Establishing shot: Two tribal elders making announcements at a Powwow.
Named locations: Heart Butte CDP, Blackfeet Indian Reservation
Major themes covered: Singing and dancing. This video was recorded by two Blackfeet youths who are mentioned by the Powwow announcer in the film. Wayne Many Guns and Joe Fisher were young Blackfeet men who took it upon themselves to document the history and culture present on the Blackfeet reservation during the mid to late 1970’s.
Establishing shot: Camera zooming in on an open field with a white storage unit in the center while telephone poles stand to the left, as a child stands in front of a white fence.
Named locations: North American Indian Days Celebration (NAID), Oldman River Regional Planning Commission, Blood Indian Reserve, Alberta, Canada.
Major themes covered: Drum playing, singing, and dancing at the Annual North American Indian Days Celebration.
Establishing shot: Plains Indian Chief using sign language (Tribal affiliation not specified)
Named locations:“Sun Dance Reservation” however, there is no such place
Major themes covered: This film offers a glimpse of the work involved during the preparation for the traditional Sun Dance Ceremony (Okan) of the Blackfeet Tribe
NOTE: This film contains demeaning and condescending language that is a product of the historical period of its creation. These attitudes are not endorsed by AIFG.
The film Real Americans uses multiple references to Native Americans in the past tense via the narration. Jean O’Brien, in Firsting and Lasting: Writing Indians Out of Existence in New England (2010), discusses similar techniques used by non-Native authors of local historical texts of the 1800’s to relegate the “Indian” to the past.