W.T.Morgan:
The Authentic Voices of “500 Nations”
Ben Nighthorse Campbell prepares to address the U.S. Senate in full Northern Cheyenne regalia.
Since “500 Nations” aims to correct the faulty record of Native American history, the original team spent months preparing to write and film the miniseries. Morgan remembers his earliest talks with Costner and others, none of whom pretended to be an expert in the field. “So we hired a Cherokee/Caw woman named Lee Miller, who had worked at the Library of Congress, to be our head of research and a staff comprised largely of Native American scholars. They spent a year gathering information.”
Continues Morgan, “When we had the scripts drafted, Lee took them to the Councils of Elders of each of the nations we had written about. She read them aloud and asked, ‘Is there anything you object to?’ We incorporated all their corrections. Because if you don’t ask, you’re just contributing to the ongoing misunderstanding. And we were very committed to getting it right.”
Indian names, for example — Morgan and his colleagues were determined to get their pronunciation right: not as they’re taught in most American schools (e.g., Te-kum-suh), but as native speakers actually pronounce them (Te-kum-thay). “[Director] Jack Leustig insisted on that,” explains Morgan. “So we had our researchers ask the descendents of each individual, ‘How do you say his or her name?’ And we collected pronunciations that in most cases are very different from what most people say.”
Star Power
Kevin Costner has long been an advocate for authentic Native American histories. So when Costner agreed to provide a new introduction and closing remarks for the “500 Nations” special, Morgan started sharpening his pencil to create a script. Soon, however, he stopped.
“As a writer, of course I like to create everything from scratch,” he admits. “But Jim Wilson showed me something Kevin had written to dedicate the Indian memorial he built in Tatanka, South Dakota. And it was so beautiful I decided to start with his own words.”
Morgan reflects on how Costner’s connection mirrors the larger goal of the project. “We have failed as storytellers if we don’t get people to feel the story of the Indians personally,” he says. “For Kevin, this is not just a bleeding heart or academic thing. He feels it very personally.”
Happily for Morgan and his colleagues, Costner’s passion did not translate into micromanagement: “Kevin’s approach is, if you choose the right people, just trust them and leave them alone. That’s the great thing about him. He didn’t go into it with his own agenda. He said, ‘I think this is great idea — let me see it when you have a cut.’ And he made a few suggestions, but mostly he just let us do it.”
A New Circle
Like Bertolucci, Costner and other filmmakers whose work he admires, Morgan strives for the intense connection and the personal view. “My mother’s father was part Cherokee and from the time I was a baby I heard stories about the Trail of Tears,” he says. “So there’s always that personal fascination.” There’s also a desire to set the record straight. “Growing up in mainstream America, even the little bit I knew of Native American history didn’t jibe with what we were taught in elementary school. So I was always correcting the teacher.”
“Growing up in mainstream America, even the little bit I knew of Native American history didn’t jibe with what we were taught in elementary school. So I was always correcting the teacher.”
Today Morgan funnels that energy into his art. And he feels the force that can be unleashed by endeavors such as “500 Nations” and the new National Museum of the American Indian. “It was so moving to be there on the mall in Washington for the museum opening, with 25,000 Indians dancing and marching in full dress,” he recounts. “It was the largest Indian gathering in history, and it was happening right in the heart of the same U.S. government that had tried so hard — and in many ways, is still trying — to destroy them by taking away their dignity, their rights, their assets.”
“It was such a powerful day,” continues Morgan. “I felt the pride and respect they gained from getting just this modicum of recognition from the national government. There was a sense of reconciliation. And it did feel as if one circle was completed and a new one started. The way I see it, you only go round once, so you try to make a difference with your life. Seeing Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell on the floor of the Senate in full Indian regalia, for the first time in history, was just fantastic. In a way, that was the reason for doing all this.
