'em were a 100% evil,

but I mean, they
did what they did.

And so then, but the reality
is it's much worse than that.

There was just so many
massacres that everything from,

you know, opening the
stomachs and scalping

and so forth.

For each son, I take many.

Scalps.

And that's the
other misconception

that Native people did not
scalp until the English came,

because the English used
that against the Irish first.

And then when they came
here, they perpetuated.

There's documents or
speeches about the fact that

they have scalping of
Indians in their policy

because they refused
to obey the king.

I mean, who, you know, they
had no idea who that guy was.

So anyway, but, but yeah, no,

the difference between history

and reality is totally
different, totally different.

And of course,
Hollywood perpetuated

the romanticized
perspective of this.

Of course.

So here they are,

the dog faced
soldiers, the regulars,

the 50 cents a day professionals
riding the outposts

of a nation.

From Fort Reno to Fort Apache,

from Sheridan to Stark,
they were all the same.

Men in dirty shirt blue

and only a cold
page in the history

books to mark their passing.

But wherever they rode and
whatever they fought for,

that place became
the United States.

Basically, you know,

perpetuating the same thing.

So it isn't until like the
late '40's after the war,

and some of the, you know,
people realizing inhumanity

of man to each other

and some of the newer
directors and Anthony Mann,

Donald Davis, people like that,
you know, who are younger,

a little bit more to the left

and radical, who then begin
to, you know, create this body

of film, beginning with "The
Devil's Doorway", Anthony Mann.

The boys outnumber us, Father.

The war's over, all
the wars, even yours.

The country's growing up.

They gave me these stripes
without testing my blood.

I led a squad of white men,
slept in the same blankets

with 'em, ate
outta the same pan,

held their heads when they died.

Why should it be
any different now?

You are home, you
are again an Indian.

But it's a film without hope.

You know, I think it's a, in
a lot of ways a truer film

because it is, it was
hopeless, you know, by the end

of the 1800's, you know,
Native people were broken,

they're totally broken.

You know, alcoholism
taking its toll, suicide.

We didn't know what to do.

And so then it's a film
that is, it's hard to watch,

at least for me,
it's heartbreaking.

Where
are the others?

We're all gone.

The major challenge

in Native American
made films are several.

One of them is the money.
Where's the money coming from?

If you're making a film
that's gonna be critiquing,

you know, the US government

or the armed forces, you know,

some studios will
not fund that at all.

Another thing is that if
you don't have a big star,

you can't green light it.

And so that at that point,
is white actors took over,

and so then they had
to have the red face

to make them some
somewhat believable.

Obviously the racism against
Native people working in film.

It was the fact that the
always, the excuse was

that these people
can sell tickets.

These people are stars.

So we get some
unknown Native actor,

it's not gonna be a success.

And so that was
part another logic

of the Hollywood
studios at that time.

Well, I think that
Hollywood, in the beginning,

in the '30's, '40's and
'50's, they were just doing

what they thought they
needed to do in order

to depict the indigenous people.

I mean, they didn't
hire indigenous actors,

so they would use
Caucasian actors

and paint them, their faces red

and put bad wigs
on them and stuff.

A lot of times Hollywood
romanticizes Native Americans,

because there's
something noble about us.

So maybe there's
a little bit of,

kind of white guilt
in there a little bit.

There's some anecdote that
some actors had told me.

I mean, older actors that,
you know, live way back,

that a lot of this
dialogue that they said

was in a sense, like
a catharsis for them,

they were cussing out
white people, right?

Or threatening them.

And for them, after all
they had lived through,

was something that they
initially didn't want to do,

but for a moment, they
had some sense of power.

If I do not return,
general Quake will find you

and you will be dead
and all your people.

No, he is not a fool. You are.

And I think that what also
is important along the way when

it comes to looking at Hollywood

and indigenous
people in Hollywood,

there was an actor in the '60's,

his name was Eddie Little Sky.

He was Oglala Lakota from
Pine Ridge, South Dakota.

And he was in every
sitcom, in every,

he was on "Gilligan's
Island", on "F Troop".

He was, anytime there
was a Native person

or Polynesian person,
they called him.

And he never gets a lot of talk

because he was, he was
from, he was Lakota,

he's from my people, but
he was very prominent

in the '60's and '70's.

He was in "Soldier
Blue", he was in

"A Man Called Horse"
with Richard Harris.

And so there's a
lot of, few people

that were prominent back then

that have not been really
given their due, I feel.

Also one movie that
really impacted me

as a child was "Billy Jack".

That movie showed
the protagonist,
which was Billy Jack,

as this ass-kicking,
like martial artist

that was gonna kick your
ass if you messed with him.

Morning, Billy.

You're illegally
on Indian land.

And when that movie came
out, it, for Native people,

it was the first time that we
saw ourselves as being a hero.

Drop it or die.

And during that time, in
1971, when that movie came out,

that was when the American
Indian movement was happening

and Alcatraz was being
taken over by AIM and stuff.

So there was a lot of
social change happening

for indigenous people then.

And there was a lot
of unrest in America,

especially with the
government and Native people.

It would be
fitting and symbolic

that ships from all over the
world entering Golden Gates

would first see Indian land

and thus be reminded the
true history of this nation.

Alcatraz in San Francisco
Bay was a major media event

because it was Alcatraz,
known all over the world,

a prison island and the
Indians occupied it.

There were, the Indian community
in, the activist Indian

community in the Bay
Area got together, said,

"Let's do something that
will get people's attention"

and that, they got
out in the boats

and went out and
occupied Alcatraz

and the World Media came there

and filmed it and
told the story.

And people all over
the world became aware

that there were Indians that
had issues, that had concerns,

that had protest
reality happening.

Hollywood's impervious to
whatever it doesn't want

to get in its way, and it
can just ignore something.

And something as enormous

as the Black Civil
Rights Movement can,

Hollywood can just
keep going forward

and not let it affect them,

but what it did for
the American Indian,

is that it galvanized
the attitudes

of like my generation saying,

"No, I am not as dumb
as you think I am.

No, I've become educated
and I know how to write

and I know how to think
and I know what's right

and I know what I see
and I know what's wrong

and I can, I'm
starting to understand

how y'all are doing this and
the way you're doing it."

My first place that I lived

in the States was
Atlanta, Georgia.

And because my
husband at the time

was a, was an
organizer in the Selma

and the Montgomery March.

So that was my first
inspiration about fighting

for our humanity.

That was my first influence
being in the States

and hearing about the people.

And there certainly
was a need for us.

And it seemed like
it was an energy

on the planet at the time.

It was everywhere
that, it was the,

the planet was just scrambling
and moving for change.

And so were my people.

But my first foray in
into the world of justice

and change was with the
Black Civil Rights Movement.

A lot of had been done

to American Indian
people in this country

and also to African
Americans as well.

The Vietnam conflict
started happening

and civil rights
started happening.

And so some sense of, we've
gotten some of this wrong,

we're gonna have to make
some adjustments here

to this reality, not because
we have to, because we should.

There was a sense that
that came into some

of the storytellers,
awarenesses that the Indians had

had a very bad deal, that they
had been wrongly portrayed.

For me, the movie that I
think did the most for me

to really open up a vision of

what Indian reality
could be in a movie

was "Little Big Man".

I don't understand
it, Grandfather,

why would they kill
women and children?

Because they are strange.

They do not seem to
know where the center

of the earth, these.

In "Little Big Man", there was

a character named Little Horse

and Little Horse
wore woman's dress

and did woman's things.

And that is considered
two-spirit, you
know, the balance

between men and
woman in one person.

Don't you remember me?

This hurts me in my heart.

I'm two-spirit.

People don't understand
what that is,

that what a
two-spirit person is,

is it's, you're called gay.

And traditionally
two-spirit people

before colonization,
before the Spanish came

and everything, two
spirit people were very,

very important in the tribe.

They held a high place in
the society and in the clans

and in the rituals
and in the ceremonies,

because they were, we
were thought of a person

that was a spirit in transition,

going from masculine to feminine
or feminine to masculine.

And the idea at that
time, you know, in,

when "Little Big Man" came out,
that was a really big deal.

I think that that "Little
Big Man" was a good,

good reflection at that
time, 1971 of that,

because Vietnam had
happened and all of this.

And it was starting to see.

it wasn't because there was a
sudden awareness in Hollywood

that, oh, we've really been,
done a bad job to the Indians.

We must do whatever
we can to correct that

and make it better.

The interesting
thing about the movie,

it was the Wounded Knee
Massacre, essentially.

The Wounded Knee Massacre
took place in 1890 in

South Dakota in a place
called Pine Ridge,

which now is part of the Pine
Ridge Oglala Reservation.

And what happened there,
there was a group of Oglala

or Lakota who went to

where the Seventh
Calvary was stationed.

They were going to surrender.

There's even photos
of some of the Oglala

with the white flag,
dead in the ice.

And so what happened,
the Seventh Calvary,

that's Custer's old outfit,

massacred them, more than
250 men, women and children.

And 19 soldiers were given the
Congressional Medal of Honor,

which is the highest medal

of valor you can get
in the United States.

And so today, Wounded
Knee, the site is,

in the Pine Ridge
Reservation in South Dakota.

And it's a place of,
you know, a sacred place

of mourning and
commemoration as well.

I think most people
didn't quite remember that

because it's not
taught in school.

I taught for many
years in high school

before I taught in college

and in the history books,

at least in California,
they call it a battle.

I think most of my people,
especially at that point,

late '60's, '70's,

were probably been
completely ignorant.

They might have thought
simply it was just

a massacre that was
created for the film.

So I think that if
people had known better

or more about Native history,
they would've been able

to connect both events.

The Indian, as a
subject matter, the Indian

as a human being, was considered

to be like, just available.

We could do what we want to
with this storyline, this image.

"Soldier Blue" was,
that was around the time

of the My Lai Massacres
in Vietnam, you know,

when the army was just going in

and killing innocent
people in villages.

That was the metaphor, I think,

that the same thing had
been done to Indians,

the same atrocities
and tragedies.

And it was a way to
actually show that.

They couldn't show
footage of My Lai

and make that into a movie.

But they could do
it with the Indians

because they'd always
done with Indians

what they wanted
to do with Indians.

And
that was a battle,

and people became aware of it,

you know, and there was a
court martial and, you know,

and the media, you know,
all over the place.

Big, big scandal.

And of course, you
know, raping, killing,

desecration of bodies,
all that stuff.

Of course, the top
brass was never touched.

The real blame was
the people on the top.

They had done this for many
years in Vietnam and elsewhere.

And this country had done that

for the last century and a half.

During the '70's, there
was kind of an awakening.

A lot of civil liberties

were being questioned by a gen,

a whole entire generation coming
out of Martin Luther King,

seeing that there was this
generation that could understand

that equality was not
what was truly happening.

And that had to do with
women, it had to do

with people of color.

You know, there was also
the two-spirited movement.

There was a lot going on
in terms of social justice,

economic justice,
environmental justice.

One of the experiences
of that was Wounded Knee.

In 1973, there were hundreds
of people that went there

to make a stand, you know, about

what was happening
on the reservations.

The American Indian Movement
came up with Russell Means,

who was the leader of the
American Indian Movement,

Dennis Banks, Clyde Bellecourt,

and many others who went to
Wounded Knee and made a stand

and the FBI and then
the military moved in.

The leadership of the Oglala

Sioux here present in
Wounded Knee, have declared

Wounded Knee an
independent country.

From here further, if any spy

from the United States of
America is found within our

borders, they will be dealt
with as any spy in a time of war

to be shot before
a firing squad.

It called attention
to that, to land issues,

to cultural issues,
to spiritual issues.

That too became a
worldwide media event.

And it brought
enormous attention to
the cause. Enormous.

But it also at the same time,

generated in my generation
energy and positivity.

And we can do it. And we're,
we don't have to be afraid.

We don't have to hold back.

We don't have to give in all
the time, we can be heard.

We have to be intelligent

and smart to do it in a
way that they will listen,

but they can, we could
get through to them,

and that they can't
just ignore us.

The Wounded Knee incident,
which was a shootout,

and then subsequently,
subsequently, there was

of course the trials
of all these activists.

And then Marlon Brando had
been nominated for an Oscar.

So he asked a friend of his
Sacheen Littlefeather to come up

and refuse the Oscar

and make a speech about
the racist treatment

of Hollywood towards
Native people.

And of course she was booed.

Hello, my name is
Sacheen Littlefeather.

I'm Apache and I'm president

of the National Native American
Affirmative Image Committee.

I'm representing Marlon
Brando this evening.

And he has asked me to tell
you in a very long speech,

which I cannot share with you
presently because of time,

but I will be glad to share
with the press afterwards

that he very regretfully
cannot accept

this very generous award.

And the reasons for this
being are the treatment

of American Indians today
by the film industry.

Excuse me.

She shined a light, an
international light on

what was happening out there.

And I think she saved
people's lives. I really do.

She was also black balled from

Hollywood for the
rest of her life.

She had a very difficult
time after that.

No one wanted to work with her.

And then basically the
media kind of lost interest.

It just kinda went on.

And so I think part
of the problem is

that we, you know,

our story doesn't
have a happy ending

and the land will never
be back, given back.

And like I mentioned,
even reservation line

is under trust ship of
the federal government.

So that's part of the
issue. It's a sad story.

And not too many people want
to read, hear about sad story.

They wanna read about
success stories.

So that's part of
the problem I think.

I think it scared the heck outta

Hollywood for a while at least.

And I think that they
felt compelled somehow

to do something, otherwise
they're going to be, you know,

besieged by protestors
or whatever it may be.

And so I think that the,
some doors began to open.

The 1970's when things like,

like "Cuckoo's Nest" came
along, '75 I think it was.

Will Samson had been,
was out here already.

And he had done
some small parts.

- Get the guy.
- Get around chief.

The Hollywood community,

they said, oh, that big
Indian, that big Indian,

we need a big strong
Indian, get Will.

It was Will Sampson
himself that made

that moment important

because he was who
he said he was.

And he was from the people.

The language was all through
his body and culture.

And that's who he was.
That's who he came from.

Somebody else stepping
into that role,

same script, everything.

It wouldn't have had the impact.

It was his integrity
that made the impact.

Son of a bitch, Chief.

Can you hear me too?

I hear you good.

Well, I'll be
god damned, Chief.

They all, they all think
you're deaf and dumb.

So right there, we had
a role model right there,

somebody to look up to.

And the the other
guys that wanted

to be actors had Will
Sampson as the role model.

There he was. Will can
do it, I can do it.

And so slowly, slowly
the, the process

of Indians themselves learning
how to better, better do it

to get cast besides
just being cast,

because you could ride a horse
nicely and you got long hair.

But to act, to actually
have a role, to play a part.

It all begins with
the stories, right?

Who writes the stories?

You know, who's gonna
direct the movie?

You know, are they gonna
finance a film about us

when there's no big star?

You know?

And so those are kind of the,

some of the challenges
that we face.

"Dances" was, people
liked that movie

because it had a
real Indian cast.

It had, those were real Indians.

So it was a whole,

almost a sensual difference
in seeing these real Indians

talking and doing things

and interacting with a white man

who was intelligently clever
enough to be simpatico

with the Indians and
to get along with them.

And they weren't his
enemy, per se so there was

a feel good experience.

And that was one of the
first major Hollywood movies

that portrayed us
as human beings.

It had huge impact.

Lot of people watched that movie

and they watch it
over and over again.

We come far, you and me.

I will not forget you.

Native people
are storytellers.

That's how we pass
down all of our history

and all of our knowledge
is through storytelling.

It's only natural that Native
people tell our own stories.

It's time for us to
tell our own stories.

And I'm happy to see it
happening in Hollywood

and to be a part of it.

When I think about
a Native film,

I think the first Native film
that came out that was really

a seminal piece was
"Smoke Signals".

It was from our perspective

and it was a really
touching, beautiful story.

- Hello?
- Hello?

My name is Susie Song.
I've got bad news.

Arnold Joseph passed away.

- Oh.
- I'm his neighbor

here in Phoenix.

His stuff is still in his
trailer and his pickup's here.

I think somebody
should come get it.

I'm making arrangements
for him. I'll call again.

Thank you for phoning.

In "Smoke Signals",

it was so beautiful
to be able to go

and do this with a
Native American director

and, you know, produced
and directed and written

and a full Native cast
who were the protagonists.

And this was a first

and it was wonderful
to be a part of it.

And it was wonderful to portray

this different kind
of woman, you know,

she was strong and powerful.

Hey Victor, you ever
hear the Gathering

of Nations powwow in New Mexico?

No? Well, your dad and I, we
went to check it out last year.

All sorts of Indians
there, thousands of them,

more Indians than I've
ever seen in one place.

I kept thinking, I wish
we'd been this organized

when Columbus landed.

"Smoke Signals" is
kind of a cult movie

and it, people have
their own copies

and you know, people are
stealing their copies.

And it is, it's a
very much loved movie

and it was kind of essential

to come along at the
time that it did.

You gotta look mean or
people won't respect you.

White people will run all over
you if you don't look mean.

You gotta look like a warrior.

You gotta look like
you just came back

from killing a buffalo.

But our tribe never hunted
buffalo. We were a fisherman.

What?

You wanna look like you just
came back from catching a fish?

This ain't dances
with salmon, you know.

Thomas, you gotta
look like a warrior.

There.

That's better.

And so during that
time, there was a,

again, another rising
expectation that, you know,

wonderful things were
down the road for us.

But, and they had some talent.

We had talented actors,
actresses, you know, directors,

Chris Eyre and so forth.

I believe that
America is big enough.

It's powerful enough, it's
rich enough, you know,

to really deal with the American

Indian in a way
it should be done.

A movie like
"Skins" was initiated

by Chris Eyre
director, producer.

So he had the funding,

personal and otherwise
to make the movie.

And I think it had been
a movie that had been

long in the waiting to be made.

I think that there's
a general consistence

among Native actors all over
of what needs to take place.

You know, the, for a real film
about us, by us and so forth.

And that was a one.

At that time, all Indian
religious ceremonies were banned

by white men because
they were afraid of them.

Now up on the western end
of the Cheyenne River,

Sitting Bull resisted.

So they shot him.

And Bigfoot knew that he

and his people had to
flee the area immediately.

So they came to Pine Ridge

and when they camped out,

the Wounded Knee troopers
of the Seventh Calvary-

That's Custer's old command.

Seventh Cavalry was called in

to escort into the reservation.

There the soldiers disarmed 'em.

The Knee was nothing but a damn

massacre of women and children.

And of course you had that
Graham Greene character,

a Vietnam vet

who suffers trauma and
also survival guilt.

Well, maybe there is one
thing you could do for me.

What?

Help me blow the nose
off George Washington at

Rushmore, you know, for people.

Just give 'em a good laugh.
Maybe that's all we need.

Where do you get these ideas?

Why he wants to
smear George Washington

and Mount Rushmore is

because the Mount Rushmore
is in the Black Hills,

which according to the
treaty of Fort Laramie,

was going to be belonging
to the Lakota forever

and ever in perpetuity.

But of course they took it.

And of course, you know,

they built the monument

and I think that ever
go to Pine Ridge,

you could see the
monument from there.

And so it's like you have
this four presidents watch,

and Jefferson, who were
the, the planners, you know,

who sit there, the policies
of genocide for Native people.

They had Lincoln who
was considered the
greatest president,

you know, and did great things

for African Americans
and commendable.

But for Native people it
was just the opposite.

You would've thought
that he would help people

who need the most help.

But he didn't, you know,
during his presidency

there was continuous wars.

You know, we had the largest
mass hanging, you know,

in history of, of Native people.

And of course, you know, Teddy
Roosevelt, who again is kind

of bigger than life,

but if you look at the
national parks he set aside,

he kicked out the Native
people from there first.

And so then, and he used
to brag that, you know,

the only good Indian
is a dead Indian.

But of course this is part
of it of the male education

that we get in this country.

And public education at
least, that we're not taught

or people are not taught
about us, the true history.

And so the, the obsession of
the Graham Greene character is

that he need, he wants to do
something to those people,

especially the founder.

And that's part of obsession.

All our
ancestors are waiting

for you up there, Chia.

It's a
heartbreaking film.

When I went to see
it, I went to see it

with mostly Native people
and most of us were crying

'cause it was just
so vivid, so real.

We come from a very
resilient culture.

We're still here and we
are making our mark now,

and we're doing it clear
minded and clear spirited.

It was predestined
many, many years,

many, many, hundreds
of years ago

that the seventh generation,
which is they're born now,

are the ones that are going
to lead the way for us

with a clear mind, a clear
heart, and a clear spirit.

So it's important for us,

and I'm an elder
now, to help them

and uplift them in order
for them to lead the way.

We all came from drums
and songs and stories

and relationships to the earth.

And we used to all
sit around fires

and tell stories
to our children.

It's just now that I do
it on film and television.

And that I even gave
Pocahontas 13-year-old voice?

Because she was only 13
when she threw herself upon

John Smith and stopped
the war from happening.

♪ Is the death of all I love ♪

♪ Carried in the drumming of ♪

♪ War ♪
No.

If you kill him, you'll
have to kill me too.

The Disney people
said from the beginning

that they were going
with the popular,

romantic version of it.

Not they, they knew what
the actual story was

and they knew that
there was no love story.

That there was no
real love story

with John Smith and Pocahontas.

They knew that,
but they said that,

that's not the movie that
we are going to make.

We're going make this
movie from this version

of the Pocahontas story.

♪ Listen with your heart ♪

♪ You will understand ♪

In so many ways she was also
a pawn that was sexualized

and raped from the
very beginning.

But what was important
about this project

for me, was it was a
moment in time when

kids around the world
could see a positive,

strong, young woman who
stopped a war from happening.

♪ And we are all
connected to each other ♪

♪ In a circle ♪

♪ In a hoop that never ends ♪

Part of our, how
would you say, character

as Native people is that,
you know, I don't mean to,

and this is not a vain
statement, we're very humble.

We're not into like,
making a lot of noise.

And I think that, not that
it's not that we're passive,

it's just that we're beaten
down so often, so much,

for so long that,

and as much as we try to
get beyond a certain point,

we just are prevented
from doing that.

That's why I got into
it in the first place,

because I didn't appreciate
how we're being presented

to the world.

And I wanted to tell the truth

and I wanted to change the
stories that were being told.

Abandoned 102 years ago.

It's all dead.

For 102 years.

Private property.
That's our people's land.

It's not theirs
to claim, never was,

but the mess is theirs.

When they abandoned the mine,

they didn't clean
it up properly.

The tailings are old and the
creek runs into the river

and the arsenic
levels are rising.

And then Darlene
came up with a script

and to shoot in her own
community with her cousins

and her family

and people in the community
that are involved.

It's time to warrior up.

This is our land,
this is our home,

This is our land.

And the character
herself was so much of

my world, so much of

what was going on in
my world at the time.

I would've loved to have been
able to have a place to go.

We need our home to be
good for our children.

Yeah.

That's what it felt like.

Finishing that movie and
having the opportunity to

have played in a
movie, a whole movie

where I didn't have
to watch my back.

I didn't have to
worry about wardrobe.

We had an indigenous
woman doing wardrobe,

we, and hair

and makeup with these twin girls

who are indigenous
and everywhere I
looked, there we were,

and there we are.

You think you
can get everything?

This is our property.

And I liked the direction
that she was going

and she caught me right at
a time when I was so tired

of everything, I was
tired of the roles

that were coming my way.

I was tired of people and the
way that they were behaving.

I was tired of my life in
so many different ways.

And so I appreciated
what Darlene

was talking about
and wanting to do.

And we shared ideas.

And then it took so long
to get the movie going,

because money doesn't
fall towards us.

Now we've progressed,
now with these new,

it's like the new cinema,

which is all the indigenous
projects that are coming.

And during that time
in, right, in 2018,

there was a lot of, you know,

talk of like an
indigenous series.

And that's when, when
"Rutherford Falls" began

and then "Reservation Dogs".

So I could tell and
I could see that

something was coming
and I could feel it.

It's hard to be a
warrior with dignity.

Remember that.

In my time we gave everything.

We died for our people.
We died for our land.

What are you gonna do? What
are you gonna fight for?

Ah, I'm
just fucking with you.

But for real though,
listen to what I said.

Marinate on that. Aho.

Let's go, yah.

Wasn't until Martin Scorsese

did "Killers of the Flower Moon"

that it brought it
to a global audience.

You know, I mean that,
that really did put

indigenous people on the map.

And even with Lily
Gladstone getting nominated

for best actress,
that was a pretty

important moment for
indigenous people.

You want dinner?

Yeah.

"Killers" tell us a
very important story

in what was done to them.

Once it was realized

that they were the richest
people in the world,

white people couldn't stand it.

The mother, Lizzie.

She's not in good shape.

She won't last.

Most those says
don't let past 50.

Well, these women die with
hollow seek suffer from illness,

you have to make it the head
rats come to you, you see?

Yeah.

Minnie's gone now and
after her, that leaves Rita.

- Mm.
- Hannah.

And then of course
there's Mollie.

- But-
- Yeah.

It has a weakness
in that the importance

of those pipes being buried

is that the church rises

and how this, this, I don't
even know what to call it.

This world, this
society, this government

were effective with genocide.

And their colonialism is that
it was business and politics

and church that all
ganged up together

and worked together
to suppress the people

and do the, the killer
buzz on everyone.

And so that's what I felt
was a weakness in this movie,

in that it didn't
tell the truth about

who those men were.

They were like,
Ernest's character.

He was a philander,
he was a woman beater.

He was a carouser,
he was a murderer.

He did two times in
jail over his behaviors.

And where was that?

It was wasted. It was
wasted space in that movie.

I am glad that at the same
time all over the world,

people were impacted.

Like, oh my God,
all those women,

those people were being killed.

But there's so much
more to the story.

I, and I also want us to
move on from our trauma.

I think it's important
to get the healing.

I am, I'm tired of
holding this baggage

of anger over my shoulder
because of what happened.

It's not, I'm not trying
to discount what happened,

but I think it's really
time for all of us

to be responsible and the
government to be responsible

and at least acknowledge
what happened.

Now they talk about the
fact, well you're only 2%,

you know, so why should
you be, you know,

covered and so forth?

Native people have been
reduced to anonymity.

And I think that's why
people like Geronimo

and Sitting Bull, they continue
to inspire us, you know?

When the worst of
times, we survived.

And if those are
the worst of times,

we have it a lot easier
now because of them.

We're here.

And that's crucial.

That's crucial.

So we'll be here, you
know, we'll be here.

We're not gonna disappear. We're
not the vanishing American.