DORREEN YELLOW BIRD COLUMN: 'DreamKeepers' marks new era in films about Native
Americans
http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/news/columnists/dorreen_yellow_bird/764\
1287.htm

I don't like and rarely watch two-part films on television because it means I
have to be in place in front of the TV the next evening. I also don't like most
films about Native Americans. I am squeamish about watching films where all
Native people are portrayed as alcoholics who live in poverty. Nor do I
appreciate portrayals of holy men that are taken straight from the imagination
of writers who know little about medicine men or spiritual people.

I watched the two-part "DreamKeepers" last week hoping it would beat the odds on
all of those things. I wasn't disappointed. The film won the Best Film award at
the 28th Annual American Indian Film Festival in San Francisco in November. It
also was a winner in my mind.

The film is about young Shane Chasing Horse, a Pine Ridge Lakota Sioux (played
by Eddie Spears) and his grandfather, old Pete Chasing Horse (played by August
Schellenburg). Sounds too typical, doesn't it? But where the story diverts from
the typical is in its setting and the craft with which the movie was made. Those
become its great strengths.

The setting is Pine Ridge, S.D. The Native community in the film is typical but
not awful. The movie doesn't deny there are gangs, poverty and alcoholism; but,
unlike many Native American films, the movie doesn't make these the center of
the story. They're background.

Shane is in trouble with what might be called the "Indian Mafia." He owes them
money. His mother strongly suggests that he take his grandpa to the Gathering of
Nations powwow in Albuquerque, N.M., where the elder is to tell stories. He is
the "DreamKeeper."

The young man knows the "Mafia" is after him, so he reluctantly drives that long
road in an old, beat-up '66 Ford pickup nicknamed Many Miles With No Muffler.
During the trip, his grandfather fills his ear with stories as they chug along
that southwestern highway.

The Indian Mafia does catch up with them at one point. The grandfather also
takes Shane to see his estranged father, who is a reformed alcoholic. A
relationship develops between the boy and his father.

The film is an "epic odyssey of a Lakota grandfather's final storytelling," says
a press release.

One thing that's exceptional about this film is that it is filled with Native
American actors. Years ago, it was routine to use actors such as Burt Lancaster
or Victor Mature, heavily made-up and with black braided wigs, in roles as
Native people. They spoke phrases such as, "Me, Indian." "Me want water." That
always irritated me because those Native people in the 1800s probably used sign
language rather than stilted, single-word phrases.

Today there is a long lineup of Native American actors, some nationally known -
Michael Horse, Elaine Miles, Gary Farmer, Russell Means, Graham Greene, John
Trudell, Nathan Chasing Horse, Rodney Grant, Floyd (Red Crow) Westerman and
others. They gave this film an authentic feel and seemed to know their ground.

In addition, the stories told by elder Chasing Horse and woven throughout the
film were authentic. I knew some of them, as they were told by my grandmother.

The stories include the Lakota story of Eagle Boy's vision quest, the Akwesasne
Mohawk story titled "Thunder Begins" and a Pawnee story about a woman and her
son. The movie also featured coyote and iktomi (red spider) stories that were
especially wonderful. I have seen few better portrayals of coyote than in that
film.

The tales were identified by tribe and by some photographs by Edward Curtis; he
was an early 1900s photographer of the West. I don't know if the film will be
rerun, but it certainly is worth seeing. I hope that "DreamKeeper" is just the
beginning of films of this kind and that they get even better.

Films such as this are a good way to break stereotypes and bring understanding
in a painless way.


Yellow Bird writes columns on Tuesday and Saturday. Reach her at 780-1228, (800)
477-6572 ext. 228 or dyellowbird@....

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