Storytelling ABOUT Indians
Momoa as Wolf, the lead protagonist in Road to Paloma.
Jason Momoa’s A
Road to Paloma
man on the run from the law speeds his motorcycle across a desolate stretch of southern California highway. He stops at a little desert town where
children are playing and a group of women sit under a ramada making tortillas. He sneaks up on the women and swiftly hugs one of them, greeting her in the Mojave Indian lan- guage. He laughs with the women and then approaches his grandmother who is seated on a bench, crouches down in front of her, and speaks to her in Mojave as well. This scene is from the independent film
Road to Paloma, starring Native Hawaiian actor Jason Momoa, and the women and chil- dren are actual members of the Fort Mojave Indian Tribe. The film, which was released in July 2014, marks Momoa’s directorial debut. Many people recognize the actor from his larger-than-life characters (which fit his 6'5" frame) such as Khal Drogo, the Dothraki king, in the HBO series Game of Thrones and the title role in the 2011 remake of Conan the Barbarian. Paloma is a true labor of love for
40 AMERICAN INDIAN WINTER 2014 BY ANYA MONT IEL
Momoa. The film took four years to complete and involved the creativity, resourcefulness and support of his friends and the Mojave Indian community. Paloma tells the story of Robert Wolf,
a Mojave Indian man who has spent six months on the run for killing the man who raped and murdered his mother. Her assail- ant was never incarcerated or tried in court due to jurisdictional barriers to the pros- ecution of non-Native people committing crimes on Indian reservations. For his act of vengeance, the federal authorities are search- ing for Wolf. Instead of continued self-exile, he decides to travel home to his reservation and visit with the people who have meant the most to him, including his father, played by Cherokee actor Wes Studi. The film also stars Steve Reevis (Blackfeet) and Lisa Bonet, Momoa’s wife. Shot in five U.S. states, much of the film
showcases breathtaking panoramas as Mo- moa and actor Robert Homer Mollohan (as “Cash”) ride their bikes across mountains and desert. The film is often compared to the
classic road film Easy Rider (1969), but Palo- ma addresses the real and disturbing issue of rampant violence against Native women. According to a report by Amnesty Interna- tional, one in three Native women will be raped in their lifetime. The U.S. Department of Justice also revealed that 86 percent of (re- ported) rapes of Native women are commit- ted by non-Native men, most of them white men. The complex and frustrating tangling of federal, state and tribal jurisdictions on Indian reservations undercuts tribal author- ity over these cases. The idea for the film came from Mollohan
who attended a Democratic convention and heard about the rapes against Native women on reservations and the difficulties in pros- ecuting the offenders. (Last year, Congress ap- proved an act, the Stand Against Violence and Empower [SAVE] Native Women Act, which would allow tribes to prosecute certain violent crimes against Native women on reservations; it will take effect in March 2015.) As Momoa explained, “being a husband, father, son and grandson, if anyone messes
PHOTO BY BRIAN MENDOZA
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68