This book looks at how the heritage and behind-the-scenes activities of Hollywood’s Native American artists helped shape their own movie images. The book highlights leading Native American actors whose voices have reached a broad audience and are part of the larger conversation about the exploitation of underrepresented people in Hollywood. I propose that Native people have always had a voice or “agency” and made the best decisions given the times and resources at their disposal. The book’s seven chapters highlight prominent Native North American actors and filmmakers in Hollywood from the silent film era of the early 1900s to the present. My focus is on how a “pan-Indian heritage” that applies to all tribes in terms of spirituality, historical trauma, and a version of ceremony and storytelling have shaped these performers' movie identities. Each chapter discusses Native actors in lead or supporting roles as well as filmmakers whose movies were financed and distributed by Hollywood studios. Included is a chapter on today’s Native actresses who may be few in number but whose characters are emerging into women of strength and individuality. Another chapter discusses the Native artists among the many Hollywood consultants who have been all but invisible.
The book includes:
* Interviews with today's Native American actors and filmmakers
* Rare photos of Native artists in film and behind the scenes
* Foreword by noted film historian and archivist Jan-Christopher Horak
* Stories of the marginalization of Native women in Hollywood
* Contributions of Native American "consultants" in the movie industry
* Script revisions of early films highlighting the heritage of Native actors