In the old days of movie and TV Westerns, virtually anybody could portray Native Americans. "If you had dark skin, you were in," actress Tonantzin Carmelo says. And those who didn't have the right look? "They could get by with lots of makeup."
Ah, but times have changed. In Into the West, TNT's epic six-part miniseries, Native American characters are portrayed by Native American actors. Not that this is a radical concept in the year 2005. This is generally the way it's done today, whether it's an earnest attempt at authenticity or merely a bow to political correctness. As viewers, we've come to expect it.
But Into the West, Carmelo proudly notes, went an extra mile. "It seems like everybody who was cast in the major roles -- like myself and Michael Spears and Zahn McClarnon and Simon R. Baker -- are all very culturally involved. We know our history and we embrace it, even while we have our feet firmly in the modern world. I think that's what is most significant, the fact that we have a real understanding of our culture."
After all, Carmelo says, if Native American actors look the part but have no grasp of who they are as a people, Hollywood might as well still be using non-Indians with dark skin.
The miniseries chronicles the opening of the American West (from 1825 to 1890) in parallel story lines. One plot thread focuses on the Wheeler family, originally from Virginia; the other showcases members of the Lakota tribe of plains Native Americans. Throughout the series, members of these families are participants in historical events, such as the Gold Rush and Little Big Horn, that lead to an epic clash of cultures.
Carmelo -- who describes herself as an "urban Indian," born and raised on her ancestral land in the Los Angeles Basin -- delivers a wonderful performance as Thunder Heart Woman, a Lakota woman who marries a pioneer (played by Matthew Settle). Carmelo starred in a couple of independent films and had a guest role in the recent TV remake of Dragnet, but Thunder Heart Woman is her most high-profile role to date. And it could prove to be a big breakthrough. "I do have a really great role, a unique role, and I'm very happy with my performance," she says. "Thunder Heart Woman has so much courage and so much bravery. She's an amazing woman and I look up to her."
Carmelo has been performing more or less all her life. "I'm a California mission Indian," she says. "The name Carmelo comes from the Carmelite order of monks. I grew up in Orange County, where my family are traditional Native dancers. That's how I got my start. I performed at different cultural events in Los Angeles ever since I was little. I have what you might call a Bohemian family and actually I tried not to be an artist when I was in college. I majored in environmental analysis. I was like, 'It's too hard of a life, that of working-class performance.' So I tried to get away from it. But I couldn't. It's too much inside of me." So she switched her college major to dance, then started doing theater "and I got the theater bug really bad." Now she can't imagine doing anything else with her life.
One Into the West accomplishment in which Carmelo takes great pride is how she nailed the Lakota language. "We had a really good coach. His name is Charlie White Buffalo. He helped us learn it syllable by syllable. We would shoot on reservations and I would speak in a scene in Lakota and some of the extras who were Lakota would come up to me and say, 'We understood what you said and it sounded perfect.' That was such an honor."
Still, as much as Carmelo embraces her cultural history, she is without doubt a 21st-century woman. "We were shooting in Calgary, where it was super rugged. I mean, we stayed at a decent hotel. But every single day we would travel two hours to go to our workplace, which was the open range, where there were no buildings in sight in any direction. I remember riding there in a Jeep and it was quite a bumpy ride. We were bouncing around and I was like, 'Wow, this is so harsh.' Then we got into the wagons, because the whole story line in the second episode is about the wagon train migration from the East to the West. And let me tell you: There were no shocks on the Conestoga! And after shooting all those scenes in the wagon, riding in the Jeep wasn't harsh at all."
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by David Martindale
