Honoring Our Own People                                                 Articles from Indian Country: Archives

Mar 2006

Native Hollywood
Telling My Own Stories

“Little did I know that when I got here I had bought into the Hollywood image of Native Americans? I was “The Warrior” on countless auditions with the long hair and I was subjected to bearing my chest at every casting call. That image changed my perception as an actor forever. I stopped chasing that Hollywood stereotype..."
- Roscoe Pond, Umatilla/Nez Perce

I have been in Los Angeles for eight years now and my collective dream is still the same. “I want to be in motion pictures.” My ambition drove me from New Mexico to Los Angeles with the ideal package of youth, courage and the innate drive to succeed. Little did I know that when I got here I had bought into the Hollywood image of Native Americans? I was “The Warrior” on countless auditions with the long hair and I was subjected to bearing my chest at every casting call. That image changed my perception as an actor forever.

I stopped chasing that Hollywood stereotype and became an out of work actor. I cut my hair to catch a glimpse in the mirror of a modern day Native living in Los Angeles. It was very different from what I saw on film. I see many other Native men who buy into that “image.” More power to them because an actor needs to work and it is important to gain experience in front of the camera. Someone has to play those parts.

In the year 2000, I walked into the Southern California Indian Center (SCIC) looking for a job. What I found were new possibilities in other aspects of production started by Floyd Westerman. Inter-Tribal Entertainment began as an idea for Natives to write, produce and direct their own stories. It sparked an interest that grew out of my need for change. Producer & Director Chuck Banner introduced me to behind the scenes production with camera, editing, audio and lighting. I enjoyed all of it, but what really caught my eye was writing. I wrote my first screenplay called, “The Lost Native” in 2002.

Since I have been here at SCIC it has become an interesting venture into a lot of things new to me. Like never before, I reached for individual expression through art, computers, writing and above all the media. SCIC has a saying; “There is Future in Tradition” which our Executive Director Paula Starr encourages diligently. We can support Natives in all aspects of life whether through our cultures, in the modern world or more importantly in the media. “Native Traditions” should be respected since it will carry us long into the future. Paula emphasizes this toward the mainstream media. Its’ perceptions of us are often false and misleading. Writing our own stories has become that much more important.

How are we heard in Hollywood? Well, for me I’ve taken advantage of the World Wide Web. I’m having fun each week laying out a Native News Entertainment website called, “Native Roscoe’s Hollywood.” I am proud to say it has become very popular since it began in 2004. Also, I created a list of the “10 Most Beautiful Native Actresses” based on their work in theatre, film and TV. If “People” magazine can have their “50 Most Beautiful People in the World.” So can we. Coming in 2006 my list will climb to the “15 Most Beautiful Native Actresses.”

I took a risk, a huge risk and created an award show called, “The American Indian Los Angeles Film and TV Awards.” It is approaching its’ third year (2006). I have received a lot of scrutiny over it because there is already another native award show that has been around for 14 years. The politics surrounding my new idea was and still is surreal. Native Celebrity is alive and well here in Hollywood whether you do anything or nothing. I was told not to cut into the native celebrity. But, I did. My award show is an idea that can grow, but in its own way without the negative politics. It is my job to try and figure this out. It all has to do with money and control. If I fail then at least I tried.

If anybody knows me they know I love acting. I graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Theatre Arts. I traveled the U.S. for a decade with a dance/drama troupe. I wrote and performed my own One Man Shows. When I came to Hollywood acting was my main ambition. But, to reach my goals I had to take a particular path that eventually lead me through writing. In all the screenplays I’ve written, I put myself in the lead role. “The Lost Native”, “Freedom Son”, “My own Concubine” and the upcoming “Pueblo Sister” and “Outside Reservation.” This doesn’t mean I’ve ended up playing the leads. My point is I am always going back to where I started and that is Acting.

“Freedom Son” is an action thriller I hope to sell in a very popular genre. Come January 2006 I will shop this screenplay around in the Native Community. If I can’t sell it there then I resolve to change the characters to a different race to accommodate a wider audience. The point is to sell it. Who knows?

“My own Concubine” is something I wrote specifically as an Independent film. The story surrounds the interracial relationship between an Asian woman and a Native man. They come together after a series of bad life choices while living in Los Angeles. It is a Native/Urban city love story. I’m planning a 2006 production date. My other screenplays are still works in progress. They can only breathe through Independent films and need more pre-development. “Native Sisters” is a TV sitcom I took a stab at writing, because comedy is hard to pull off. It also needs work. Who Knows?

Never in a million years did I think I would ever write. Never. It has afforded me choices in which to express my individual voice as an actor and screenwriter. My journey here in Hollywood has become something more than I could’ve imagined. It all began here at the Southern California Indian Center with Inter-Tribal Entertainment. Thank you Paula Starr Floyd Westerman and Chuck Banner for opening the doors of greater possibility.

From Hollywood - Roscoe Pond (Umatilla/Nez Perce)
Color Photo by Andrew Harbeck 2005       Black and White Photo by Mindas 2004

April 2005
NonNative and American Indian/Alaska Native Collaboration
Native Views:
Influences of Modern Culture
Is the excellent traveling by train exhibition of contemporaty Native American arts. The exhibition and tour is meeting Artrain USA’s mission of “enriching lives and building community through the arts”:

The Native American contemporary art exhibition travels across the United States bringing knowledge to nonnative communities.  Nonnative neighbors learn directly about Indian Country from the arts and explanations of contemporary Native American artists. 

Guided by Native American/Alaska Native board of advisors - Native Views has taken the initiative to provide direct benefits for Native people and resulted in new American Indian/Nonnative collaborations as a result of Native Views educational components. 

Says Deb Polich of Artrain USA, "After our recent visit to Pembroke, NC, Rita Locklear, director of the Indian Education Resource Center  reported 'Artrain USA brought four organizations together that all, at some point, work with students and community but this gave us the opportunity to develop a trusting and effective relationship.'  and the first ever collaboration in Jessup Iowa between Arts in the Park and the Meskwaki Nation of Iowa was described in these words: ' [Artrain USA and the Native Views exhibition] gave us reason to go out and communicate to the Meskwaki Nation.  We now have an outreach and willingness to share our cultures and mend some fences. Both societies are going to be mutually involved, in concert with each other because they have already resolved to communicate.  There will be a lot of learning from one another.' ”

New Soboba center offers cultural links

The language and learning facility started with a donation of books

07/27/03, HAN KWAK, THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE, CA

reprinted via submission by Soboba's Cham-Mix-Poki Cultural Center

Some students look over books in the Soboba Cultural Center,

which opened in May (2003) on the Soboba Indian Reservation.
Photo: DeeAnn Bradley/The Press-Enterprise

Soboba Indian Reservation - Behind an unmarked door in a building next to the Soboba Tribal Hall, visitors are learning the Luiseño language, researchers are cataloging the history of the area, and families are discovering new roots. Since its dedication in May, the Soboba Cultural Center has made available for viewing its collection of books on American Indians, vintage photographs and indigenous artifacts. Averaging about one visitor a week, information and knowledge gained from the center is slow to trickle out. But that information is spreading.

Jeanette Valenzuela, 3, and her cousin Cheyenne Valenzuela, 11,

play with a Luiseno language teaching tool at the Soboba Cultural Center on the reservation.

The Soboba Band of Luiseno Indians has a learning center

that focuses on teaching the tribe's language and history.

Photo: DeeAnn Bradley/The Press-Enterprise

"We've been getting students as far away as San Diego ," said Charlene Ryan, a research specialist for the tribe, adding that many of the visitors have been college and graduate students.

"We're also getting a lot of inquiries. It's gone to an international level because of our Web site," she said. "When you get out on the Internet, anything's possible."

In addition to the center's books, artifacts, photographs and learning tools, the tribe is also planning lectures and classes on crafts in the future, Ryan said. Nicole Eyre, a teacher, used the records from the old Soboba Indian Hospital kept at the center to research her family history.

"We really didn't know beyond our great-grandfather," Eyre said of her family history. "It wasn't something we really talked about."

Luiseño language classes

One of the center's learning tools is a modified Learning Linguist, a toy designed for young children intended to teach the Luiseño language with figurines that identify and create sounds related to the character.

Animal figurines would make their sounds, but some characters -- such as a star or moon -- would be accompanied by a short song in Luiseño. "They are old songs rooted in thousands of years of culture," said Bob Keller, an Administration for Native Americans director, who helps oversee the cultural center.

Keller said the center also gives out free Luiseño language CDs to anyone who would like one. And in keeping with promotion of the language, Ryan said the center would like to hold classes on conversational Luiseño.

"Luiseño isn't a dead language and it has an opportunity to become a language for everyday conversation," Ryan said.

But as much as the cultural center wants to share the history, heritage and language of the Luiseño Indians, the tribe wants that, too.

Newspaper clippings, books, old photographs and artifacts relating to the Luiseño Indians all are welcome, Ryan said. One of the most prized resourcess may be elder members of the Soboba Band of Luiseño Indians, as the center hopes to document the oral history of the tribe.

A cultural committee headed by tribal elders is about a month away, Ryan said, who will explore presentations and classes in the future.

More than a library
While the tribe had already decided to start documenting its history and provide a reading room for its members, the center itself did not come to fruition until American Indian activist Dorothy Lonewolf Miller donated a collection of Indian books to the tribe. "The center is tied in with the books," Ryan said. "When she donated the books she said 'I don't want you to start a library, but a cultural center.' She sent 92 books two days before she passed away. She never got to see it."

By the time Miller died of pulmonary fibrosis on May 30, she had donated more than 400 books to the tribe. The center's reading room was named the Lonewolf Reading Room in her honor.

"The idea of the cultural center was always out in the community but once we got the books, donations just started pouring in," Ryan said.

Because some of the titles are no longer in circulation, Ryan said the center does not allow people to check out books.

Tribal Administrator Andrew Masiel said the creation of the cultural center was a bit of a surprise.

"It wasn't in our (immediate) plans," he said. "The tribe always had a mind but not a vehicle for the center."

With the donation of the books and the success of gaming, Ryan said she believes the cultural center was able to open quicker than most tribal members were expecting.

Currently the center is operating with the help of a $266,000 federal grant from the Administration for Native Americans. But Masiel said the tribe will likely help fund and nurture the center once the grant money dries up.

Reach Han Kwak (author) at (909) 763-3456 or hkwak@pe.com

Last Updated: Feb 04 07