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Kevin Abourezk
ICT
Born of heartbreak, an Indigenous women-led film production company with a lethal name has begun work telling the story of a Nebraska-based effort to welcome home the displaced people of that state.
Deer Woman Productions was created as an homage to the late Payton Canku by two of the Crow Creek Lakota woman’s friends, Rebekka Schlichting and Candice Dalsing. Their newly founded company is named for a figure prevalent in the lore of many tribes. Deer Woman – made famous by her depiction in the TV series “Reservation Dogs” – is a sort of avenging, half-deer spirit who lures men and then kills them.
“Some people are afraid to say the name,” said Schlichting, laughing.
Established in November 2023, the nonprofit company seeks to tell contemporary Native stories and recently has begun work on its first full-length documentary, which will describe efforts by a University of Nebraska-Lincoln-led organization to welcome back the Otoe-Missouria people. The federal government forced the tribe to leave Nebraska in 1881 and moved its people to Oklahoma, where they live today.
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the nation’s largest supporter of the arts and humanities, awarded the Center for Great Plains Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the Otoe-Missouria Tribe a three-year, $1.58 million grant in 2023 to launch the Walking in the Footsteps of Our Ancestors project.
The project seeks to “re-indigenize” Southeast Nebraska by hosting an annual Otoe-Missouria Day celebration each Sept. 21 in which Otoe-Missouria tribal citizens return to Nebraska and attend ceremonies honoring them and their people’s history. The project also plans to reintroduce Otoe-Missouria history and culture into the landscape of Nebraska through a variety of means, including changing and adding historical markers that describe the tribe’s history and contributions to Nebraska history and eventually establishing a physical monument to the tribe.
Deer Woman Productions is charged with documenting the three-year effort and recently completed its first year of shooting film footage. Schlichting – an assistant professor of the practice at the University of Kansas’s William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications – said she and Dalsing – a Los Angeles-based film producer and director – hope to finish the film by early 2028.
Dalsing, who directed music videos and later workout videos for Fitbit, said working on the Walking in the Footsteps of Our Ancestors film has helped her pursue her lifelong dream of telling Indigenous stories.
“The strength and the passion that everyone has behind this project is like something I’ve never experienced on set,” she said. “The energy it creates between everyone, including the crew, including the people that we’re interviewing, is thick and rich and informative and healing.
“It has definitely been one of the most important experiences of my life.”
Schlichting, Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska, and Dalsing, a Mescalero Apache descendant, have hired and will continue to hire Native interns to help complete the project and recently launched a Kickstarter campaign to help raise $20,000 needed to pay for the intern position. Interns must be age 18 or older and either be in college or starting their film careers. They must have the ability to travel to film set locations, but they don’t need to have any film experience. Those interested can send a letter of interest to deerwomanproductions@gmail.com.
The intern will get to learn about every aspect of film production, from costume and sound design to cinematography and directing.
“We give them the opportunity to explore whatever department they want to explore,” Dalsing said.
Schlichting and Dalsing also have begun work as impact producers for “Bring Them Home,” a documentary about a group of Blackfoot people seeking to establish the first wild buffalo herd on their ancestral lands since the species’ near-extinction a century ago. Directed by Blackfeet siblings Ivan and Ivy MacDonald and Daniel Glick, the film is narrated by Oscar nominee and Golden Globe winner actress Lily Gladstone, Siksikaitsitapii and Nimíipuu.
As impact producers, Schlichting and Dalsing will focus on spreading awareness about the film through social media campaigns and outreach to relevant audiences in order to use the film’s narrative to generate positive social change. The duo also has begun work as executive producers on a full-length documentary about breast cancer and its impacts on Native women.
Next up: a feature film called “Rez Monster,” based on a script written by Payton Canku, who wrote it as her final master’s thesis project. Their hopes of bringing the horror film to life is, in many ways, what brought Schlichting and Dalsing together.
They have begun working on the film’s script and scouting filming locations.
“We want to bring as many pieces of her to life,” Dalsing said.
In the meantime, they will continue their efforts to build up Deer Woman Productions by enlisting the help of other Native women. They hope to fulfill their friend’s dream of putting more Indigenous people in front of the camera, as well as behind it.
“If you see Natives, often we’re painted in the past,” Schlichting said. “It’s really about bringing modern positive Native stories to light because we don’t see that often.”
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