We all had to learn Southern accents. It wasn't a big research show. With the 'Wounded Knee' project, I locked myself in my apartment with history books so I would know what we're talking about.
My favourite moment from the Oscars was when Brando didn't attend and sent a Native American woman to talk about Wounded Knee. She delivered a very unpopular and lengthy monologue about the injustice for indigenous people in North America. It was one of the greatest moments in American television.
The Indian wars have never ended in the Americas.
The soldiers did go away and their towns were torn down; and in the Moon of Falling Leaves (November), they made a treaty with Red Cloud that said our country would be ours as long as grass should grow and water flow.
I've been reading about Crazy Horse and Custer for a long, long time, and I thought that if I was going to write a story that took place in the Black Hills, I should find a way to include this history in it.
I've always been fascinated with the history of the Plains Indians and the history of the American Indian Movement in the '70s.
An awareness reached across America that if Native American people had to resort to arms at Wounded Knee, there must really be something wrong.
I must have been about 11 when I read the book Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, which I read, over and over again.
