PASADENA, Calif. – After complaining about the absence of American Indians in the national media, two veteran Native American producers teamed with the Oneida Indian Nation to do something about it.
The nation announced June 14 that it is joining with Dan C. Jones and Sonny Skyhawk to form Skydancer.tv Inc., a film, television and “new media” production company. Skydancer.tv will specialize in productions with American Indian content with plans to expand into commercials, music videos and live events.
Although a spate of Indian-produced movies and documentaries are hitting the airwaves and film festivals, Skydancer.tv founders say their company “is believed to be the first of its kind, owned, operated and funded by American Indians.”
“We are going to take control of our image,” said Skyhawk, a member of the Sicangu Lakota tribe, who has worked as an actor in Hollywood for 30 years. “Only the Indian people understand the damage that the lack of understanding of the American Indian has done to us.
“We are trying to build bridges to educate people about who we are.”
Skyhawk and Jones, from the Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma, will run day-to-day operations of the new company. Jones is an award-winning filmmaker who has written and produced for Fox, Disney, PBS, the Screen Actors Guild and the Smithsonian Institution.
Together they have 50 years of experience in Hollywood, Skyhawk said.
The way toward an American Indian-controlled production company was blazed by veteran actor Floyd Red Crow Westerman, working through his non-profit Eyapaha Institute in California.
Westerman’s group is planning a Los Angeles American Indian Film and New Media Festival, “The Hoop of Life,” in May 2002. He also is wrapping up a documentary series, “Exterminate Them! America’s War on Indian nations.”
The wealth of new American Indian film and video work will be on display at the summer film festival at the George Gustav Heye Center of the National Museum of the American Indian in New York, starting July 21. The initial event in the series will be the local premiere of the award-winning “The Doe Boy,” directed by Randy Redroad and set in his native Cherokee Nation.
Another documentary with American Indian input, “In the Light of Reverence,” will be aired initially on most PBS stations Aug. 14. Dealing with the struggle of three nations to protect their sacred places, including the Lakota’s Black Hills, it will be broadcast on the PBS documentary showcase P.O.V. (Point of View). It was produced by Christopher McLeod, Malinda Maynor, Lumbee, and the Sacred Land Film Project of Earth Island Institute.
At Skydancer.tv, Skyhawk and Jones explained their first project will be to film the World Championship of Indian Dance with assistance from the NBC television network. Filming will start this summer with an eye to broadcasting in the winter of 2002.
Skyhawk said the company also would work on a television movie project this year, although he declined to give details.
He said he hoped to double the output next year and triple it the third year. “Success will determine the future productions.”
The investment fits the Oneida Nation’s strategy of supporting American Indian entertainment talent, a nation spokesman said. The nation recently announced a collaboration with NBC to produce the Four Directions Talent Search, a series of auditions for Native American actors, comedians and writers.
“With a major talent search underway, the next logical step is to establish a presence in Hollywood,” Nation Representative Ray Halbritter said.
“Skydancer.tv and Sonny and Dan fit right into the Nation’s goals of creating opportunities for Native talent in the entertainment industry.”
Skyhawk has been a long-time critic of network television for its lack of American Indian faces. He founded American Indians in Film and Television some 12 years ago and said he recently negotiated for more diversity in television on behalf of a grand coalition of minority groups.
“I would tell the network executives that when a young Indian child watches TV and doesn’t see his image on the screen, he begins to become an unperson.”
Those negotiations produced a memorandum of understanding with the networks on appointing vice presidents for diversity, he said. It also encouraged scheduling a new series in September called “Wolf Lake” starring Graham Greene. Skyhawk called it the first series to feature a Native American as the lead actor.
But the barriers extend beyond the network, said Al Reevis, a Blackfeet elder and aspiring scriptwriter. “There seems to be jealousy among Native Americans. They want to be recognized, but they don’t want anybody else to be.
“The Indian people that have had some success don’t seem to help other people.”
He once worked for the hit TV series, “Northern Exposure,” which extensively used, or as he saw it, exploited American Indian actors.
“The only way you are going to change the treatment of Native Americans is to claim our unity.”
Skyhawk takes a more optimistic view of the American Indian future in entertainment. “I think we are going to be the next flavor in Hollywood.”
