Trend-setting producer speaks out
WASHINGTON -- In Hollywood, movies are supposed to be about Indians, not by
them. And give them some feathers and buckskin if they want to act.
Sonny Skyhawk has spent the better part of a lifetime trying to change all
that.
Skyhawk is executive producer of "The World of American Indian Dance," the
first American Indian production to air on network television. The
documentary premiered on NBC in 2003 and was screened to large crowds this
August at the National Museum of the American Indian.
If the film had a Hollywood genesis -- a poolside discussion in California
-- its Native pedigree is nowhere in doubt. It was produced, directed and
acted by American Indians, who were given complete artistic control by the
network.
"The mere fact that it was seen by millions of people was a culmination of
our efforts to bring it to the small screen," said Skyhawk, in Washington
for the National Powwow and the Smithsonian film screening.
Skyhawk has worked Hollywood from all the angles. He started his acting
career on "Bonanza" and went on to roles in "The Mystic Warrior," "The
Young Riders," "Posse" and "The Homecoming of Jimmy Whitecloud," among
others.
Author of four screenplays, he's busy "trying to educate about the
existence of our people," said Skyhawk, dressed in a pressed shirt and
beaded bolo tie, his hair tied back and a cell phone at the ready. Elders
at pow wows single him out to remind him he's representing a whole lot of
people when he takes a job in Hollywood.
Not bad for a guy who was doing migrant labor with his grandparents when he
was 6 years old, picking cotton and tomatoes and sleeping beneath a tarp in
the night air. Skyhawk likes to remember where he's been as well as where
he's going.
"The World of American Indian Dance" has been shown on the Discovery
Channel, Aboriginal Peoples Television Network and on Maori television in
New Zealand. The producers, negotiating with the United Kingdom, Japan and
Canada for other showings, plan to license the film to tribes for use on
their own television circuits.
The film was produced by the Oneida Indian Nation of New York's Four
Directions Entertainment, Inc. (The Oneida Nation also owns Four Directions
Media, the publisher of Indian Country Today.) A talented team was hired to
manage the project, including director Randy Martin and co-executive
producer Dan Jones, recently elected chairman of the Ponca Nation.
The documentary was shot in high-definition video, a technology so recent
the producers had trouble finding a compatible editing system. The marriage
between Native subjects and high-tech is nothing new, said Executive
Producer Dale Rood at one of the Smithsonian screenings: "Sioux Ghost
Dance" was one of the first reels to be turned out by the Edison labs in
the late 19th century.
Skyhawk's film is vividly shot with contemporary pow wow scenes, historic
footage of Crow Fair, interviews with dancers: even shots of Fancy dancers
performing in dramatic natural landscapes.
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The grand entry is profiled, as is the "etiquette of the circle," and the
three rules of the pow wow dancer: keep the beat, end the dance on the last
beat and don't lose any regalia during the performance.
Indian dance, the film pointed out, has had some unlikely friends. After
leading the slaughter of the buffalo that sustained many tribes, William
"Buffalo Bill" Cody started a Wild West touring show in the 1880s that kept
alive many dances banned by the federal government.
When the ban was lifted in the 1930s it was the railroad -- the vehicle for
white incursion in Indian country -- that ferried tourists out West and
revived interest in Indian traditions previously hidden from the public.
Some people worry that the commercial ethic of contest dancing will hurt
the pow wow, the film admitted. The Stomp, Hoop, Eagle, Deer, and Coastal
dances haven't entered the competitive arena -- yet.
Another concern is the growing sameness of pow wow dancing. Northern and
Southern Plains styles, once distinct, have grown increasingly alike. From
the first modern inter-tribal pow wow in late-19th century Oklahoma,
narrator Peter Coyote said, to today's spectacles in places like Tokyo and
London, a tradition has changed: is money ruining Indian dance? Are pow
wows reaching too far and becoming too generic?
"We have to bring it back to the circle," Skyhawk said of the recent trend
toward commercialization.
The longtime resident of southern California and enrolled member of the
Rosebud Sioux Tribe is no stranger to the language of money.
Skyhawk knows that the bottom line, not cultural diversity, drives the
boardrooms of Tinseltown. "It's called show business for a reason," he said
glumly, quickly adding, "I still feel our time is yet to come." Recent
productions like "Into the West" and "Dreamkeepers" give him hope that the
purse strings are loosening and producers will see fit to put Native actors
on primetime.
If anything, Skyhawk said, Indian humor is "what's going to get us on the
boards." He recently pitched an idea about a tribal chairman who buys a
mansion and moves his family from the rez to a Beverly Hills suburb. "The
Buffaloes of Westwood," cut from the same mold as "The Fresh Prince of
Bel-Air" and "The Beverly Hillbillies," "lost its way in negotiation" and
ended up in network limbo.
"I've had to bring Hollywood kicking and screaming to the table," said
Skyhawk. "Hollywood is entranced by the old image" of savages who "rape and
pillage and scalp." But "that's not who we were or who we are."
Skyhawk hopes the documentary has given "a snapshot of who we are as a
people. Future generations will take it from there."
After recovering from a recent medical problem, Skyhawk went to a pow wow
the first chance he had. "As soon as I heard the drums, it replenished my
soul. It keeps your Indianness alive. That's pow wow."
