Historian

Here we go again...

This is what I know so far.

"Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee"

Coming to HBO, May 2007

The 2.5 hour television film is an adaptation of author Dee Brown's book from 1971, "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West."

The dramatization starts with the Lakota victory over General Custer at the Battle of Little Bighorn and ends with the Massacre at Wounded Knee. Along the way, it intertwines the perspectives of three characters:

Charles Eastman (played by Adam Beach), a Dartmouth-educated Sioux doctor, held up as living proof of the alleged success of assimilation.

Sitting Bull (played by August Schellenberg), the Lakota leader who refuses to submit to U.S. Government policies designed to strip his people of their identity, their dignity and their land.

Senator Henry Dawes (played by Aidan Quinn), who was one of the architects of the U.S. Government Policy on Indian affairs.

While Charles Eastman (Adam Beach) and schoolteacher Elaine Goodale (Anna Paquin) work to improve life for the Indians on the reservation, Senator Dawes (Aidan Quinn) lobbies President Grant (Fred Dalton Thompson) for more humane treatment, opposing the stance of General William Tecumseh Sherman (Colm Feore). Hope rises for the Indians in the form of the prophet Wovoka (Wes Studi) and the Ghost Dance - a messianic movement that promises an end of their suffering under the white man. This hope is obliterated after the assassination of Sitting Bull (August Schellenberg) and the massacre of hundreds of Indian men, women and children by the 7th Cavalry at Wounded Knee Creek on 29 December 1890.

{adapted from: http://www.hbo.com/films/news/index.html }

__________________

"Be good, be kind, help each other."
"Respect the ground, respect the drum, respect each other."
--Abe Conklin, Ponca/Osage (1926-1995)

Coyot_In_The_House

Matter of fact I recommended it to a student 2 weeks ago.

A few students from the school here are extras in the Movie..Cool! I call one of em Wounded Knee...LOL!

Joe G

Ditto^^^ it was/still is a good book...

Historian

"Wounded Knee's" Adam Beach discusses working on this HBO Films event movie, which premieres May 27th at 9:00pm EST / 8:00pm CST.

http://www.hbo.com/films/interviews/adambeach.html

HBO: What were your initial thoughts about Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee?

Adam Beach: I knew coming into the project that obviously this story needs to be told from the perspective of how the [U.S.] government was involved in trying to take the lands of the Indians and resettle them on these reservation systems. But also show the struggles that Indian people have with just standing up for their sovereign right as peoples. And the importance of showing this is just enormous. We need to tell this story.

HBO: What has the shoot been like so far?

Adam Beach: Well, HBO hasn't put a limit on anything. They want the best. Today I was doing a scene where I've given up, I've lost my soul, my spirit. And what (director) Yves (Simoneau) did was he had me do it like nine different times. He had me do a version where I'm letting go, a version where I'm angry, sad, because he wanted to find the right moment. I've never worked with anybody who does that.

Usually, a director has an interpretation of what they think, but here Yves wanted to really search and use me as a tool of emotion. We were all exploring together, finding that deep value of really interpreting the truth behind this story.

HBO: What were your first impressions about your character?

Adam Beach: Well, I play Charles Eastman. And the first thing I did was hire a voice coach who could help me with the details of this era, 'cause man, that was the toughest thing for me, was just to explore that world of being a distinguished Victorian gentleman, and walking and talking a certain way. And the way they saw things, their values, how they wore their clothes. There were so many details. So that was really exciting learning about all that.

I learned that Charles Eastman was a product of assimilation by the government. He did succeed in becoming an educated man, but what he came to realize is that if you lose your culture and traditions, you lose your identity not only as an Indian, but as a part of society. He learned that in the end it didn't matter how educated he was if he was not helping his people. It didn't matter at all. And in the story you see how much he loses of himself because there's nothing he can do to help his people move forward when there's a government pushing them and killing them off.

HBO: What do you think the government was trying to accomplish through assimilation, and what do you think actually happened?

Adam Beach: The idea was to help motivate the Indian people by molding them into becoming part of white society. But what they didn't realize is that you can't get rid of the Indian. You can't take away their identity to make them a part of another society. And that's where the conflict was: they didn't realize that as Indian people, they already embodied a tradition that connected to Mother Earth and there was a spiritual guidance; everything was already laid down in stone. The Indians didn't want to change. So there was this idea being forced onto a people that had been living this valued life for generations. And that's where it went wrong. The government didn't want to understand the lifestyle and culture and traditions of the Indian.

HBO: And the legacy of this assimilation has had a lasting impact on American Indian peoples to this day, hasn't it?

Adam Beach: Absolutely. One of the things I want people to understand with this film is that the tragedy of Indian people across North America still exists. You know, everybody wonders why we are the way we are today. There's so much that comes from this story. I want people to understand how in the late 1800s, the government and the churches established residential schools, boarding schools to rid the Indian, to bring them into society, and to destroy their culture and tradition.

And if you can imagine people trying to tell you being Indian is bad, is wrong - your culture, your tradition is dealing with the devil. It affects my generation, why is my world so much more of a struggle? It's because after a hundred years of this manipulation of 'you're not a good person,' it really affects us.

Our generation is starting to understand that we have to rid ourselves of this subconscious mentality that you're a bad person. That's gonna take time. But I've come to understand where the pain comes from in living on a reservation, at being corralled onto a little piece of land. A lot of the generation that I speak for now are just starting to come out of it, to say, we are proud, we are a strong people. We have traditions that could teach the world how to relate with Mother Earth, how to relate with themselves, to the animals, to plants, to a stone, to the trees. I could go on.

HBO: How did your own personal experiences feed into your work on this role?

Adam Beach: Charles Eastman has to see a lot of his people die. And for me, when I was eight years old, my mother was hit by a drunk driver and she was eight months pregnant and she died in front of my house in a ditch. And then two months later, my dad, he drowned. He was drinking a lot and under medication for depression.

And after those two experiences, I've had to grow up with this loss. Once you lose your parents, you get this numbness, this feeling of having to really be able to connect yourself with someone. I depended on my brothers for that connection, but to have that feeling of being taken care of...I lost it when my parents passed away.

So with Charles Eastman having to see his people die, there's an easy connection with having to hold in all those feeling of loss. And the thing I want people to learn with Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, is that this incident is just one of many. They chose "Wounded Knee" as the story to tell, but this has happened throughout history with many different tribes across North America. And I hope people understand that these stories have to be told truthfully from a perspective where you get to feel what these people have gone through.

HBO: Tell us about the American Indian community today, and your involvement with it.

Adam Beach: One of the things I've come to understand is that I'm a role model for my people. For the past ten years, I've been going to schools and talking to kids, and just motivating them to understand that we can succeed in our hopes and dreams if we really work hard. I think what we have now is definitely a stronger unity amongst all Indian peoples in North America. We're coming together. But I think our ultimate strength is to be rid of this mentality that we cannot succeed.

When I was sixteen I started acting, and I also started to embrace my tradition and culture. I had a young medicine man interpret for me what it is to be an Indian. He really caught me at a good time because I was really vulnerable after the loss of my parents with all of the feelings of abandonment. I went in a bad direction.

And when two of these opportunities came to me--finding out who I was as a native person, but also redirecting it with the hope of becoming a good actor, it really broke a mold. I've learned that for Indian people, the opportunity for us to succeed is very slim. So acting was a great tool for that. And in the process of learning about my culture, I've learned how to connect myself again to my ancestors. I've been doing that since I was sixteen, and I'm thirty-four now.

So now I've come to understand that we, as a people, have a lot to share with the world. And I continue to teach people what I've learned. I go to South Dakota for ceremonies when I have the time. And when you learn what the Indian peoples have gone through to hold onto their culture and traditions...wow, it's an amazing story.

for more info., go to:
http://www.hbo.com/films/burymyheart/index.html

__________________

"Be good, be kind, help each other."
"Respect the ground, respect the drum, respect each other."
--Abe Conklin, Ponca/Osage (1926-1995)

Wakopataki

This is a book that I freely buy and give People who want to know the truth as to what happened.
A friend, who is White, has just started the book that I bought for him. He said he never knew this side of the story, and said that it has touched him, because of the suffering that he is now reading about. He went on to say, that it was hard to read, as it was depressing. It's to teach him a different perspective, than just the one he was taught.

I really hope the movie is great and does a good job!

It's long over due, but at least it's here now!

TsiyaGeyaWillis

Ayv first received my book "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" by soqua of my uncles. Ayv have always treasured that book ale others, that Dee Brown did. Definately a osda book to recommend.

Historian

The Hollywood Reporter
By Barry Garron
22 May 2007

Review of:
"Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee"

Showing:
9:00p.m. - 11:15 p.m. EST, Sunday, 27 May 2007 on HBO

Bottom Line:
Compelling storytelling that unearths truth and bold historic drama.

History is told by the winners, at least for the first several drafts. Eventually, as demonstrated here, it's possible for passions to cool down sufficiently so that even the winners can confront a shameful chapter in their history, in this case America's treatment of Indians in general and the Lakota Sioux in particular.

"Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee," stunningly filmed and honestly told, is based on the 1971 book by Dee Alexander Brown, a nonfiction account of the final years of conflict between the U.S. and the American Indians it sought to displace by any means necessary.

The challenge for screenwriter Daniel Giat was to breathe life into Brown's thorough documentation. In this case, it meant weaving the most salient historic points into a compelling story about the lives of three men: well-intentioned Sen. Henry Dawes (Aidan Quinn), proud and defiant Sitting Bull (August Schellenberg) and Charles Eastman (Adam Beach), a Sioux Indian raised and taught by white people who lives in a sort of no-man's land.

The film opens with the massacre of Gen. Custer at Little Big Horn, Mont., in 1876. Actually, the first scenes are just before the massacre, when Custer's men led an attack on the Sioux, killing men, women and children with little or no provocation. The ensuing massacre -- Custer's Last Stand -- also was the last stand of the Sioux, who were no match for the superior firepower of the U.S. Army. Unable to defend their land from encroaching settlers and government policy, they suffered indignity after indignity.

Sen. Dawes sympathized with the plight of the Sioux. While many would have been happy to see the tribes eradicated, Dawes thought they could be assimilated into American society, the way European immigrants blended in the American melting pot. The Sioux were forced to attend church and adapt white customs -- all of which was, ironically, an enlightened view at the time. Dawes proposed cultural genocide instead of actual genocide, though in practice, he could prevent neither.

Sitting Bull, faced with a Hobson's choice of surrender or death, held out as long as he could. Eastman, meanwhile, was plucked from the tribe as a boy to become an example of what the Indian could achieve with formal education. No longer Sioux and never white, he becomes a permanent outsider, though his sympathies remain with his tribe.

Quinn, Beach and Schellenberg are flawless. Schellenberg, in particular, makes his expressive face a window into Sitting Bull's soul. Director Yves Simoneau brings a subtle eye to the story, imparting immense amounts of historical detail without making it feel like a lecture. He paints with colors that reflect the barren plains, the looming gray clouds and the bleak future of the Sioux.

Increasingly, our source for historical information has shifted from the library to the TV set. That makes "Wounded Knee" valuable not just for its compelling storytelling but for its unswerving candor.

BURY MY HEART AT WOUNDED KNEE - HBO
A Wolf Films/Traveler's Rest Films production

Credits:
Executive producers: Dick Wolf, Tom Thayer
Co-executive producer/director: Yves Simoneau
Producer: Clara George
Teleplay: Daniel Giat
Based on the book by: Dee Alexander Brown
Director of photography: David Franco
Production designer: Ian Thomas
Editors: Michael Ornstein, Michael Brown
Music: George S. Clinton
Costume designer: Mario Davignon
Set decorator: Paul Healy
Casting: Rene Haynes

Cast:
Henry Dawes: Aidan Quinn
Charles Eastman: Adam Beach
Sitting Bull: August Schellenberg
Gen. Sherman: Colm Feore
McLaughlin: J.K. Simmons
Wovoka: Wes Studi
President Grant: Fred Thompson
Elaine Goodale: Anna Paquin
Red Cloud: Gordon Tootoosis

Taken from:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/...iews/index.jsp

__________________

"Be good, be kind, help each other."
"Respect the ground, respect the drum, respect each other."
--Abe Conklin, Ponca/Osage (1926-1995)

ok24stacey

I'm looking forward to seeing the movie. I really like Dee Brown and hope the movie stands up. Good cast, we'll see.....

__________________
To live is the rarest thing in the World. Most people just exist, that is all.

Historian

Dick Wolf and HBO offer historically compelling look at Wounded Knee
by Tom Jicha
South Florida Sun-Sentinal - 24 May 2007
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/features...a-features-col

Dick Wolf is no one-trick pony. The guiding force behind Law & Order steps smartly into the long-form arena as an executive producer of HBO's Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee and delivers an historically compelling and visually magnificent production, which moves and enthralls.

Dee Brown's best-selling non-fiction work on the unconscionable treatment of American Indians in the late 19th century has been in the public consciousness since its publication 36 years ago and has been optioned to Hollywood several times. But something always kept the project from fruition.

Wolf, who read the book shortly after its publication, said he jumped at the opportunity to become involved when he found out the rights were available again. "We went to HBO and it was fast-tracked from there."

The story is fact-based, but it is not entirely true to Brown's book. For dramatic shorthand, a real-life figure from the period, Charles Eastman, was inserted into the narrative by scriptwriter Daniel Giat. "Everyone felt very strongly that we needed a white character or a part white/part Indian character to carry a contemporary, mostly white, audience through this project," Giat said. "I happened upon the story of Charles Eastman, who was of the Santee Sioux. The Santee were at Little Big Horn, related to the Lakota Sioux. He was adopted by the so-called Friends of the Indian and educated."

After graduating from Dartmouth and Boston University Medical School, Eastman returned to the frontier and became the doctor at the Pine Ridge Reservation. "Ultimately, he felt tremendously betrayed by the whites," Giat said. The white man's repeated betrayal of the Indians is the thread woven throughout.

Adam Beach, an Ojibwa Indian, offers a nuanced portrayal of the conflicted Eastman, who is tortured that his close relationships with the white man is a betrayal of his heritage.

Aidan Quinn, as U.S. Senator Henry Dawes, is one of two other central characters who drive the story, which covers the period between the slaughter of Gen. Custer and his men at the Little Big Horn and the cold-blooded massacre by the U.S. cavalry of Indian men, women and children at Wounded Knee. Dawes is a dedicated advocate of enlightened treatment of Indians, which is not a popular position in the Washington of his day.

Dawes and Eastman are confronted by a savvy negotiating adversary in Sitting Bull, the Lakota chief who steadfastly refuses to surrender his tribe's land in the gold-laden Black Hills. Sitting Bull, a show-stealing portrayal by August Schellenberg, learns more from the white man's duplicitous ways than they learn from his honor. If there's a flaw in the characterization, it's that Sitting Bull sounds more like a regular on contemporary talking head shows than a 19th century Indian.

Interestingly, Law & Order's Fred Thompson, a former senator who is playing coy about his personal presidential aspirations, plays President Ulysses S. Grant.

Whether it is intentional or not, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee strikes many contemporary chords. The U.S. government is seen as a bully, not well liked by the rest of the world. It is contended that the real reason for wanting to vanquish the Indians is to steal their gold. Politicians argue that they must bring the Indians around to our ways "to ensure their survival ... there's no saving them until we convince them to give up their way of life." The term "cut and run" even finds its way into 19th century Washington conversation.

This is not reason to watch. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee stands on its own as a sterling history lesson and an engrossing western.

__________________

"Be good, be kind, help each other."
"Respect the ground, respect the drum, respect each other."
--Abe Conklin, Ponca/Osage (1926-1995)

ndngirl70

Dang...I wish I had HBO

__________________

Once upon a time
Everything was fine
You were beside me- you were mine
Why did you have to walk out my door?
Now you want me back again
I am sorry
You're just an old song I don't sing anymore
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NCheyGirl21

I wish I had HBO too but I don't. I hope it comes out on DVD someday.

Mud_Woman