“This is the story of the people who were here: the richness of their cultures, their encounters with Europeans and the tragic turn of events,” says filmmaker W.T. Morgan, who has devoted much of his career to unburying authentic Indian voices through projects like the documentary “500 Nations: The First Americans.”

“The tragedy is that it did not have to go that way. The Indians were willing to help the newcomers and live in peace. But they were paid back by being attacked and almost destroyed. We wanted to get across that it could have gone differently and also that, despite it all, the native people have not only survived — they’re getting stronger.”

“Not understanding and respecting the first people of this continent is a major travesty. And the more I got into the project, the more it seemed that this is the American story.”

Morgan helped shape a wealth of stirring stories into a cogent and powerful two-hour Discovery Channel special, using Final Cut Pro to edit this shorter version of “500 Nations” from an eight-hour 1995 miniseries of the same title. The release of the special was timed to coincide with the September 2004 opening of the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.

Part Cherokee himself, Morgan found his investment in “500 Nations” deepening over the decade of his involvement. “I’m more proud of ‘500 Nations’ than of anything else I’ve done,” he states. “Not understanding and respecting the first people of this continent is a major travesty. And the more I got into the project, the more it seemed that this is the American story.”

Costner Keeps Dancing

The original “500 Nations” miniseries was a labor of love for its director, Jack Leustig, and “Dances With Wolves” producers Kevin Costner and Jim Wilson. “After Kevin finished ‘Dances with Wolves,’ he was so fired up about Indian history that he wanted to keep going with a more comprehensive project,” recounts Morgan. “He put up the money and we spent three years and $10 million to create it.” It was completed in 1995 and aired on CBS. The network reported that it was seen by more viewers than any previous documentary miniseries of its type.

But as time went by, Morgan and his colleagues discovered the effect hadn’t lasted as well as they had hoped. “Ten years later, we saw that it wasn’t in the public consciousness” says Morgan. “We said, ‘Why isn’t it on DVD? In stores? In homes? In schools? We knew the museum was opening soon, so we arranged to cut the miniseries down to a two-hour Discovery Channel special and release the entire miniseries on DVD.”

Morgan calls the new special “a Cliffs Notes version of the original series.” In addition to series highlights, it presents new material including introductions by Costner, a peek inside the museum, comments by museum director W. Richard West, Jr. (who’s Southern Cheyenne) and Colorado Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell (Northern Cheyenne) and voiceovers by actors Wes Studi, Edward James Olmos and Patrick Stewart.

A Rattling Good Story

Morgan’s team was determined to avoid the problems of well-meaning but sleepy non-fiction movies. “All of us come from a background of feature filmmaking, so we wanted to bring those strong narrative storytelling qualities to our documentary,” he offers.

Morgan laughs as he reiterates the ruling dictum of his industry. “It’s the oldest quote in the movie business — ‘If you want to send a message, go to Western Union!’ Only now I suppose you’d have to go to moveon.org. But filmmaking is a business. And if you’re boring people you’re not doing your job, no matter how right you may be about your positions.”

The writer was committed to conveying the story clearly — without condescension. “We didn’t want to over-simplify, as in, ‘The Indians had a beautiful society and the white men came along and destroyed it,’” he says. “Because while that has been the historical pattern, it doesn’t do justice to individual nations. Each one had a different culture, different leaders and its own approach to dealing with the incursion. And the impact on each one was different. So the biggest challenge was to do justice to this diversity while still telling a consistent story.”

Transforming eight hours of documentary material into a two-hour show presented an editing task akin to major surgery. “In the beginning, the hardest part was trying to pick out stories that were compelling in their individual details, that touched on the other stories and that also contributed to our overarching theme,” says Morgan.

Next page: Capturing the Diverse and Individual Stories