Crazy Horse, (named
for a sacred power vision in which his horse danced in a crazy manner) was
judged by Native Americans to be among the greatest heroes of all time. Wise
before his years but filled with undying compassion for his people--yet not
afraid to engage the enemy on their behalf either-- this uncommonly handsome
man was loved and revered by not only his own tribe, but many tribes... and
still is!
Yet, sadly, his true
story, as told through the eyes of nations' elders, has yet to be dramatized
in a powerful major motion picture, cheating not only Native Americans of this
great man's extraordinary visual history, but all Americans and the world.
Learn
more about Crazy Horse and other Native American heroes here.
Our Heroes... by
creator zelan bonn
Remember
Your Heroes Growing Up?
We all identify with heroes that we feel represent us in some meaningful way.
As an American, when I lived in Guadalajara, I would see Mexicans watch
televised sports and entire halls of people root for the lone Mexican in the
international arena even though that person had little chance of winning. They
identified with their fellow countryman and supported even the most rudimentary
of players.
Researching across the Southwest for the Ticci Man film and series, I learned that
American Indians do very much the same type of group indentifying, as we all do.
Folks you and I might not even know are often this group’s heroes—few are in
the film or media industry, not surprisingly.
I sought to understand this group more by examining my own past as well as
social and film history.
Hero Identification
When I was a
child, Superman (syndicated reruns) was my great hero. I had others but Superman
stands out. He had moral values, did
right, got the bad guys, administered wisdom and courage and I indentified with
him for those reasons but also because he was White—ever change the TV channel
when you run across actors/content etc. who are not of your color or ethnicity?
That’s typically subconscious “identification” at work (it can be other things, too,
but identification is very powerful and most professionals in Hollywood
intuitively understand its value for audiences).
The bottom line is,
viewers tend to identify more with their own race or ethnicity, if on a subconscious
level (age and country of origin not withstanding). We could get involved
with volumes of scientific discussions on this subject, however, suffice to say,
that most people around the world apply subconscious indentifying daily, but many of us work hard to overcome it and go beyond our primal instincts as civilization
evolves. Today, we fight our instincts toward natural identification so we can
overcome outcropping effects that may lead to racism and discrimination in
society or our own lives. (If you ever want to know how you're how doing in
your own life, just count all your friends who are not of your race or
ethnicity--given the result, do you now think you're racist, or possibly just
exercising a comfortable and familiar form of group identification--albeit too
much?)
At six years old, I had no real clue about race or ethnicity. All I noticed
was that Clark Kent dressed like people that I came in contact with from time to time,
hence he was not alien to me or my culture---I subconsciously viewed him as coming
from my group so I more easily identified with him. We know this phenomena
is common among humans and most species on Earth---hence schools of fish, flocks
of birds, dolphin and whale pods, and the list goes on. Just look around America today and see identification at work. Immigrants, even forth
generations, can often be found watching foreign television shows or shows in foreign
languages that often reflect their own heritage (Spanish, Japanese, and more).
Are we racist---or just too comfortable with our sense of group identification?
Most of us had heroes growing up that we identified with, whether they were
in novels, in legends, in sports, in film stories, television series, comics books,
real life, history, or more. Among all mediums, television and film remain
perhaps the greatest platforms for sending modern day heroes and icons to the world for
people to celebrate and role model. Yet when we examine these two major
communication mediums and their history in the US, we can easily see that Native Americans
have rarely been placed in a positive light---usually depicted as negative
stereotypes even though progress is being made. Such a history goes beyond
normal group identification error or excuse and sits squarely in the territory
of racism and discrimination---sanctioned by the biggest communication industry
in the world---Hollywood---for over 100 years.
Making Progress Is Slow Going
Given that Indians have been so
neglected in mainstream media and film for so many decades, it's hard to realize
we have made any progress toward greater equality, but we have. However, it's not
much.
One of the best major films ever made was Geronimo (1993) starring
Wes Studi. I loved this story and watched it over and over again because it was so novel and refreshing to see the Indian side of the story
for a change, a side that was, and remains, so rarely told in major films. It was refreshing to
at least hear from the Indians in a film story of the Old West, even if that
side was still being muted by the confines of story balance.
Progress as it was, even that
film did not dig deep enough and failed to make a clear hero of Geronimo but instead offered a balanced perspective
on the Indian to cowboy aspect (kind to both worlds, justice for neither). One of the greatest warriors
and heroes to his people of all time was
still not given full heroship in a film bearing his name. Someday, this
wrong will be righted by Hollywood, I am confident, but for now, it makes a
point. Indian heroes are almost nonexistent in Hollywood.
Ironically, Wes
Studi, a full blooded Cherokee, offered a stellar performance and forever
removed all doubt that Native Americans can play in the big leagues of
Hollywood, if just given a chance. And while that film has contributed to
the body of evolving works by NAs that are slowly giving us a changed Hollywood,
it has taken nearly a hundred years to reach this point of minor progress---we are
still thousands of films away from bringing the pendulum to balance in order to
give the world the perspective on NAs that it is now starting to
demand.
Progress toward giving Indians
equality in film and media as well as their heroes has been made, but the going
is slow and its really because we, as Americans, just don't get it.
It has been over a century since
Americans held the Indian as their enemy, but still we hold with outdated social
patterns---many of which continue to be reflected in our film and media today.
Hollywood has proven the racism for Native America with over 4,000
films negatively stereotyping the Indian--less than a 100 minor films in
opposition to that great prejudicial weight.
Let The Twilight Zone Bring You
Insight...
Let's turn the worm for a moment here
and imagine you are in the Twilight Zone. All the movies of the Old West from
your childhood until today strictly depict Whites on the rampage, murdering, slaughtering
Indians, killing women and children, torturing them, and so on. In the films, we
are seeing it from the Indian's perspective---they are passing moral judgments
about the slaughtering White savages and telling us just their side of the story,
claiming that Whites are subhuman. Instilling in us a hate and subconscious image
of Whites that will remain with us all our lives as Whites.
Keep imagining Whites as the bad guys in
every Old West film you have ever seen, difficult as that may be. Now imagine yourself as a child, growing up with
those images all your life at the theaters and on TV. How would that impact you? How would you see
yourself and your fellow Whites? Would you hold your head down, or feel
resentment, or pent up anger and hatred? Could we blame you?
That's an ugly thought but let's go
further into this weird reality. Now imagine you want a job or to start a
business or go to the right college but Indian society is talking out two sides
of its mouth, encouraging you on one side, denying you access and opportunity on
the other side? Can you imagine your despair and feeling of hopelessness?
Now flash forward to present day.
What might your outlook on life be as a White person---society having told you
all these years with reinforcing messages from film and television that you're
less
than human---devalued? Might such a social force on our
collective psychic as Whites turn many of us toward depression, alcoholism and drugs under such self esteem lowering
pressures--maybe even suicide, etc.? Might we be a
much different and diminished society of people for all that negative outpouring
on us---after all, society is bombarding us daily with devaluing messages, is it not? Are
we not daily conveniences of our collective worthlessness for being Whites? Are
Indians not oppressing us?
You have just begun to glimpse the
world of the Native American. Are you still proud to be non-Indian?
Let's all be thankful I didn't
describe your life of living on a reservation today where these realities are often
dramatically realized but this point cannot be made strongly enough.
And in this example I picked on
Whites, but here in America or around the world, anyone who is nonIndian,
whether Black, Brown, or otherwise, is just as likely to be oppressing to
Indians--the world has learned from Hollywood not so well.
For me personally, I stand in awe of
the average Native American who has had to overcome ethnic cleansing and
genocide, religious and cultural obliteration, decades of societal persecution
and disrespect, and still come forward into modern day to show us a strong face
of survival---the task was superhuman---superhero---and many us could never endure it as
Whites or Blacks or Asians, etc.---yet Indians have taken the crushing blows and somehow kept moving forward, remaining
quiet about such inequities in relative terms. To say such a people are awe
inspiring is to be a master of the understatement!
Yet, for decades, negative portrayals
of Indians in film and television has gone largely unnoticed by Whites, even
Blacks and Hispanics and Asians. We still fail to see the great harms it
has caused and still causes. We have pressed
onto generations of Indians and non-Indians hundreds of thousands of reinforcing
messages that Indians are the bad guys and must be devalued. It is part of a
collective subconscious and social construct.
We accept it without a thought
while the Indian, such a great people as they are, do not organize and come
forward to show us our shame with powerful protesting forces. I liken this to a man minding his own
business when two thugs suddenly attack him. He does not fight back believing
that it will only make matters worse. This goes on for some time until a stranger
notices and steps up and put two bullets
in the thugs rear-ends and they run for the hills. The Ticci Man Project is just like
that stranger who comes to the rescue, but it's gun is education. It just common sense and intervention in the
name of humanity, not solicited help---Native Americans never asked for this
project.
Our Native American citizens in the US and Canada
do not need to imagine such an impossible and terrible history for the last 100 hundreds
years living inside a society largely against them---they do not need to imagine
they're in the Twilight Zone---they have lived it for the last century---they have had
the stigmas burned into their
very souls! Their endurance makes them all heroes in my book and I hope
yours, too.
Did You Have Television and Film Heroes
Growing Up?
Who were your heroes growing up? Who did you identify with
because they were popular with you or your friends, or even today’s world
audiences? Where they Black? Where they Hispanic? Did they play sports? Where
they political? Where they on television or in films? Or were they like
Native American heroes on television and film---all but nonexistent?
We ask all these things so you can begin to relate to the reality of today’s
Native American and their past generations who did not get to grow up with
television and film heroes they fully identified with. The only Indians they
likely saw on TV were probably considered backward savages or drunks—great
role models to look up to and want to emulate, no? And sadly, those TV and film
Indians were most likely not portrayed by Indians so they looked weird and
unreal and false to Indians--childhood confusion fodder perhaps?
Few people, but for Indians, have ever
said an
Indian character on film or television was their hero. We can change that.
The Ticci Man - An Indian Hero
The crown jewel of the Ticci Man
Project is not the do-all or end-all to heroes, but it is a relative novelty
in Hollywood---an Indian hero presented by Imajilan Pictures™ and he will
hopefully, someday, be allowed to shine in a major Hollywood studio motion
picture--on that day, we might say Hollywood now gets it!
Imagine Native American children having their big
screen and little screen hero that they can indentify with---a heroe that symbolically
shows Hollywood has learned it's lesson and it trying to change---a hero that
will pave the way for many more Indian heroes! It may be a small thing to most
of us who have never walked in the Indian's shoes, but it's actually a monumental
step forward for Native America and Hollywood. You can either support it, or
tear it down and show your ignorance, but one thing is for sure, this project is
more than needed, it's destiny in the making, for it's time has come--the
Indians have well earned it.
Ironically, Ticci Man was never meant
to be a hero for Native Americans---amazingly---but instead, to be a hero to the
world who would routinely showcase the greatness of Native America itself---and
within that subtle difference in hero approach, we find the essence of makes
Ticci such a magnificent hero to Native America---and in turn, to all of us. Or
so we can hope to see and realize one day.
We must grow up as an industry and
society and in growing, we are going to discover just how incredibly stupid we
have been for what we have been missing---for most Americans will come to
realize how extremely proud they should be to be living in the land of the
American Indian---a magnificent people whose rich culture and stories and heroes
are
astoundingly magical and simply amazing--one day to be revealed to us all for
their true greatness and grace. I for one, pray I get to see it before I
exit this world.
When
I first embarked on the Indian hero story, I was an idealist who saw humans, not
races, and never realized that Hollywood would be the ultimate and
insurmountable obstacle to a new kind of hero--an Indian hero of the iconic
class--a once in a lifetime character that every kid in the world could look up
tp and root for. Ticci Man was a dream from my childhood, a person who visited
me from time to time--strangely different, unique, funny and magical and fierce
all at once--an other world being who spoke to me regularly and said he was
coming to our world. But like all heroes, he is nothing to this world unless his
stories are shared. And he has been fighting a very long time to to do that, to
survive, so that one day his legends may be known to the world--very much like,
no I would say exactly like, the Indians of today---for his plight is the quintessential
reason for naming this nonprofit project after him. We
all need heroes---give the Native Americans at least major icon--they have well
earned it. And let that hero pave the way for untold others to come... Let us
together, recognize the past failings of humanity and the unspeakable horrors
immortalized in a "Trail of Tears", and begin the healing and
rebuilding process that we might future-tell our children instead of the
"Trail of Cheers".
*Terminology We
use the term Native American (NA) in the purely anthropological sense to
denote "aboriginal people of the Western Hemisphere," which includes a
wide variety of self-descriptive nomenclatures, including Canada's First Nations
People and many others of the American continents and Pacific Island groups. When
more specific descriptions are used, they will include current country of origin
or commonly known tribal names (i.e. Mohawks of the Bay of
Quinte, Dine, etc.). | 
