with my mother, my wife or my kids, it is over for [that person].” He asked, “If I were in [Wolf’s] position, what would I do?” Momoa co-wrote Paloma with Mollohan


and Jonathan Hirschbein, and co-produced it with Brian Andrew Mendoza, who runs the production company Pride of Gypsies with Momoa. The team struggled to obtain fund- ing for the film. Its final cost was $600,000. Mendoza, who is a cinematographer and pho- tographer, shot the film using only a Canon 5D camera. The crew, consisting largely of Momoa’s friends, lived in tents, and the film was edited in an Airstream trailer. Momoa also recruited both Studi and Reevis for parts in the film, having admired their work for years. Momoa is Native Hawaiian on his father’s


side, so he felt it was of utmost importance that Paloma was culturally accurate and that he acted respectfully to the tribe being por- trayed. “I am Native,” he confirmed, “I am Kanaka Maoli [Native Hawaiian]. We are the same. [Hawaiians] are just over the big pond. I am a Native American. Hawaii is America.” Momoa met with members of the Fort


Mojave tribe, or Pipa Aha Macav (“people by the river”), to gain approval to film on the reservation. Tribal members acted as extras. The lead actors learned the Mojave language from Drisilla Burns, a fluent speaker who portrayed Wolf ’s grandmother in the film. Fort Mojave Indian Tribal Chairman Tim Williams told the Mohave Valley Daily News, “I think [the movie] was a good opportunity for not only the tribe but its members to be involved in a production – something that, to my knowledge, has never been done on the reservation.” Paloma begins six months after the mur-


der, because Momoa wanted the story to “be a celebration of life, a love story.” He adds, “I wanted to make a movie that was not about revenge or the act [of killing]…. It’s re- ally about a man saying goodbye to his life.” Moreover, he said, “I hope it brings attention to what is happening to these women.” Paloma was submitted to the Sundance


Film Festival and helped Momoa to get the role of Phillip Kopus in the Sundance Chan- nel series The Red Road (see “The Red Road: Fact and Fiction” on page 36). The Red Road began shooting its second season in Septem- ber 2014 and will premiere in early 2015. In the Sundance drama, Kopus is a com-


plex person who has a strained relationship with his community and his mother. Mo- moa’s upbringing was quite the opposite. “I have had a fortunate life,” he recalls, “I have a mother who loves me and raised me.”


FORTMOJAVE TRIBE, OR PIPA AHA MACAV (“PEOPLE BY THE RIVER”), TO GAIN APPROVAL TO FILM ON THE RESERVATION. TRIBAL MEMBERS ACTED AS EXTRAS. THE LEAD ACTORS LEARNED THE MOJAVE LANGUAGE FROM DRISILLA BURNS, A FLUENT SPEAKER WHO PORTRAYED WOLF’S GRANDMOTHER IN THE FILM.


MOMOA Momoa calls two places home – Iowa


and Hawaii. Born Joseph Jason Namakaeha Momoa in Honolulu, Hawaii, he was moved at the age of six months by his single mother Coni (Lemke) to Norwalk, Iowa, to be closer to her family. The actor had a Midwestern upbringing. He then returned to his birth- place at the age of 19. Namakaeha is a pater- nal family name, and Momoa’s great uncle is Richard “Buffalo” Kalolookalani Keaulana, who is known as one of the founding fathers of surfing. Momoa worked at the family surf shop, with a modeling stint that won him the title Hawaii Model of the Year in 1999. He auditioned for the television series Baywatch and played the character Jason Ioane, a Na- tive Hawaiian lifeguard, on the show from 1999 to 2001. After Baywatch, Momoa moved to Los


Angeles to take acting classes. He received the part of bartender Frankie Seau on the prime- time soap television series North Shore, about a fictional hotel and resort on Oahu’s North Shore. In 2005, he moved into the science- fiction realm when he won the part of Ronon Dex, a military specialist from the planet Sateda, for four seasons on Stargate: Atlantis. The fantasy and action roles continued when he played the lead in the Conan the Barbarian remake in 2011, the same year he started play- ing Khal Drogo in Game of Thrones. Momoa recently displayed his comedic


talents in an appearance in Comedy Central’s Drunk History, a television series where an intoxicated narrator attempts to tell a histori- cal event that is then reenacted and lip-synced by actors. In the second season’s “Sports He- roes” episode, Momoa portrayed athlete Jim Thorpe (Sauk and Fox/Potawatomi) while the narrator described Thorpe’s athletic prowess and wins at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics. Momoa wants to continue directing and


has a few film projects. One is a dramatic film that he has worked on for five years. It is a pe- riod piece set in 19th


century Hawaii and tells


the heartbreaking story of the Ko’olau Rebel- lion. In 1865, the Hawaiian legislature passed


an “Act to Prevent the Spread of Leprosy” which forcibly relocated and isolated lepers at Kalawao, on the northern shore of Moloka’i. Ko’olau, a Native Hawaiian man from Kaua’i with leprosy, resisted the relocation and re- fused to leave his home and his wife Pi’ilani and their son Kaleimanu. The family hid on Kaua’i, and in 1897 Pi’ilani wrote a memoir about the experience in the Hawaiian lan- guage. The account is both tragic and poetic. Momoa wants this chapter of Hawaiian


history to be told. He says, “I want the cast of the film to be Hawaiian actors speaking the language. I want people to hear the beauty of the language.” The film script is finished, and Momoa is searching for the best people and resources to see it realized on the screen. At home, Momoa leads a calmer


MET WITH MEMBERS OF THE


life.


He has been married to Bonet since 2007, and they have two children, Lola Iolani and Nakoa-Wolf Manakauapo Namakaeha. The family lives on a small plot of land in south- ern California with orchards and animals. As parents, Momoa and Bonet spend much time reading, creating art and playing music with their children. He has taught them to build fires and to make bows. He also hopes to learn to speak Hawaiian with his children. He ex- plains that he and his wife “have such a short period of time with them being kids. I want them to use their imagination [and] to play.” His wife has been his support and inspira-


tion and is now his acting partner. They acted together in Paloma and The Red Road. Momoa specifically wanted Bonet for the role of his love interest in Paloma. Their onscreen chem- istry led to her being cast in The Red Road as a Ramapough Lenape lawyer. Looking back on Paloma, Momoa acknowledges its multiple themes. “The film is about penance, about re- demption,” but, he says, “It is also a love story. It is a film for the women who inspire me.”X


For more information, follow Jason Momoa on Twitter @ PrideofGypsies.


Anya Montiel (Tohono O’odham/Mexican), a frequent contributor to American Indian magazine, is a doctoral student at Yale University.


SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 41


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