Interesting but boring.

My immediate reaction to your message was "here's someone who unknowingly represents the grandson in the beginning of the movie"...
You complain that because we are in the 21st century, we should be beyond presentations of this type. Well, airereh, an 18th century quote still applies. Samuel Taylor Coleridge famously said that the enjoyment of art requires "a willing suspension of disbelief".
For example, Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy contains the "folklore, myth, fairy tales and nursery rhymes" you deplore. Not only that, but it operates with a strong undercurrent of religion and the ending is predictible. Does that make it boring? Of course not!
Finally, rather than providing "some type of placating affect to pacify the remaining bitterness any Native Americans may still have", this movie clearly honors them. It's sad that you weren't able to see and enjoy that.

RJ

I can understand your comments here, but how sad that you missed the entire point of the movie. Perhaps the reason so many feel as you do is because of "globalization, the internet, and technological advancements". But there is a place for the wisdom of the ancients, and what was presented here in folkloric and mythical fashion actually gives us rules to live by. There were powerful messages buried in these myths.

I would like to think that we can "move forward" and still embrace the lessons taught by "Dream Keeper".

There is nothing arcane or irrelevant about remembering and honoring a culture. You are so immersed in a world, as you state, "of globalization, the Internet, and technological advancements" that you missed the point of the movie. Although it has improved many things our lives, there is more to life beyond technology; there's one's culture, heritage and history. The very first steps of knowledge was built upon information that was passed down through oral communication. Storytelling was the "empowerment of knowledge." Lessons were taught through this method. By reducing this movie to a mere "folklore splattered with CGI" negates the purpose of the movie, which was to let those who watched know of a people and a way that is vanishing with each day. Instead of dimminshing Native American culture by providing technological advancements to bring them into the 21st century, perhaps we can learn from it by not forgetting the time before advanced tech.

You say your Native American friends? But what about you? What is your ancestry? Does not your ancestry come from the past to live in the present and the future? I have just completed a seven year ancestry tree for my siblings and for my only child. My siblings and my daughter have a proud French Canadian and Cherokee Heritage. You may of seen the mini series as boring but you also truly missed the point. You have missed the beauty of what a dreamkeeper is and how the heritage is passed on and on and on by word of mouth. One thing I have kept in mind ever since I have seen the movie Amistad; "Who we are IS who we were!" I am of my father's French Canadian blood and of my mother's Cherokee blood. What our ancestry was in the past is who we are now.

It's mainstream society, that nearly destroyed out people.. What a moron, no concept of what First Nation People have went through. Either that or you are afraid of the real truth about our people, With out a history, we no longer are a people. Nothing boring about the stories, the stories are our history. Someone should think and understand the ideologyu of a people, before they make stupid statements. Oh, and the word.. "Indian" do use that when you refer to us, we find it insulting, we are not from India. I am First Nation.. I am Cherokee.

Blue Eagle Feathers, Cherokee and Proud..
Our stories, our history will not be silent anymore.

Perhaps this Program would have caught more of your attention if time had slowed down, and all the native americans had super powers as Neo did.

What you call "arcane" and "irrelevant" is the only way that my people can truly see who they are. After years of residental Schools and Living on reserves, and being forced to forget everything that our grandfathers taught us, my people are forgetting who we are, and this film is a little something to remember where we come from and who we are, to give us hope that it is not lost.

You have the ordasity to come here and say that it is "arcane" and "Irrelevant". Tell you what. Why don't you, just continue on posting in the Matrix boards. While the ones who enjoyed this program can talk about it, with out a patronizing little troll like you.


I descend from grace, in arms of undertow
I will take my place, in the great below

Well first off, I'm half Navajo and half Kiowa, born and raised on the Navajo reservation in Arizona. I have mixed feelings about AIREREH's comments about the movie. Yes, I, as a Native American found myself chuckling at some of the images portrayed in this film; however, all-in-all, I was proud to see light shed on our humble people and our culture.

I do agree that we "live in an age of globalization, the Internet, and technological advancements." ABC could make a story showing contemporary Native Americans driving their Fords/Toyotas/Chevys to the local 7-11 for a morning cup of coffee, then off to the 9-5 Network Administrative job with lunch at Subway around noon. Then its back home for a Huxtable moment, in time for reruns of Seinfeld and Friends on TBS, then off to the nearest weekend powwow. I think EVERYONE's been affected by globalization. However, how much fun would it be to watch Shane and his grandpa check their e-mail? By the way, check out the website for the "great powwow in Albuquerque" on http://www.gatheringofnations.com, if you're interested.

But what you describe as "folklore, myth and fairy tales" are an actual part of our different cultures as indigenous tribes. They portray our beginning as a people, much like the Creation story of Adam and Eve. And yes, we do live in the 21st century, but that hasn't made the story of Noah and the Ark or the parting of the Red Sea irrelevant. I'm not sure if I agree of the allowance for a movie studio to capture elements of our culture for a Hallmark presentation. But it showed globally only to be, sadly, greeted with one's cynical, ethnocentric, and closed-minded comments.

I think the effects were OK in this movie, remarkable for a made-for-TV mini-series. The dialogue was fit for ABC, and the casting was excellent as well. However, I think the media may somewhat romanticize the lives of Native Americans for entertainment purposes. I would like to see more up-and-coming films from Native American script-writers that can describe first hand what we as a people live. Nonetheless, I enjoyed this movie, and respect its attempt to recreate stories from various tribes (including the story of the red-haired Kiowa from my people).

And no, this movie, nor any other movie will ever pacify the "bitterness" we may still feel from our history. I won't go into detail, but that comment was completely unnecessary.

IMHO

Bitterness about what we may have can never even be fathomed by any anglo, so that remark I will not even comment upon. That is just an ignorant remark pure and simple.

As for the series itself, I will go so far as to say I and a fellow Native friend, a Oneida/Lakota, who looked much like the protagonist incidentally, chuckled many times throughout the show. As with many Native films and more precisely television programs, there is much to be done. We are in the early stages of film/video/moving images and representations of Native art. It is still a very new artform for us to hone. I do see that it is coming along ever so slowly however.

I agree that it would be boring for the overall anglo population to see Indian people check their email, go to work, drink coffee, as many of us do, and this is why we are again and again subjected to these dressed up, turquoised out, "celebrations" of our uniqueness, paraded out to remind the country that it actual has a history and past that can somewhat rival other countries, albeit through a people that has been wronged and exploited, even to this day. In the end, the Native people win out in all ways by actors getting to work, writers getting to write, advisors getting to advise, and the several Nations actually getting to tell their stories in the right way, by Native people, approved by Native people, with the actual languges spoken correctly.

It's far from perfect yet...I will be the first and loudest to admit this. There is much to be done in regards to trite, corny, dialogue, real Natives notice and laugh at it. However, the representation as it is now as far better than it has been ever. For this we are all grateful and I hope that this continues until we have great Native films that actually can be praised not because the simply exist, but because they are actually exlempary works of art. Chris Eyre I predict will be one of the first to do this. He has great taste in literary adaptations and has a great mind.

In the end, as stated, Native people win all around when a production such as this, even with some faults, exists.