A Week of Native America

Last week I had the chance to finish watching a mini series and a movie made for television, all American Indian. I couldn't absorb everything all at once. My, this childhood interest is still going strong.

The first one was Into the West (2005), a mini series of six parts about two families, one white and one Indian, and how their lives were connected in the time of the westward movement in America. The second one is a Hallmark movie. And I should have known better that it would last for three hours. It's called Dreamkeeper (2003) and is about an old man asking his grandson to take him and his old pony to the great powwow in Albuquerque. While traveling, grandfather tells Ame. Indian legends and myths.

Both films have a huge number of cast members, including Michael Spears as Dog Star in Into the West and his younger brother Eddie Spears as the grandson Shane in Dreamkeeper and Red Lance in ITW. There are several others that can be seen in both films.

I noticed that the massacre at Wounded Knee Creek (Into the West) shows a deaf young Indian man's rifle firing the first shot, just like what was shown in Hidalgo (2004). Was that how it really happened? After watching, I have a better understanding of American Indian culture, old and modern, and I was inspired to listen to my Mohicans album again =).

Official Sites:
Dreamkeeper - Features include cast info, summaries of the legends told, trivia and images

Into The West - Great Site! It features family trees of the characters, Cast info, Timelines of real history, maps, and some basic Lakota words and phrases!

Search Amazon:
Into the West
Dreamkeeper