Hollywood & the Indians

"Dances With Wolves" wasn’t the first western to cast Native Americans as themselves - Jay Silverheels as Tonto and Chief Dan George in "Little Big Man" immediately come to mind - but "Dances With Wolves" star-director Kevin Costner definitely left an indelible impression on the depiction of Indians to come.


Chapter One

During the period of moviemaking noted hereon as B.C. (Before Costner), Hollywood relied on a variety of types and talents to play Indians. Actors of Spanish, Italian, Mexican, German, even Slavic descent were cast if they had angular facial features, chiseled cheekbones and piercing eyes.

These physical requisites were not exclusive to ethnic types. A number of Hollywood leading players - A-list, B-list and below - along with stars-to-be have Native American roles on their resume. Toiling in the studio system, future screen idol Rock Hudson had to endure a contract role as an Indian warrior in the 1950 James Stewart western "Winchester 73." Even someone as unlikely as Lon Chaney Jr., famous for his horror roles as the Wolf Man, Frankenstein’s Monster, the Mummy, and Dracula, found himself playing the Mohican Chingachgook in the 1957 TV series "Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans."

Charlton Heston played War Bonnet, a white man raised by Indians in "The Savage" (1952). As if in response to a skeptical audience, he says, "Is it the pigment of a man’s skin which makes him a member of the mighty Sioux? Is it the color of his eyes? No, neither of these things. It is the heart beating inside his body."

A year later, Heston starred as a hard-as-nails Indian-hating scout in "Arrowhead." His archenemy, Apache chief Toriano, was played by Jack Palance, the son of a Pennsylvania coal miner of Ukranian descent.

In 1954, blue-eyed Burt Lancaster starred in "Apache," three years after his film role as Native American Olympian Jim Thorpe. One of Lancaster’s co-stars in "Apache" was Charles Buchinsky, much more famous later as Charles Bronson. Bronson grew up in a large family of Polish immigrants, and like Jack Palance, his father was a Pennsylvania coal miner. With his craggy face and high cheekbones, he seemed a natural for a number of Native American roles, from "Drum Beat" and "Run of the Arrow" in the 1950s to "Guns for San Sebastian" (1968) and "Chato’s Land" (1972).

Early in his career, Anthony Quinn, the son of an Irish father and Mexican mother, was often cast in a number of ethnic roles, from South Sea natives to Arabs to American Indians, including Chief Crazy Horse in "They Died With Their Boots On" (1941), along with Native American roles in "The Plainsman" (1936) and "Buffalo Bill" (1944).

Notable among other actors of Mexican heritage who portrayed Native Americans were Gilbert Roland, Ricardo Montalban and Dolores del Rio in John Ford’s last and peculiarly elegiac western, "Cheyenne Autumn" (1964). Their co-star, Sal Mineo, the son of Sicilian immigrants, had earlier starred as a Sioux youth in Walt Disney Pictures "Tonka" (1958).

Victor Mature, who played Biblical strongman Samson in Cecil B. DeMille’s 1950 "Samson and Delilah," starred in "Chief Crazy Horse" (1955). Jeff Chandler, a staple of action films in the 1950s best remembered for his prematurely silver hair, muscular physique and deep, sonorous voice, hid his signature sterling scalp beneath an Indian wig as Apache chief Cochise in "Broken Arrow," "The Battle at Apache Pass," and "Taza, Son of Cochise." Taza, incidentally, was portrayed by studio contract player Rock Hudson.

Chuck Connors, TV’s "The Rifleman," starred as a blue-eyed "Geronimo" in 1962. Nor did eyes of striking blue prevent Jeffrey Hunter, best known as John Wayne’s adopted nephew in "The Searchers," from playing a Cheyenne warrior in "White Feather" (1955).

In that same film, popular starlet Debra Paget was cast as Appearing Day, an Indian maiden as only Hollywood could envision her. Where did Native American women get their eyeliner and lipstick?

Buckskin miniskirts came into wild west fashion in the mod ‘60s when French actress Tina Aumont played a questionable Indian in the 1966 Dean Martin comedy "Texas Across the River." Likewise, a short-skirted Michele Carey played an over-sexed character called Anna Hot Water who wants to make "bim-bam" with an over-aged Frank Sinatra in the 1970 comedy "Dirty Dingus Magee."

Maybe it was because of her trademark prominent cheekbones, but Audrey Hepburn convincingly played an Indian girl raised by a white family in John Huston’s "The Unforgiven" (1960), a movie that proved it’s OK to fall in love with your brother, as long as that brother is played by Burt Lancaster and if you find out you were adopted.

In 1969, Robert Blake, on the heels of his chilling portrayal of real-life killer Perry Smith in "In Cold Blood," played a fugitive Paiute Indian in "Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here," starring Robert Redford and Katharine Ross. Blake was born Michael James Vincenzoni Gubitosi to an Italian-born father and Italian-American mother.

Born on a naval station in the Phillipines, Lou Diamond Phillips is of Spanish, Vietnamese, Chinese, Filipino, Hawaiian. Scottish, Irish and Cherokee descent. His heritage makes him a natural for roles of various ethnic origins, including full-blooded and half-breed Native Americans in "Young Guns," "Young Guns II," and "Renegades."



Chapter Two

John Wayne deserves a chapter of his own for the singular, often head-scratching choices of Indian roles in his westerns. In "The Searchers" (1956), the Duke’s hated enemy, Comanche Chief Scar, was played by Henry Brandon, born Heinrich von Kleinbach in Berlin. A dependable film heavy as an Asian Indian, American Indian, Arab, Persian, Turkish, or Oriental, he made an early impression as the villainous Silas Barnaby in the 1934 Laurel & Hardy classic "Babes in Toyland."

In "The War Wagon" (1967), John Wayne’s Indian friend, Levi Walking Bear, was played by Howard Keel, a swaggering, barrel-chested baritone once referred to as "the John Wayne of movie musicals," including "Annie Get Your Gun," "Show Boat," "Calamity Jane," "Kiss Me Kate," "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers," and "Kim."

In "The Undefeated" (1969), Wayne’s adopted Cherokee son Blue Boy was portrayed, in a bad wig, by Roman Gabriel, quarterback at the time for the Los Angeles Rams. The Duke’s Indian sidekick Sam Sharpnose in "Big Jake" (1971) was awkwardly played by Bruce Cabot, a longtime pal of Wayne’s (they appeared in a dozen films together) who was the hero of the original 1933 "King Kong."

In "Cahill U.S. Marshal" (1973), veteran character actor Neville Breed, remembered as Al Capone in the ‘50s TV series "The Untouchables" and a gravel-voiced Texas Ranger in the ‘60s series "Laredo," hides under visible coats of greasepaint makeup as Wayne’s Comanche half-breed tracker Lightfoot


Chapter Three

This chapter in the B.C. (Before Costner) era provides a skewed perspective on more of Hollywood’s most curious Indians.

More than one generation of TV viewers can recall the ‘70s commercials lamenting America’s littered roadways featuring the craggy-faced Indian who sheds a tear. Although he successfully passed himself off as a Native American in a film career that spanned 57 years, Iron Eyes Cody was in fact of Italian descent, born Espera DeCorti, the son of first-generation immigrants. After marrying a Native American and adopting two Native American sons, he worked as a "Native American" actor all his adult life. For decades he tirelessly promoted American Indian causes and was honored by Hollywood’s Native American community in 1955 for his efforts.

Henry Wilcoxon’s screen career straddled five decades, beginning as a leading man in the Cecil B. DeMille epics "Cleopatra" and "The Crusades," but he will undoubtedly be best remembered for his role as the Bishop ("My name is Fred!") in "Caddyshack." At the age of 66, he delivered a memorable performance as an Indian chief in the 1971 adventure saga "Man in the Wilderness," starring Richard Harris. Twelve years later, Wilcoxon played his last role as a contemporary Native American in "Sweet 16."

"Windwalker," a low-budget western from 1980, featured Trevor Howard, a venerated actor in British cinema since the 1940s, in the title role. As interesting as Howard’s casting is the fact that the movie was shot entirely in Cheyenne and Crow languages with subtitles.

Australia’s Dame Judith Anderson impressed audiences and critics in her role as Buffalo Cow Head in "A Man Called Horse" (1970), starring Richard Harris. London-born Oliver Reed did a hilarious turn as a mugging Harvard-educated Indian in "The Great Scout and Cathouse Thursday" (1976), a broad comedy starring Lee Marvin and Robert Culp.

Charles B. Pierce, a former ad salesman from Texarkana and a bargain-basement auteur known for such drive-in fodder as "The Legend of Boggy Creek" and "Boggy Creek II," cast Sacheen Littlefeather as Pale Flower in "Winterhawk" (1975). Littlefeather’s brief moment in the spotlight came in 1973 when she appeared on TV to refuse Marlon Brando’s Oscar for "The Godfather," citing Hollywood’s misrepresentation of Native Americans. That landed her a role the following year in "The Trial of Billy Jack." Any credibility for her posturing as an outraged Native American went out the window when it was revealed that she was a Mexican actress and 1970 Miss American Vampire contest winner named Maria Cruz and when she posed nude for Playboy magazine.

Pierce’s unique take on casting Native American roles also included Alex Cord, best known as the eye-patched Archangel in the shortlived ‘80s series "Airwolf," in the title role of "Grayeagle" (1978), and Susie Coelho, a model and third wife of Sonny Bono, as an Indian in a skintight deerskin mini in "The Norseman" (1978). "The Norseman" also presented veteran western bad guy Jack Elam as a medicine man named Deathdreamer and Kathleen Freeman, fondly recalled as a frequent foil for Jerry Lewis, as "Old Indian Woman."

It should come as no surprise that political correctness was rare in film or TV in the ‘60s and ‘70s, starting with Henry Gibson as Charlie Horse, the college-educated son of an Indian chief in the 1965 Three Stooges comedy "The Outlaws Is Coming." Gibson’s beatnik brave is a fitting precursor to his role as the flower-bearing poet in "Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In."

In the ‘60s TV series "F Troop," venerable actor Edward Everett Horton, beloved by baby boomers as the narrator of "Fractured Fairy Tales" on "The Bullwinkle Show," portrayed wizened medicine man Roaring Chicken of the Hekawi tribe. He also played guest villain Chief Screaming Chicken on "Batman."

Continuing in the humorous vein, in "The Hallelujah Trail" (1965), a loud, long if fitfully amusing comedy starring Burt Lancaster, Martin Landau, future Oscar winner for his deft portrayal of Bela Lugosi in "Ed Wood," convincingly played Chief Walks-Stooped-Over.

Totally discarding any semblance of taste yet nonetheless hilarious was Joey Bishop’s role as Kronk, a Jewish Indian in "Texas Across the River," starring Dean Martin. Playing one role too many in "Blazing Saddles," Mel Brooks popped up briefly as an Indian chief with a distinctive Yiddish dialect.

Saving the best for last, however, mention must be made of "White Comanche." William Shatner, on hiatus from "Star Trek," went to Spain to star in this 1968 camp classic as twin brothers, one raised by Indians, the other by whites. He manages to keep a straight face while uttering in his inimitable cadence such dialogue as, "Next time, don’t eat the peyote."


Chapter Four

Following "Dances With Wolves," an increasing number of Native American actors were cast in films. There were, of course, precedents. Jay Silverheels, long remembered as Tonto in "The Lone Ranger," enjoyed a 30-plus-year acting career. The son of a Mohawk chief, he was a star lacrosse player and boxer before he entered show business as a stunt player in the late 1930s.

British-Columbia-born Chief Dan George, from the Coast Salish language family of Native Americans, was 70 before he launched a memorable screen career, earning an Oscar nomination as supporting actor in 1970 for his role as Old Lodge Skins in "Little Big Man." He was equally impressive as the wryly humorous Lone Watie in Clint Eastwood’s classic 1976 western "The Outlaw Josey Wales." His son, Chief Leonard George, and daughter, Amy Marie George, are actors as well.

Will Sampson, a member of the Muscogee Creek tribe, appeared in only a couple dozen of screen and television roles before his untimely death in 1987, but he lived long enough to portray a handful of unforgettable characters, beginning with the towering "Chief Broom" in 1975’s "One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest." In Robert Altman’s backhanded salute to the Bicentennial, "Buffalo Bill and the Indians," Sampson played Sitting Bull’s spokesman. He portrayed Chief Ten Bears in "The Outlaw Josey Wales," Chief Crazy Horse opposite Charles Bronson’s Wild Bill Hickock in "The White Buffalo," and modern-day medicine man Taylor in "Poltergeist II."

Regarding the depiction of American Indians, Sampson once complained to a "New York Times" reporter, "Hollywood writers and directors are still using ‘em for livestock. They somehow just can’t seem to bring it around to give the truth about Indians." In his own way to bring that truth out, Sampson founded the American Indian Registry for the Performing Arts in 1983. Will’s son Tim Sampson grew into a respected actor in his own right, with roles in dramas with a contemporary perspective on Native Americans, including "War Party" (1989) and "Black Cloud" (2004).

One of the more consistently visible and dependable American Indian actors of a new generation is Gary Farmer. Born in Ontario into the Cayuga Nation and Wolf Clan of an Iroquois Confederacy, Farmer delivered an impressing starring performance in 1989’s "Powwow Highway," a road movie with a Native American spin. Critic Leonard Maltin called Farmer "an immensely likable actor who makes his character both endearing and ennobling."

Farmer’s subsequent film work worth noting includes 1995’s "Dead Man," playing Johnny Depp’s Indian spiritual guide, Nobody, and "Smoke Signals" (1998), co-starring Adam Beach, another young actor who has made a name for himself in a series of memorable roles. A member of the Saulteaux branch of the Ojibwa Nation, Beach starred in the title role of "Squanto: A Warrior’s Tale" (1994). In a very active career, Beach went from playing Kicking Wing, the roadside firecracker vendor in "Joe Dirt" to one of the storied World War II Navajo code-talkers in "Windtalkers" to real-life Pima Indian Ira Hayes in Clint Eastwood’s "Flags of Our Fathers." Tony Curtis had portrayed Ira Hayes in the 1961 film "The Outsider."


Chapter Five

We finally come to the A.D. (After "Dances") chapter in Hollywood. Who knew that a three-hour movie that required the audience to read frame after frame of subtitled dialogue translating an unfamiliar language would become a box office hit, an Academy Award favorite, and an undeniable cinema classic? In fact, as the production surpassed its budget, insiders, sensing another studio-toppling debacle like 1980’s "Heaven’s Gate," started calling Costner’s project "Kevin’s Gate."

A major factor behind the film’s surprising success had to be the sincere commitment to the casting of Native American actors. A number of them were not acquainted with the Lakota tongue. For the sake of easy learning, the language was simplified by using only the feminine form of speech for all characters. Native speakers of Lakota were reportedly amused by hearing a chief and braves speak as if they were women.

Graham Greene, an Oneida Indian from Ontario, almost turned down his Oscar-nominated role of Kicking Bird because he didn’t know the Lakota language. Since "Dances With Wolves" he has remained a very busy actor whose notable work includes "Thunderheart," "Maverick," "Die Hard: With a Vengeance," "The Green Mile," and "Skins." Greene also made several appearances on the Canadian comedy series "The Red Green Show" as Edgar K. B. Montrose, who once remarked about having seen "Dances With Wolves," adding that "the native guy" should have got the Oscar.

Rodney A. Grant, remarkably effective in "Dances With Wolves" as Wind in His Hair, the brooding warrior who haltingly befriends Costner’s John Dunbar, is a member of the Omaha tribe of Nebraska. Having previously appeared in "War Party" and "Powwow Highway," he followed "Dances With Wolves" with the role of Crazy Horse in the acclaimed TV movie "Son of the Morning Star," "Geronimo: An American Legend," and, with a refreshing flair for comedy, as a hip Indian scout in "Wagons East" who advises trailmaster John Candy (sadly in his last role) to "square the wagons" instead of circling them in defense of an ensuing attack.

Floyd "Red Crow" Westerman, Ten Bears in "Dances With Wolves," has been recognizable for some time to late-night TV viewers as the commercial pitchman for Lakota Pain Reliever. A Dakota Sioux, he has a long-standing reputation as a political activist for American Indian rights and as a singer-songwriter (one of his early recordings was entitled "Custer Died for Your Sins"). He joined Rodney A. Grant in the cast of "Son of the Morning Star" as Sitting Bull and also played Uncle Ray Firewalker in a number of episodes of TV’s "Walker, Texas Ranger."

Wes Studi, a standout in "Dances With Wolves" as a bloodthirsty Pawnee warrior, is an American Indian of the Cherokee North. Prior to entering grade school he could speak only Cherokee. Like his co-stars Floyd Westerman and Rodney A. Grant, Studi was cast in Oliver Stone’s "The Doors" (1991). He came into his own in 1992, portraying Magua, a vengeful Huron brave allied with the French in director Michael Mann’s "The Last of the Mohicans," a role that led to his lead performance in 1993’s "Geronimo: An American Legend," directed by Walter Hill.

"The Last of the Mohicans" starred Daniel Day-Lewis as Hawkeye, the adopted white son of Chingachgook, the Mohican of the title. Hawkeye’s adopted brother Uncas was played by Eric Schweig, a young actor of German and Inuit descent, renowned off-camera as a master carver of Inuit masks. Russell Means, one of the best-known Native American activists and the first national director of the American Indian Movement, made an outstanding acting debut as the noble Chingachgook. He was also in Oliver Stone’s "Natural Born Killers," the comedy western "Wagons East," and the miniseries "Into the West," as well as providing the voice of Chief Powhatan in Disney’s "Pochontas."

A Lakota Sioux, Means has said that he prefers to be called "Indian" rather than the more politically correct "Native American." According to him, "Everyone who is born in America is a native American."

Coincidentally, also in the cast of "The Last of the Mohicans" was a fellow activist of Means’, Minnesota-born Dennis Banks, an Anishinaabe Indian who co-founded the American Indian Movement in 1968. He also appeared in "War Party" and as himself in "Thunderheart," a fictionalized drama based on the 1975 shooting deaths of two FBI agents and a Native American at the Oglala Sioux Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.

HBO commemorated Memorial Day weekend 2007 with the premiere of "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee," based on Dee Brown’s seminal 1971 best seller. Starring Aidan Quinn with American Indian actors Adam Beach, August Schellenberg (playing Sitting Bull for the second time in his career), Eric Schweig, and Wes Studi, the movie opens with Custer’s Last Stand in 1876 and ends with the massacre of 300 Lakota Sioux at Wounded Knee in 1890.

Made in 1998, "Smoke Signals" has been noted as the first movie written, co-produced and directed by a Native American, Chris Eyre, of Cheyenne and Arapaho descent. The cast featured Adam Beach, Evan Adams (a Coast Salish Indian from British-Columbia),
Gary Farmer, Chief Leonard George, and Michael Greyeyes, a Plains Cree who starred in "Crazy Horse" and appeared in the aforementioned "Geronimo" and "The New World." Chris Eyre went on to direct the powerful drama "Skins" (2002), featuring Eric Schweig and Graham Greene as Oglala Sioux brothers on the Pine Ridge Indian reservation, co-starring Gary Farmer.

It seems that more and more American Indian performers are appearing in an increasing number of productions - historical and present time - that are sincerely striving for the realization of the truth the late Will Sampson longed for. Television movies such as "Geronimo" (1993), "Lakota Woman: Siege at Wounded Knee" (1994), "Crazy Horse" (1996) and theatrical releases including "Black Cloud" (2004), "The New World" (2005) and "Apocalypto" (2006), to name a handful, have consistently relied on Native American casts as more than just livestock.

Maybe at last, after over a century of making movies, Hollywood is getting it and, as Will Sampson wanted, "bringing it around."