series. This year’s season finale ended with the murder of the tribal casino director by the shunned Amish niece of the renegade Amish crime lord, setting up a prominent role in the next season for the revenge-seeking tribal mo- torcycle gang.
A casino and crooked tribal police, this
time identified as Northern Cheyenne, play a prominent role in Longmire, the A&E televi- sion adaptation of Craig Johnson’s excellent Walt Longmire mystery series, even though they don’t appear at all in the original books. The 10 or so novels are occasionally hilarious first-person narrations by Walt Longmire, sheriff of the fictional Absaroka County in Wyoming (thinly overlaid on the Powder River valley, near which the author resides). Longmire’s best friend and sidekick is Henry Standing Bear, constantly referred to by the nickname the Cheyenne Nation. Longmire himself shows great respect for the traditions of the neighboring Crow and Northern Chey- enne reservations; in a streak of magical real- ism, or stress-induced hallucination, he has had some personal experience of their spiri- tual world. It’s not at all clear how the casino popped up in the A&E version, except for the powerful pull of the television stereotype. To be fair, the cable program Longmire has
done better than most in casting Native ac- tors, and in giving them credit. Gary Farmer (Cayuga), the redoubtable Graham Green (Oneida) and Irene Bedard (Inupiat/Cree) play featured roles, and Bedard’s episode “Miss Cheyenne” introduces several younger Native actresses, with billing. This is progress, since even when extras in movies and TV are real Indians, it’s very hard to learn their names. (By contrast, the actress who played the head of the fictional Kalimish tribe in The Killing was Canadian-Italian.) Sadly, in spite of its virtues and healthy ratings, Longmire was cancelled by A&E in September, and the production com- pany is looking for a new home. These shows do generate work for Indians
in the arts, and they offer the possibility of serious portrayals of very real social problems. The “Miss Cheyenne” episode of Longmire dealt with the traumatic topic of involuntary sterilization. But stereotypes, new or old, carry great dangers for their victims. In a recent appearance at the University of Oklahoma, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor called on American Indians to debunk the false notion that casino wealth has solved all
Marcus Amerman (Choctaw, b. 1959), Lucky Blanket, 1998. Beadwork on roulette table cover, 60" x 70". 25/7257. The new stereotype of the casino Indian inspired this ironic response from Choctaw artist Marcus Amerman, beaded on a roulette table pad.
their problems. “I think that popular mythol- ogy has made most Americans, a lot of them, very hesitant in extending what is well de- served, and much needed, resources to tribal entities,” she said. “I don’t think that that per- ception doesn’t affect my court.” Misperception, she said, “drives legislation
and that drives the responses to your needs and that can drive some of the reaction to legal questions that affect tribes.” Will TV ever get beyond the stereotypes?
An answer may lie in the Sundance series The Red Road, set in the surprising Indian com- munity of New Jersey’s Ramapo mountains, just 30 miles from Manhattan. Its first season gave the Indian criminal figure new depth, in the formidable portrayal of Jason Momoa. The show resonated deeply with many north- east Natives, and stories that follow explore this phenomenon. X
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SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 35
PHOTO BY KATHERINE FOGDEN
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