Bury My Heart

My fascination with American Indians has been slowly rekindling as of late, due in part to the announcement of a new HBO movie called "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" (based on the book of the same name) debuting on May 27th. I've also recently made plans to volunteer my time shooting a documentary for a non-profit organization based out of Canada that works with First Nations groups and so that's been on my mind as well.

I've always had an extreme fondness for American Indians - once even studying to speak the Sioux language and composing a poem in high school called "Mitakuye Oyasin" (which translates to "we are all related", if memory serves me) half of which was written in Sioux. It was a horrible poem but I received an "A" nonetheless, likely for effort.

My fascination with Ameican Indians even continued into my early adulthood. Before I decided to rename my company Transcendental Media back in 1999 it was called Standing Rock Entertainment. I named it after the Sioux Indian reservation in South Dakota where Sitting Bull spent his last days before he was killed by one of his own, a member of the reservation police.

Beyond my profound appreciation for much of their values, I was drawn to the American Indian's spirituality most of all. It is probably overlooked by many for being primitive and simplistic - a horrible argument, in my opinion, for dismissing any set of cultural beliefs. After all, it is the simple yet overwhelming sense of awe and oneness that people can experience when pondering life's mysteries that is at the heart of all religions and runs especially deep and pure in the American Indian culture.

I'm inclined at this point to begin a passionate rant about the myriad of injustices that American Indians have faced and continue to face to this day, but instead I'll leave you with this link to a recent story I read that pretty much sums up where they're at.

"Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" premieres Sunday, May 27th @ 9pm on HBO. I'm hoping it does the subject matter justice.