Niles Essanay celebrates Native American Heritage Month

‘You gotta look like you just came back from killing a buffalo!’

‘But our tribe never hunted buffalo–we were fisherman.’

—Smoke Signals, 1998 film

In Smoke Signals (1998), a movie that follows the adventures of two Native American kids leaving their reservation, the protagonists look nothing like the typical headdress-wearing, horseback-riding “Indians” depicted in decades of Hollywood films. In a scene on the bus, one character tells the other: “You gotta look like a warrior. You gotta look like you just came back from killing a buffalo!” His friend responds, perplexed: “But our tribe never hunted buffalo—we were fishermen.”

Poking fun at Native American stereotypes, Smoke Signals was a commercial success, and all the more notable because it was made by Cheyenne and Arapaho director Chris Eyre, alongside indigenous actors and writers. A decade later, the award-winning documentary Reel Injun (2009) by Cree filmmaker Neil Diamond and co-director Catherine Bainbridge revisited Indigenous representations in American movies and also interviewed modern creators, including those behind Smoke Signals.

Both movies, in addition to Diamond and Bainbridge’s newly released documentary Red Fever (2024), will be shown this weekend at the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum as part of a schedule jam-packed with films, discussions, and even a book signing—all to celebrate Native American Heritage Month in November. 

“We’re trying to show a cross-section of different kinds of film,” said Rena Azevedo Kiehn, who helped co-found the Niles Essanay nonprofit roughly two decades ago and carefully curated this weekend’s content. To kick off the program, Diamond will remotely join a live Q&A on Friday after a screening of Red Fever, his recent documentary about Indigenous cultural appropriation in mainstream media.

“It’s kind of a big deal,” Kiehn said, about inviting Montreal-based Diamond to speak at the upcoming event in Fremont. In the past several years, Diamond has continued making documentaries that tackle a variety of indigenous subjects. Despite their serious nature, his work often strikes a witty and lighthearted tone. In Reel Injun, a movie described by the New York Times as “a series of bittersweet, and sometimes bitingly funny, encounters,” the filmmaker visited a tourist spot and faked an “Indian standoff” against a cheery man in a cowboy costume.

In the past, Diamond has emphasized the importance of humor, as opposed to anger, in one’s message. Growing up, he often viewed examples of Indigenous culture in mainstream media with amusement. “I was always flattered, you know,” he said in a phone interview, when he saw artists like Johnny Cash and Jim Morrison of the Doors using Indigenous themes in their music. “The idea of cultural appropriation never entered my mind,” he added, attributing this reaction to the relative isolation of the Cree-Canadian community he grew up in.

“My father, my grandfather, they were never forced to do residential schools. We didn’t have generations of great- great- grandparents who had suffered through the residential school era,” Diamond explained, referring to Canada’s brutal system of forced assimilation. In contrast, other Indigenous communities who had no choice but to give up their culture might feel a more deep-rooted pain when confronted by cultural appropriation. “I can see where the anger comes from,” Diamond said. 

Although the term “silent film museum” might conjure images of dusty archives and black-and-white movies, this weekend at the Essanay spotlights an impressive array of work. The beloved local institution continues to find ways to bridge past and present, ensuring old stories remain relevant today while also giving room for contemporary voices. 

The schedule on Sunday contains two films about Zintkála “Lost Bird” Nuni, a Lakota infant who was found strapped to her mother’s body during the Wounded Knee Massacre of 1890, then ripped away from her community to be raised by a white family. Rejected by both her birth culture and her adoptive one, Zintkála lived a tragic life, largely forgotten until she was rediscovered by biographer Renée Sansom Flood in 1995. 

Moved by this story, California-based songwriter and animator duo Brad Colerick and Scott Feldmann created a short film, “Lost Bird (Zintkála Nuni)”. The pair will be at the Niles Essanay this weekend for a discussion and book signing on their film’s accompanying mixed media book, Zintka!. 

In an interview, Feldmann explained that the movie and book’s graphic style was inspired by ledger drawings, an art-form developed in the 19th century by Plains Indians, who began recording scenes on sheafs of accounting books. The art reflects a shifting period in which indigenous artists were increasingly exposed to western influences in commerce and warfare, at the same time that their usual medium—buffalo hide—became scarce. 

“In making this film, I learned about something that I didn’t know,” Feldmann said, adding that he incorporated historical documents and photographs in his research and overlaid them with drawings of Zintkala’s story. He calls the style “ani-montage,” a hybrid of animation and collage. With this approach, he hopes the work will inspire others to “become curious about something and then find out for themselves.”

Such a spirit of learning and openness is echoed by all the collaborators in the upcoming festival, including organizer Rena Kiehn. 

Historical films are not meant to be taken literally, Kiehn explained, but are rather a chance to learn about shifting cultural norms and why certain attitudes dominated a given age. “Some movies really portrayed some negative things… that’s part of the history of movies,” Kiehn said, adding that watching or showcasing these films doesn’t necessarily equate to “condoning them.” 

It’s clear that Kiehn and members of the Niles Essanay were thoughtful about offering a nuanced picture of indigenous representation in American history. From the images that were selected for the program flyer, to the Indigenous land acknowledgment planned for this weekend, there are many opportunities for the local community to learn and reflect about an important aspect of the country’s past. 

“If you don’t see it, it’s hard to judge,” Kiehn said, which seems like sound advice not only for films, but for many other matters as well.

Film Weekend: Native American Heritage Month

Friday, Nov. 1 – Sunday, Nov. 3

Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum

37417 Niles Blvd, Fremont

Tickets available at nilesfilmmuseum.org

Tickets: $10 general; $8 for members

Note: This article was updated to correctly reflect the schedule.