Native American film review Sunday
By Kevin Cowan
Senior Reporter
Native Americans are not foreign
to the silver screen. Many a Holly
wood actor through the years felt the
repercussions from “savage Indian”
bowstrings. Yes, theglamorized west
ern — one of the first hardened genres
of the Hollywood trade.
Movie Review
However, the western is but one
wry, sensationalized aspect of film, a
ghastly misrepresentation of Native
American culture and plight.
A series of documentaries will
show today through Sunday at the
Sheldon Film Theater. The series,
“Native America Now: A Festival of
Films,” concentrates on the little
known plight of the Midwestern and
Eastern American Indian.
Three of those films are reviewed
here. The first, “Abnaki: The Native
People of Maine,” is by Jay Kent and
chronicles the sheer-face battle of the
Passamaquoddy, Penobscot, Micmac
and Maliseet against the government
of Maine. The struggle is deep-seated
in tradition, internalized to the point
of fatalistic consistency. It is seem
ingly a no-win situation. The Abnaki,
as the film espouses, view the vicious
circle as a battle for their culture.
Though commentary is the pri
mary goal, Kent utilizes the lucid
Maine landscape and the leathered
faces of Native Americans, combined
with excellent timing and dissolve
montage, to produce a documentary
of riveting proportion.
“Box of Treasures,” directed by
Chuck Olin, centers on the Kwakiutl
tribe of Alert Bay, British Columbia.
Olin, with the aid of Gloria Cranmei
Webster, director of the U’Mista cul
ture center, insightfully describes the
oppression of the Kwakiutls and the
religious rite of “potlatch.” The Cana
dian government, in an effort tc de
stroy the Kwakiutl culture, declared
the masked dance of potlatch — in
fact, the entire ceremony — pagan
worship, not to be practiced . Mem
bers of the tribe continue to practice
the benevolent rite of celebration and
are arrested and imprisoned. The cere
monial masks worn by the partici
pants were taken to the national mu
seum and placed alongside artifacts of
extinct cultures.
“They made it seem like our tribe
no longer existed,” Webster said,
“like we weren’t even there.”
After years of negotiation, the
potlatch masks finally returned to
their original owners. The return
spawned the creation of the U’Mista
culture center.
U’Mista, Webster said, is a
Kwakiutl word describing the return
of members of their tribe who were
kidnapped or enslaved.
“The elders felt the word was ap
propriate,” she said.
“Box of Treasures” is another in
formative documentary that makes
use of the environment and the people
who have lived as a part of it for
30,000 years.
Native American cultures have
long been known for maintaining their
own belief systems. As Anglo-Ameri
cans run the course of taming wild
North America, dying numbers of
Native Americans hold true to their
spiritual cosmology. In their cultures,
certain things and certain places hold
the power key to life. “Our Sacred
Land,” a film by Chris Spotted Eagle,
documents some of the most institu
tional ized aspects of Native American
struggle: the rights of language, reli
gion and education.
“Our Sacred Land” glances at the
Sioux Indians’ efforts to reclaim their
sacred burial and dreaming ground.
Given to them in the Treaty of Fort
Laramie in 1868 and taken away when
gold was discovered, the Lakota
Sioux’s sacred ground has remained
in a state of upheaval for many years.
When the Lakota were offered $105
million by the American government
— payment for land stolen by Andrew
Jackson — the Lakota replied, “This
land’s not for sale.”
All three films portray the system
atic devastation of Native American
language, society and environment.
“This land was given to us to nur
ture — to take care of,” said the
Lakota spiritual leader. “It was not
meant to be tamed.”
Indeed. A thought often lost in the
urban confines of white society.
The “Native America Now” film
festival is scheduled today through
Sunday. On Sunday, the festival fea
tures a panel discussion with special
guest speaker Chris Spotted Eagle, a
director of one of the documentaries.
Eagle also will conduct a free work
shop at the Lincoln Indian Center at 2
p.m. Sunday.
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