From Stereotypes to Storytellers
Updated: 2 days ago
Celebrating Native Achievement in Film
Hollywood has been making films about Native people almost since movies began, but for decades Native people rarely had a say in what appeared on screen. Westerns reduced hundreds of nations to a handful of characters: the violent warrior, the mystical elder, the loyal guide, or the silent Native woman. White actors were often cast in “redface,” while filmmakers mixed clothing, ceremonies, and languages from unrelated tribes as if all Native cultures were the same.
Native artists were still working during those years. Lillian St. Cyr appeared in silent films, Jay Silverheels became known to television audiences as Tonto, and Chief Dan George earned an Academy Award nomination for Little Big Man. Will Sampson, Floyd Red Crow Westerman, Graham Greene, Tantoo Cardinal, and Wes Studi later built careers in an industry that continued to offer Native actors a narrow range of roles. They have begun transforming the portrayal of natives from stereotypes to storytellers.
The situation began to change as films gave Native characters more depth and cast more Native performers. Movies such as Little Big Man, Dances with Wolves, The Last of the Mohicans, and Geronimo: An American Legend marked progress, but most were still told through a non-Native point of view. The bigger shift came with productions such as Smoke Signals, Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner, Reservation Dogs, and Prey, where Indigenous actors, writers, directors, and producers had a stronger hand in telling the story.
Notable Artists in Hollywood
Earlier Trailblazers
Lillian St. Cyr, also known as Red Wing was a Winnebago actor who appeared in numerous silent films. She played the leading Native woman in Cecil B. DeMille’s 1914 feature The Squaw Man.
Jay Silverheels was a Mohawk actor best known for playing Tonto in The Lone Ranger. The role was limited by the writing of its time, but Silverheels became one of the most recognizable Native performers in early television.
Chief Dan George received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for Little Big Man. He also won awards from the New York Film Critics Circle and National Society of Film Critics.
Will Sampson was a Muscogee actor and artist best remembered for playing Chief Bromden in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
Floyd Red Crow Westerman was a Sisseton Wahpeton Dakota musician, activist, and actor. He played Ten Bears in Dances with Wolves and Albert Hosteen in The X-Files, with other appearances in The Doors, Northern Exposure, and Walker, Texas Ranger.
Graham Greene received an Academy Award nomination for playing Kicking Bird in Dances with Wolves. His long career also included Thunderheart, The Green Mile, Wind River, Reservation Dogs, and The Last of Us.
Award-Winning and Nominated Performers
Wes Studi received an Academy Honorary Award in 2019 for his acting career and contributions to motion pictures.
Tantoo Cardinal received the Earle Grey Award at the 2017 Canadian Screen Awards for her career in film and television.
Evan Adams won the 1999 Independent Spirit Award for Best Debut Performance for Smoke Signals.
Natar Ungalaaq won the 2009 Genie Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role for The Necessities of Life.
Michael Greyeyes won the 2021 Canadian Screen Award for his leading performance in Blood Quantum.
Lily Gladstone won the Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award for Killers of the Flower Moon. She later received an Emmy nomination for Under the Bridge.
Amber Midthunder received the 2022 Saturn Award for Breakthrough Performance for Prey.
D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai received a 2024 Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for Reservation Dogs.
Kali Reis received a 2024 Emmy nomination for her supporting performance in True Detective: Night Country.
Writers, Directors, and Producers
Chris Eyre won the Audience Award and Filmmakers Trophy at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival for directing Smoke Signals.
Sterlin Harjo co-created Reservation Dogs. The series won a Peabody Award and received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Comedy Series.
Jhane Myers received an Emmy nomination as a producer of Prey. The film earned six Emmy nominations and won for sound editing.
Zacharias Kunuk received the Caméra d’Or at Cannes for directing Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner. His animated short Angakusajaujuq: The Shaman’s Apprentice won Best Canadian Short Film at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Taika Waititi won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for Jojo Rabbit. His earlier short film Two Cars, One Night received an Academy Award nomination.
Achievement in Short Film
Alexandra Lazarowich won the 2019 Sundance Short Film Special Jury Prize for Directing for Fast Horse, a documentary about Siksika Nation Indian Relay riders.
Shaandiin Tome co-directed Long Line of Ladies, which follows a Karuk girl preparing for her Ihuk coming-of-age ceremony. It won the Documentary Short Jury Award at the 2022 SXSW Film Festival.
Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu co-directed and produced Kapaemahu. The Native Hawaiian animated short won several festival awards and reached the Academy Awards shortlist for Best Animated Short Film.
Actors and Shows to Watch
Anna Lambe is an Inuk actor from Iqaluit who stars as Siaja in North of North. Created by Inuit filmmakers and filmed in Nunavut, the comedy presents contemporary Inuit community life through family, work, humor, and relationships. The series has been renewed for a second season. Learn more about North of North.
Gary Farmer is a Cayuga actor whose long career includes Powwow Highway, Smoke Signals, Dead Man, Reservation Dogs, and Resident Alien. In Resident Alien, he plays Dan Twelvetrees, the father of Asta and a continuing part of the show’s contemporary Native family story.
Paulina Alexis is an Alexis Nakota Sioux actor best known for playing Willie Jack in Reservation Dogs. She also appeared in Ghostbusters: Afterlife and Resident Alien.
Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers is a Blackfoot and Sámi actor, filmmaker, and producer. In Three Pines, she plays Sergeant Isabelle Lacoste, a member of Chief Inspector Gamache’s investigative team. Her directing work includes The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open and the documentary Kímmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning of Empathy.
Georgina Lightning is a Cree actor and filmmaker whose credits include Smoke Signals, DreamKeeper, Older Than America, and Three Pines. Her work has frequently addressed Native families, boarding-school history, and the effects of colonial institutions.
Crystle Lightning is a Cree actor and musician whose television work includes Trickster, Outlander, and Three Pines. She won a Canadian Screen Award for her performance in Trickster.
Isabel Deroy-Olson appears as Blue Two-Rivers in Three Pines. Her character’s disappearance anchors the series’ continuing examination of missing and murdered Indigenous women and failures within law enforcement.
Sara Tomko plays Asta Twelvetrees, one of the central characters in Resident Alien. Across four seasons, Asta’s family, work, relationships, and connection to her father Dan give the science-fiction comedy a substantial contemporary Native family storyline.
Shows to Watch
North of North follows a young Inuk mother rebuilding her life in a fictional Nunavut community. The Inuit-created series stars Anna Lambe and has been renewed for a second season.
Resident Alien combines science fiction with a continuing Native family story led by Sara Tomko and Gary Farmer. Its fourth and final season concluded in 2025, so it should be presented as a completed series, not an upcoming season. Read about the conclusion of the series.
Three Pines follows several murder investigations while building a season-long story around Blue Two-Rivers and the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. The cast includes Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers, Tantoo Cardinal, Georgina Lightning, Crystle Lightning, Isabel Deroy-Olson, and Anna Lambe. Amazon did not continue the program after its first season. Learn more about the series.
Reservation Dogs remains one of the clearest examples of Native control in television, with Indigenous writers, directors, actors, and stories throughout its three-season run.
Additions to Writers, Directors, and Producers
Stacey Aglok MacDonald and Alethea Arnaquq-Baril created North of North. Their series places Inuit humor, family life, clothing, language, and contemporary community experience at the center of the story.
Tracey Deer is a Mohawk filmmaker from Kahnawà:ke who directed episodes of Three Pines. Her other work includes Beans, a feature inspired by the 1990 Kanien’kehá:ka Resistance at Kanehsatà:ke and Kahnawà:ke.
A Turning Point from Stereotypes to Storytellers in Indigenous Filmmaking
One of the most important breakthroughs came with Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner in 2001. Directed by Inuk filmmaker Zacharias Kunuk and produced by Igloolik Isuma Productions, it was Canada’s first feature-length fiction film written, produced, directed, and acted by Inuit. Told in Inuktitut, the film adapted an Inuit story carried through generations of oral tradition and presented it from within the community rather than through an outsider’s interpretation.
The film won the Caméra d’Or for best first feature at the Cannes Film Festival and six Genie Awards, including Best Motion Picture. Its success showed that an Indigenous-language film made by Indigenous artists could receive international recognition without abandoning the language, traditions, or perspective of the community behind it. View Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner on IMDb or explore its awards and nominations.
Other Indigenous filmmakers have continued that movement through features, documentaries, television, and short films. Diné filmmaker Blackhorse Lowe’s short film Shimásání screened at the Tribeca and Sundance film festivals, while his later work included directing episodes of Reservation Dogs, Big Sky, Blindspotting, and Outer Range. Learn more about Blackhorse Lowe or view his IMDb credits.
Diné filmmaker Nanobah Becker brought Indigenous Futurism to the screen with The 6th World, a short film about a Navajo astronaut traveling to Mars. Douglas Miles, founder of Apache Skateboards, shared the history and contemporary life of the San Carlos Apache community in The Mystery of Now. The film was selected for the National Geographic Short Film Showcase and the Mountainfilm Festival.
Language preservation is also becoming part of Native filmmaking. Diné Bí Ná’álkid Time, meaning “Navajo Movie Time,” used puppets and a format inspired by Sesame Street to introduce children to Diné Bizaad. Read more about the project in the Navajo Times. These projects show how Native filmmakers are using film not only to tell stories, but also to preserve language, carry community knowledge forward, and imagine Indigenous life in the future.
Supporting Indigenous Film
Film festivals have become important places for Native filmmakers to present their work, meet audiences, and connect with people who can help finance or distribute new projects. The Red Nation International Film Festival and LA Skins Fest bring Native films and filmmakers into Hollywood. Toronto’s imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival presents work by Indigenous artists from around the world, while the First Nations Film and Video Festival screens films directed by Indigenous filmmakers from across the Americas.
Arizona's Growing Network of Native Festivals
Arizona has its own growing network of festivals and programs supporting Native film. In Parker, the annual NatiVisions Film Festival has spent more than two decades creating a place for Indigenous actors, writers, directors, and producers to present their work. In Window Rock, the Navajo Nation Film Festival showcases short films by Navajo and other Indigenous filmmakers, with special consideration given to projects that include Navajo language, culture, cast members, and crew.
Other Arizona communities are creating opportunities as well. Himdag Ki, the Tohono O’odham Nation Cultural Center and Museum in Topawa, hosted a Native Film Festival in 2025. The Flagstaff Mountain Film Festival is not exclusively an Indigenous festival, but it offers an Indigenous Filmmaker Grant. In Tucson, the University of Arizona’s Native Voices in Film series brings Indigenous films, filmmakers, scholars, and community members together for screenings and conversations.
Museums and cultural organizations are also part of this movement. The Museum of Indigenous People has used screenings, exhibitions, public programs, and its social-media feed to introduce audiences to more than a century of Native involvement in film. These stories range from the Native dancers seen in the 1894 film Buffalo Dance to contemporary filmmakers such as Nanobah Becker, Douglas Miles, Blackhorse Lowe, and Shonie De La Rosa.
In January 2026, the museum hosted Diné filmmaker Shonie De La Rosa for screenings of The Arrangement and Mile Post 398. Filmed on the Navajo Nation with an all-Navajo cast and crew, The Arrangement uses Diné Bizaad for more than 80 percent of its dialogue. Read more about The Arrangement in the Navajo Times.
The museum’s ANI~NOQUISI – STAR NATION exhibition adds another dimension by connecting Indigenous star knowledge with astronomy, space exploration, and science fiction. It reminds visitors that Native storytelling is not limited to history. Indigenous artists are also documenting contemporary life and imagining the future.
Hollywood still has work to do, but the change is visible. Native artists are no longer limited to appearing in stories shaped by someone else. More are writing, directing, producing, teaching, and deciding how their communities will be seen. Arizona’s tribal nations, museums, universities, and film festivals are helping make that change possible.
