http://nativetimes.com/index.asp?action=displayarticle&article_id=4875

Wanted: More Natives on TV
Man wants support in getting Indian programming

Sam Lewin 8/5/2004

Imagine if your choice of television programming this evening included that
new sitcom with Adam Beach playing a transplanted Oklahoma Indian adjusting
to life in New York while trying to remain true to his traditional
upbringing. Or a tense crime drama starring Graham Greene as a hardboiled
tribal police investigator working on a sprawling reservation in the
Southwest.

If Thomas Greywolf has his way, programs similar to that will someday
become standard network television fare. Greywolf, Chickahominy & Mattaponi
and currently living in Baltimore, is launching a drive to convince
entertainment honchos to produce a show about American Indian life.
Greywolf said the idea came to him one night while relaxing in front of the
tube.

"My and my wife were watching George Lopez and she asked me how come you
never see a Native show. I told that it was because people don?t
care-especially the networks," Greywolf tells the Native American Times.

That got him to thinking: How come so many other ethnic groups have
television shows geared towards their demographics?

"I looked up old shows and you have every race represented except for
Native Americans. The only time you see Natives is when they feature
something like a Shaman and it?s not even Indians playing the role-its
usually another ethnic group like an Italian," he said.

So Greywolf decided to do something about the dearth of Indian-specific
programming. Through his Yahoo group he has started a campaign to encourage
TV executives to create a program featuring the present-day American Indian
experience. Greywolf theorizes that the idea would be an audience hit-and
he offers several reasons for that line of thinking. One rationale is that
PBS shows about Native Americans have drawn large ratings.

"If they tune into PBS-which is usually pretty boring-you know they would
tune into a network show," he said.

The other reason is that Greywolf believes so many people have some form of
Indian heritage that the series would have a built-in audience.

"I run into people all the time and when I tell them I am Indian they are
like, ?My grandmother is a quarter-Cherokee." I mean it seems like a lot of
people have some Cherokee or another tribe in their background. Those
people would watch.?

His idea for a program would be modeled along the lines of The Cosby Show
and The Hughleys, shows that celebrate a specific culture without making
fun.

"Those shows have their own ethnic history thrown in, but without overdoing
it so that they don?t turn off the white viewers," he said. "Don?t try to
throw a guilt trip on people, just entertain them so they can see we are
like everyone else.?

Since starting his campaign, which contains links to six networks, the
response has been overwhelmingly positive, although there have been a small
number of people who are opposed to the idea.

"I have had a total of four negative e-mails from people worried that they
would show sacred ceremonies or that they would make us look like fools. I
send e-mails back saying that we just have to respectfully disagree.?

The Yahoo address is http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheBigLie_2.

Greywolf, 40, says the more people who sign up and pressure the networks,
the sooner something will be created.

"If I can just get 300 people to send in one e-mail a week it is going to
drive someone crazy. If you put it in their ear who knows what will
happen?"