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. 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
I
want to comment on this film
