We, as Indian tribes, should be able to prosecute non-Indians on tribal lands. But on Indian land, we have no ability to prosecute anyone but another Indian. American Indians having status as a foreign nation is good for us, but it's not good in some ways if we don't have the jurisdictional power that the federal government claims.
One of the things I learned early on was the system of believing: you have to believe in what you say. The camera is the arbiter of truth; it's the all-seeing eye that can pick out discrepancies. You can't lie to the camera. You must believe in what you're saying, or the audience won't believe you.
I'm Cherokee, and there were times when social expansion was something that is needed by a cultural group or a national group.
I came from a family that was pretty insularly Cherokee. We kept to ourselves - the white people were there, and we were here, and it was practically a segregated kind of thing.
I'm proud to have served there for 12 months with Alpha Company of the 39th Infantry.
Having watched 'The Lone Ranger,' I asked my dad, 'You think we can be on TV like that guy?' He said, 'Probably not. You have to be 6 feet and blond to work in TV and movies.' I said, 'But what about that guy? Jay Silverheels?'
National sovereignty can only be achieved after self-sovereignty.
'Dances with Wolves' really started the movement, using subtitles for Lakota Sioux and showing Indians as interesting, complex people - not just the enemy - and giving a lot of unknown Indian actors work.
We were created to take care of, steward the land. That is mankind's purpose on earth, to steward and take care of the land as it feeds off of it.
