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 NATURALLY
NATIVE SHOWS THE PLIGHT AND HOPE OF AMERICA'S NATIVE PEOPLES
Early films depicting the aboriginal inhabitants
of North America showed them killed with single bullets by
cowboys. From the 1960s, Native Americans have been portrayed
with more sensitivity, though from the eyes of Caucasians.
At last in Naturally Native, we have an opportunity
for representatives of many North American nations to tell
their own story, sharing their many frustrations and their
indomitable hope for justice in their native land. The plot
focuses on the effort of three sisters (part-Morongo and part-Viejas,
according to the film) to seek a special part of the American
dream-starting a business on their own. In the film's prologue,
the sisters are split up by an adoption agency in Riverside,
California, in 1972. Some twenty-five years later they have
found one another and live under one roof. Vickie Lewis Bighawk
(played by director Valerie Red-Horse), the oldest, has married
Lakota Sioux Steve Bighawk (plated by Pato Hoffmann) and has
two children. Tanya Lewis (played by Irene Bedard), the youngest,
is looking for a husband, spurns a fellow Native American
in favor of a Caucasian, Mark (played by Mark Abbott), and
is later roughed up by a Caucasian when she refuses to be
his "Pocahontas" after a dinner date. Karen Lewis (played
by Kimberly Norris Guerrero), who attracts interest from Mark
to the dismay of Tanya, has just received an MBA degree and
is preparing to relocate to a boring job in Chicago, where
her college has evidently arranged placement. During the cleanup
after the graduation party, Mark cuts his hand, and Vickie
provides a healing balm that stops the pain immediately. Mark
then suggests that the product should be marketed. When Karen
designs how to set up a business of Native American natural
products, the three sisters agree to form a joint venture.
As the calculated start-up cost is $25,000, the sisters approach
several sources of funding. An agency that provides loans
to minorities cannot help them because they do not have official
U.S. government documents enrolling them as members of a "tribe";
since they are adopted, they have no original birth records,
which were destroyed in a fire at the adoption agency. Next,
they ask for help from a blonde Caucasian fortuneteller, pretending
to have been an "Indian" in a previous life, but she is eager
to use their services in a healing ceremony for some rich
people, a contact that she suggests might shake down a money
tree for the sisters. However, they refuse to participate
in this scam, telling the fortune teller that ancestral healing
arts ceremonies are not for sale.
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Next,
they approach a nonprofit corporation that reputedly helps
small businesses, but this prospect falters when the executive
informs the sisters that contributors to the corporation will
have nothing to do with Native American applicants, since
various reservations run sinful gambling casinos. The final
funding source that they approach is the Viejas reservation,
which has a gambling casino, where they are awarded a $50,000
line of credit, since they can serve as role models for other
members of the tribe. Best of all, they are welcomed by the
elders for "coming home." The touching story ends with titles
that tell us about two Congressional laws -- the 1978 law
that prohibits adoption agencies from splitting up Native
American families and the 1988 law that authorizes reservations
to operate gambling casinos. The last line tells us that reservations
with gambling casinos no longer receive welfare payments.
Credits to this remarkable movie indicate the national affiliations
of the many contributors to the film, which has been nominated
by the Political Film Society for best exposé, best film on
democracy, and best film on human rights for 1999. MH
POLITICAL
FILM SOCIETY INVITES NOMINATIONS FOR AWARDS
Members of the Political Film Society can nominate feature
films released in 1999 for awards in the following categories:
democracy, exposé, human rights, and peace. Nominations close
on December 31 each year, and voting will take place in the
first two months of the year 2000 for the film that best raises
political consciousness in each of four categories.
NOMINEES
FOR 1999
DEMOCRACY:
Naturally
Native, Three
Kings
EXPOSÉ: Bastards, Cabaret
Balkan,
Naturally Native, One
Man's Hero, Three
Kings, Three
Seasons
HUMAN RIGHTS:
The
General's Daughter, Hard,
Naturally
Native, One
Man's Hero, Three
Kings, Three
Seasons, Xiu Xiu
PEACE: Cabaret
Balkan, Earth, One
Man's Hero, Three
Kings, West Beirut
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