Dreamkeeper Sparknotes

In the film, Dreamkeeper, I felt that I learned a lot of interesting stories that the Grandfather Pete Chasing Horse told his troubled young grandson, Shane. The movie started off with the grandfather talking with kids and telling them the story of Eagle boy until Shane was thrown out of a car from the people he owed money to. Shane got in trouble because he pawned a ring for his girlfriend rather than a boom box for the gangster he worked for. The Eagle Boy was alone on the hill with just the buffalo robe and sacred pipe as well as himself, he desired a vision. However, we later find out why he was being denied a vision over and over again. His path to redemption somehow coincides with the destiny of Shane. The Grandfather Pete Chasing Horse

makes his grandson drive to a Powwow in Albuquerque, Mexico. Right when they leave town, the grandfather talks about Shane’s shirt which I believe said something about General Custer. The grandfather claimed Shane was an angry Indian. I guess this can be seen as an indigenous identity young people have on reservations. Later Shane shows hostility for a white man who wants to go to the Powwow. The first story was about a Lakota woman who was the daughter of the chief of the Lakota people. The boy, High Horse, wants to win over her and tries to come into the town as an evil spirit; however, they chase him away. Ashamed of himself, he goes to the Crows to be killed but they run off and he returns all the stolen horses of the Lakota back to its’ people and wins over the chief. This shows how High Horse’s bad idea benefited him and what he tried doing to win over her love. The grandfather mentions this because of what Shane did for his girlfriend, without thinking he pawned a ring for her instead of getting what he was supposed to. High Horse was blinded by love and took a huge gamble, for him it paid off.
The Native Americans also believe that the spirits and humans cannot coexist. The Thunderbeast fell in love with a woman who was a human. She came along with him and had a child with him; however, Thunderbeast’s mother, Sky Woman, said that the woman has to go back to her people with the child. A lot of the members of the woman’s tribe believed she was abducted and her son was the product of being kidnapped by other tribal men instead of the spirit himself, Thunderbeast. Her son wasn’t supposed to be scolded but once he was by his grandmother, he was never to be seen again. During this clip, it also shows the Native Americans’ cultural symbolism of the world. They had a maple ceremony which is seen as a “rejuvenation of mother Earth.” The next story by the grandfather is given because of Shane’s pitiful behavior and angry mentality he had against the red-headed white man who wanted a ride with them to the Powwow in Albuquerque. They talk about the warrior, Tehan, who was brave enough to fight alongside the people who saved him. His sister, Talksalot, helps the Indians see that even though the white man was captured, he become Indian and wants to be just that. He hunted with the men and he smoked with the elders. They helped him escape and he helped the warriors fight off the white men so their women, children, and elders can leave safely.
The next interesting indigenous identity is how Native Americans label tricksters as coyotes, who vulture on anything. They are provoked by everything. They try to steal everything they have and have a greedy mindset. I am not entirely sure if this could also relate to Native Americans but I feel that the coyote symbolism of tricksters can relate to the white men who ignored the help they received from the Native Americans from the start of time. This can relate to the film, “We Shall Remain,” because at first, Native Americans helped the Europeans survived. Then the Europeans exploited them later out of greed and power, they defined them as savages even though without the Native Americans, there is a likelihood they would have never lasted this far on a new land.
The grandfather then talks about the Eagle boy again and how he killed the dreaded snake in the body of water, Unceglia. He killed it by attacking the 7th scale and it was a flashback to the gangsters who were drowning that Shane saved. He saved them and put his own life at peril even though these men wanted to kill him. However, once Eagle boy killed the snake, he did not honor it with rituals because he felt putting tobacco in the water will feed other monsters. Since Eagle Boy did not want to he took the crystal heart and kept the power. However, in order to keep the power no one else could see it and he had to do what the heart told him to do. He eventually grew tired of not having any trouble getting the women he wants and having no problem hunting. He sees into the future and sees the white men destroying all of the Native American lands and making it their own, Mt. Rushmore is an example of this. This shows how the Native American indigenous identifies too much power and greed as bad. Eventually he decides to show the crystal heart to the community but it becomes an ordinary rock.
The next story that was fascinating to learn about is the Pawnee grandson and grandmother. They took a deserted horse and the grandmother was very pessimistic about their future. The grandson took a chance to kill the spotted bull with his horse who he gained a spiritual connection with. They were able to talk and they both fed off the spiritual power. Later on, he fights enemies who have come to the tribe and his horse was hurt. Eventually with prayers and promises to listen to what the horse says, the horse is rejuvenated and eventually helps produce twenty ponies spiritually. Eventually he marries the chief’s daughter and has many kids. This spirituality with animals seems to be a very prevalent theme in Native American cultural symbolism. However, the bull is another example such as the coyote as a predator. A bull wants to mate with a quill work woman who has seven brothers who she met due to a dream that her mother told her to follow. They saved her by climbing a tree and shooting it with arrows to make it grow. Eventually they got to the sky and were saved from the bull who wanted to take quill work woman for her own. That is how the grandfather explains to Shane how the Big Dipper was formed.
Besides the importance of animal spirituality in Native American culture, the creator also has a purpose. There is a story of a tribe that is dying off due to the fact the sources are depleting and people are becoming sick. The tribe leader claims that the tribal leader’s daughters have to sacrifice themselves for the creator for everything to get better. One of the tribal leader’s daughters made the brave decision to contact the creator to be taken and as a result, the sickness was gone the following morning and a waterfall was given by the creator in response to the father’s request for proof that his daughter is with the creator.
Based on the Week One’s readings, the movie, Dreamkeeper, illuminates how indigenous identity is an interesting topic because it isn’t easily agreed upon.

The main questions are how to measure it and who really has it? (Native 27). An interesting difference that I saw between the movie and the reading during Week one was how Shane was able to recognize the Pawnee tribal woman at the Powwow and how he related the horse tale of the poor grandson and grandmother to her. However, in the reading during Week one it states how, ““The Big Game”- basketball tournament amongst Native Americans led to controversy over the lack of identity. Some did not have government cards; some did not look the part. However, the whole Navajo could recite their clan affiliation and introduce themselves in the Navajo language. In the end the championship game got canceled; there was no champion (Native 29). Throughout the film, it talks about specific tribes in these tales and often times they had some noticeable differences such as location and environment. In the week one reading, it states how the people matrix can be seen through their differences in language, sacred history, ceremonial cycle, and place/territory (Native 36). However, in this film, Dreamkeeper, I felt that the environment of the Powwow in the end was so peaceful and was a combination of many Native American cultures. It was great to see people dancing in circles and listening to stories about different tribes and tales. The indigenous identity today seems to revolve around the elders as well as the Powwows, as it did for Shane, it helps confused young Native American men and women to learn where they come from and the beliefs their people had about the white man who helped them, animals spirituality, and its’ own Native American

people.
The grandfather died at the end of the movie and Shane reconnects with his father. In the end, the movie once again signifies how the center of the universe divulges more power than one another. Shane and his grandfather visited Shane’s father and that was the night the grandfather passed away in his sleep. There was a flashback of his grandfather talking about how the center of universe divulges more power than one another and how the creator has more power over its’ own people. An example of this could be the sacrifice the daughter made for the creator for the betterment of her people.
The next morning after he found out his grandfather passed away in his sleep, Shane decides to go to the Powwow and his father tells him to “Go walk the good red road.” I did not know what the “red road” signified for Native Americans so I looked it up. I found out that Shane’s father generally meant for his son to follow the right way of life with the beliefs that were instilled into him.