Image from the Native American Clothing Contest held in Santa Fe during Indian Market 2012.
Lost silent film with all-Native American cast found
The Daughter of Dawn, an 80-minute feature film, was shot in July of 1920 in the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge near Lawton, southwest Oklahoma. It was unique in the annals of silent film (or talkies, for that matter) for having a cast of 300 Comanches and Kiowas who brought their own clothes, horses, tipis, everyday props and who told their story without a single reference to the United States Cavalry. It was a love story, a four-person star-crossed romance that ends with the two main characters together happily ever after. There are two buffalo hunt sequences with actual herds of buffalo being chased down by hunters on bareback just as they had done on the Plains 50 years earlier.
The male lead was played by White Parker; another featured female role was played by Wanada Parker. They were the son and daughter of the powerful Comanche chief Quanah Parker, the last of the free Plains Quahadi Comanche warriors. He never lost a battle to United States forces, but, his people sick and starving, he surrendered at Fort Sill in 1875. Quanah was the son of Comanche chief Peta Nocona and Cynthia Ann Parker, the daughter of Euro-American settlers who had grown up in the tribe after she was kidnapped as a child by the Comanches who killed her parents. She was the model for Stands With a Fist in Dances with Wolves.
You can watch the first ten minutes of the film here. It is over 90 years old, and was produced by, directed by, and stars only Native American people.
holy fuck balls
Okay so my 30 seconds or less of Tumblr fame. I’m related to these people. The Parkers are my ancestors on my father’s side. I’m a typical American “mutt” through various marriages, but the Comanche tribe was still actually visible in my grandmother. She had beautiful, thick black hair, dark eyes, and the high cheekbones. The blood is really dilluted by the time it gets to me, and I’m all of a sixteenth. Coming from the southern US and a family who has always been here, that’s extremely common. Most people are related to some group of native people or another around here.
Mine just happen to be the Parkers, so it’s really important to me to find out more about this. My mom and dad are interested as well… so thank you Tumblr! I’d never have even known without this post.
The Oklahoma Historical Society has restored the film, and you can check up on recent news about it here. They will release it on DVD and Blu Ray “eventually”, according to their blog. The first screening was earlier this year, so they will probably continue to have limited screening for a while before then.
For more information, you can contact Bill Moore of the OHS.
“Stop sending expired food”….”fried chicken 64.99”
IQALUIT, Nunavut — A head of cabbage for $20. Fifteen bucks for a small bag of apples.
A case of ginger ale: $82.
Fed up and frustrated by sky-high food prices and concerned over widespread hunger in their communities, thousands of Inuit have spent weeks posting pictures and price tags from their local grocery stores to a Facebook site called Feed My Family.
Holy hell.
WHAT IN THE FUCK? This shit is not okay.
ughhslfkajsdlf gross gross gross
64.99?????
Reblogging for the extra articles.
Also… I might show up to this protest and support them.
Pay attention to this stuff, please, followers who haven’t heard about this! This kind of thing is completely erased in news media.
Ah a serious, anthropological crisis. Reblogging so this can gain some more exposure. I don’t know a lot about Inuit culture but I’m assuming that the hunting of whales are crucial for survival because vegetation isn’t abundant in circumpolar environments? Can someone inform me? Also tell me why setting a strict quota on whaling affects other food prices in Nanavut? I’m terribly inept when it comes to economy :x
Okay, some things about inquiries like this (boldings mine):
How do you make this an ANTHROPOLOGICAL crisis when REAL PEOPLE ARE IMPOVERISHED AND STARVING?
How do you ask questions like how do externally imposed hunting quotas figure in indigenous communities with ridiculously high food prices in a thread that has already supplied more than a few sources for your perusal on those exact themes?
Like wtf. Please inform.
I wanted to add that I had further conversation with someone who lives in the area, an they added some good points regarding how many aboriginal communities are so impoverished that even hunting isn’t much of an option anymore. I feel like my point still stands that perception is what affect real policy and changing people’s perceptions of indigenous people and their lives is paramount to changing their/our situation.
And also wanted to clarify that my voice is coming from being an indigenous person trying to fight the idea that we “all died out”, “don’t exist anymore”, and/or are “imaginary or magical creatures”.
This is exactly (anthropological crisis? fuck you!) what I’m talking about when it comes to people ROMANTICIZING aboriginal and native cultures, and using that as a way to distance themselves from actual children starving. THAT is what I’m trying to express.
I’m not trying to speak for anyone affected by this; as a matter of fact I think i have probably overstepped. And for that I apologize.
(Source: , via deliciouskaek)
