Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, December 4, 1993 TAG: 9312060202
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: S-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By LYNN ELBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Medium
Turner Network Television's ``Geronimo'' debuts Sunday, the first of a series of TV films and documentaries about American Indians produced by media mogul Ted Turner's company.
Not even Turner, with his $40 million to $50 million film and book project, can rewrite history: The brutal subjugation of warrior Geronimo's Apache tribe remains a bitter, disheartening part of the America saga.
But it is told with sympathy, with Indian actors in the roles, and with an unsparing emphasis on the Indian perspective. No gratuitous romances with white cavalry officers here.
``Geronimo,'' starring Joseph Runningfox and debuting at 8 p.m. EST on the cable channel, will be followed Dec. 12 by ``The Broken Chain,'' the story of the Iroquois Indian confederacy during the American revolution.
Its stars include Buffy Sainte-Marie, Wes Studi, Floyd Red Crow and Graham Greene.
More movies are planned, including ``Lakota Woman,'' about the 1973 Wounded Knee, S.D., uprising by members of the American Indian Movement (Turner's wife, Jane Fonda, is producing the 1994 TV movie).
Turner, who has a knack for big ventures, has already published ``The Native Americans,'' a be-all, end-all coffee table book lavishly illustrated with maps,photos and art reproductions and written by noted historians.
And, yet to come, is the TBS Superstation offering next year of the three-part, six-hour documentary version of ``The Native Americans.''
So what's up with the man? Trying to make amends for his Atlanta Braves baseball team and their tomahawk-chopping fans? Think that way and you're thinking small.
``We need to learn (from Indian culture) before it's too late,'' Turner said. ``Our society is just breaking down all around us.''
Speaking by telephone from his Montana ranch, Turner apologizes for a cold he says is slowing him down. But get him started on this topic and his fervor seems unlimited.
``Indigenous people lived close to the land, close to nature, in small, usually extended family groups where they shared and cared for each other, where the older people were respected and not thrown away, the way we do now,'' he says.
``It was a rich heritage built around family and community that we've gotten away from at our own peril.''
Turner said he also believes the historical record must be clarified.
``We should know what our forefathers did to these people,'' he says, adding that other native peoples, such as those in South American rainforests or the Australian outback, could benefit from a clear-eyed appraisal of U.S. actions.
``These movies and these projects are going out all over the world, and the industrial world should take a new look at indigenous people everywhere,'' Turner said.
``We can learn from them ... and hopefully we can be more kind and understanding and not try to judge them so much by our standards.''
Clearly, Turner has put his money where his idealism is. His financing of such a costly, far-reaching project surprises even those Indians connected with it.
``I'm trying not to sound too rapturous,'' said Hanay Geiogamah, a University of California, Los Angeles, professor who is co-producing the TNT movies.
``It's like this is something we always dreamed about. The man is doing what he said he's going to do,'' said Geiogamah, a Oklahoman who is of Kiowa and Delaware Indian descent.
He considers the films a breakthrough, an opportunity to see the truth portrayed with integrity and respect.
``We've been victimized by the entertainment industry ever since it became a business,'' Geiogamah said. ``Finally we're witnessing a change in that, a change that could hopefully deliver us from the delusion of stereotypes and bigotry.''
``Now we can give an even better image of us to non-Indians: a clearer image of who we were and how strong we were, how strong we had to be to survive,'' he said.
The bloodthirsty, unfeeling savage is a movie cliche that is buckling under the weight of the truth, says Studi, who starred as the warrior Magua in ``The Last of the Mohicans.''
And audiences are not the poorer for it, the actor contends.
``I think some myths have been put away and replaced by facts that are just as entertaining as the myths.''
by CNB