Native American

Director Yves Simoneau explores the plight of the American Indian in the later half of the 19th century in this docudrama exploring the effects of westward expansion and based on the book by Dee Brown. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Executive produced by Steven Spielberg, the sprawling six-part, 12-hour TV miniseries Into the West covers 65 years of American history, from the first major migration westward in the mid-1820s to the massacre at Wounded Knee in the early 1890s. The story is largely seen through the eyes of two protagonists (and their families): Jacob Wheeler (Matthew Settle), a wheelwright who leaves his Virginia hometown and his family's business in 1827 to seek his destiny in the company of legendary mountain man Jedediah Smith (Josh Brolin); and Loved by the Buffalo (George Leach), a Lakota Sioux holy man who spends a lifetime seeking the answers to his profound and disturbing images about the future of his country -- and his people. Eschewing the usual "old-age makeup" route often pursued in epic tales of this nature, the main characters are played by progressively older actors in the course of the story: for example, Loved by the Buffalo is portrayed by no fewer than four different performers! In a more traditionalist How the West Was Won vein, the miniseries is festooned with major stars, some cast in very brief roles: among these are Josh Brolin, Keri Russell, Matthew Modine, Beau Bridges, Gary Busey, Tom Berenger, and Judge Reinhold. Nor is How the West Was Won the only inspiration for the multi-plotted storyline: other films echoed and emulated throughout the saga include The Iron Horse, The Big Trail, Westward the Women, The Searchers, and Dances With Wolves. As mentioned, the story is divided into six parts: "Wheel to the Stars," in which the fates of Jacob Wheeler and Loved by the Buffalo become forever intertwined; "Manifest Destiny," chronicling the first major trek to California; "Dreams & Schemes," wherein the Lakota lands are despoiled by Gold Fever and war breaks out between the North and South; "Hell on Wheels," chronicling the postwar chaos and the coming of the railroad; "Casualties of War," wherein the conflict between Native Americans and the white man results in wholesale bloodshed -- and, surprisingly, a "counter-revolution" of compassion and understanding; and "Ghost Dance," the last great stand of the Lakota, which brings the story full circle. Largely filmed in the Canadian Rockies over a six-month period, and utilizing the talents of six directors, Into the West premiered June 10, 2005, on the TNT cable network. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Native American filmmaker Chris Eyre directs the made-for-TV sports drama Edge of America, based on a true story and shot entirely in Salt Lake City, UT. James McDaniel plays Mr. Kenny Williams, a black man from Texas who moves out to Utah to accept a position as an English teacher at the Three Nations Reservation. He has a difficult time fitting in with the tight-knit Native American community, especially when he's asked to coach the high school girls' basketball team. He has to struggle with getting the hapless team back in shape to play against the nearby all-white high school. Also starring Irene Bedard, Tim Daly, and Wes Studi. Edge of America premiered in the U.S. at the Sundance Film Festival in 2004. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi

Filmmaker Chris Eyre, who directed the independent success story Smoke Signals -- one of the first motion pictures directed by, written by, and starring Native American talent -- offers another look at contemporary Native American culture in this hard-hitting drama. Rudy (Eric Schweig) and Mogie (Graham Greene) are two brothers living on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Located in the poorest county in the United States, joblessness and alcoholism are all-too-common facts of life in Pine Ridge, and Rudy and Mogie represent opposite ends of the scale of fortune. Mogie, a Vietnam veteran who came home emotionally scarred by the war, has a severe drinking problem and can't relate to his teenage son Herbie (Noah Watts), while Mogie's younger brother Rudy has struggled to better himself, and as a law enforcement officer is a respected member of the Pine Ridge community. But while Rudy is determined to do something positive for his town, he feels there's only so much he can do as a lawman, and in his off-hours he's become a vigilante, roughing up people whom he believes are helping to bring down Pine Ridge, and plotting to blow up a nearby liquor store that profits from the widespread alcoholism that has destroyed the lives of so many of his people, including his brother. Skins received its world premier at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

How to Trace Your Native American Heritage provides step-by-step instructions for tracing your American Indian ancestry. Native American roots, the program suggests, yield a wide range of monetary advantages, from financial sharing in timber, mineral, and gaming leases, to low-cost health care and grants for housing and higher education. The greatest reward of the challenging search surely lies in finding one's true tribe. The tape chronicles a brief history of Indian census efforts and offers tips on how to search through National Archive records. ~ Betsy Boyd, Rovi

This Canadian drama based on a book by W.P. Kinsella, examines the tension between Indians and Anglos in Canada from an Indian perspective. Silas Crow, who lives on a Northern Ontario reserve, wants to take a mechanic's course in Toronto with his friend Frank Fencepost. But before he can enroll, the teen must write a short narrative describing his home. The film is a series of vignette's from Crow's narrative. The vignette's are alternately funny and poignant. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Actor Robert De Niro started a production company to make films just like this one: stories which were unpopular with the establishment and which are unlikely to make a big splash at the box-office. Even so, this is a first-class production, and the filmmakers were the first to receive permission to film on the Pine Ridge (Sioux) Reservation in South Dakota, likely due to director Michael Apted's having previously made an accurate and sensitive documentary about Indian political prisoner Leonard Peltier's case, Incident at Oglala. The film did exactly as well as expected at the box-office but has since assumed greater importance as one of the tiny number of "mainstream" movies which faithfully and respectfully illuminate Native American issues. In the story, loosely based on the earlier documentary, Ray Levoi (Val Kilmer) is an ambitious up-and-coming FBI agent in the 1970s with great career prospects. The one thing he will not tolerate is any reference to his half-Indian heritage. As far as he is concerned, his loyalties and culture identify him with the government and his white mother. He is extremely touchy about anything to do with his father, who was an alcoholic full-blooded Sioux. However, the FBI wants to take advantage of his half-Indian blood to mend fences in a politically sensitive murder investigation, and it sends him exactly where he doesn't want to go. Further, he is widely advertised as being Indian, though he knows virtually nothing about his heritage and has renounced it to the best of his ability. Once on the reservation, he becomes deeply involved in a truly messy state of affairs and is drawn into situations where he is forced to confront his background, native spirituality, and the duplicity of the government and its allies within the tribe. Despite his consistent prickliness about his heritage, his heart is in the right place, and the reservation's sheriff (Graham Greene) and a wise spiritual elder (Chief Ted Thin Elk) patiently lead their unwilling FBI pupil on a soul-wrenching wild goose chase which paradoxically takes him straight to the heart of the matter. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Graham Greene stars as Ishi, the lone survivor of the Yahi Indian tribe, who is discovered and cared for by anthropologist Albert Kroeber (Jon Voight) in this made-for-cable docudrama. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi

A historical drama about the relationship between a Civil War soldier and a band of Sioux Indians, Kevin Costner's directorial debut was also a surprisingly popular hit, considering its length, period setting, and often somber tone. The film opens on a particularly dark note, as melancholy Union lieutenant John W. Dunbar attempts to kill himself on a suicide mission, but instead becomes an unintentional hero. His actions lead to his reassignment to a remote post in remote South Dakota, where he encounters the Sioux. Attracted by the natural simplicity of their lifestyle, he chooses to leave his former life behind to join them, taking on the name Dances with Wolves. Soon, Dances with Wolves has become a welcome member of the tribe and fallen in love with a white woman who has been raised amongst the tribe. His peaceful existence is threatened, however, when Union soldiers arrive with designs on the Sioux land. Some detractors have criticized the film's depiction of the tribes as simplistic; such objections did not dissuade audiences or the Hollywood establishment, however, which awarded the film seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture. ~ Judd Blaise, Rovi

Gottfried Kolditz's 1973 Apachen constitutes an East German Western, influenced by (and made in the mold of) classic American cinematic forays into the Old West, such as the works of Howard Hawks and John Ford. The picture covers some of the same territory as Robert Aldrich in his 1972 Ulzana's Raid. It begins with the mass slaughter of a group of Apaches at the dawn of the Mexican American War, and then follows Apache chief Ulzana as he rallies his fellow warriors, hell-bent on bloodthirsty revenge. Gojko Mitic, Willi Schrade, Colea Rautu, Gerry Wolff, Fred Delmare, Leon Niemczyk, and Rolf Hoppe co-star. Kolditz followed it up with a sequel, the 1974 Ulzana. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

A Man Called Horse stars Richard Harris as Lord John Morgan, an English peer cast somewhat adrift in the American West. Captured by Sioux Indians, Lord Morgan is at first targeted for quick extinction, but the tribesmen sense that he is worthy of survival. The Englishman passes many of the necessary tests that will permit him to become a member of the tribe, the most grueling of which (and the one used most extensively in the film's advertising) is the Sun Vow Initiation. That's where his lordship is hung from the roof of a huge teepee with hooks through his pectoral muscles. Much of the dialogue is spoken in the Sioux language, though the film's much-vaunted "historical accuracy" is not altogether consistent, as witness the casting of British stage luminary Judith Anderson as Sioux woman Buffalo Cow Head. A Man Called Horse spawned warrant two sequels. Originally rated "GP" in 1970, it has since been re-rated R by the MPAA. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Gojko Mitic's 1966 East German eurowestern Die Söhne der großen Bärin (AKA Sons of the Great Bear dramatizes the exploitation and manipulation of Native American tribes by white settlers. The story opens with a familiar conflict between the Indians, who were promised the lands surrounding the Black Hills, and the settlers, who want to revoke their agreements by forcing the Indians out. When gold is discovered in the region, Indian Red Fox insists that Chief Mattotaupa, head of the Bears clan, show him the cave where the deposits lie. Mattotaupa refuses, so Red Fox stabs him, in the presence of the chief's son, Tokei-ihto. Lieutenant Roach summons Tokei-ihto to Fort Smith for negotiations, but Tokei-ihto smells a rat and suspects that a white ambush lies in store, a suspicion affirmed in his mind when he happens upon Red Fox at the fort. The settlers indeed insist that Tokei-ihto and his people relocate to infertile ground, but Tokei-ihto refuses, much to the chagrin of his aggressors, who imprison the entire tribe, defeat the Dakota Indians, and murder their leader, Chief Tashunka-witko. They release Tokei-ihto, who now plans to relocate the tribe to fertile ground, but during the exodus, he happens upon Red Fox and a struggle-to-the-death ensues, with Tokei-ihto the winner. Recently restored and reissued on home video by the DEFA film archive at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Sons of the Great Bear carries tremendous historical significance, as it beget an entire series of German westerns, influenced by American cinematizations of the old west.

~ Nathan Southern, Rovi