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Posted on 07/19/2011 12:33:07 PM PDT by Pharmboy
ONEIDA – The Oneida Indian Nation is fully financing a $10 million theatrical film about the alliance between the Oneidas and the American colonists during the Revolutionary War.
According to the New York Times, the independent production “First Allies” is expected to begin shooting in Central New York this fall.
Ray Halbritter, Nation representative and CEO of Nation Enterprises, told the Times that he is looking for an avenue more effective than traditional storytelling to close what he sees as the gap between the Nation’s fewer than 1,000 members and a world with which it has had property disputes and other run-ins in the past.
The film is based on the book, “Forgotten Allies: The Oneida Indians and the American Revolution” by Joseph T. Glatthaar and James Kirby Martin. The book relates the history of Oneida Chief Han Yerry and the Oneida people working alongside American colonists, especially during the battle of Oriskany.
Halbritter will produce along with Hollywood producers Alex Sisken and Sid Ganis, former president of the Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Sciences.
Emmy-nominated director Kees Van Oostrum will oversee the filming of the project.
“In the past, we used American Indian runners to spread important messages,” Halbritter told Variety. “But in today’s world, film is the most powerful messaging medium of our mainstream culture. ‘First Allies’ provides the perfect opportunity to relay the story of the Oneida Indian Nation to audiences worldwide while also telling one of the lesser-known and most riveting stories about the founding of the United States of America.”
The Nation has scheduled a press conference for Tuesday afternoon to discuss the project with area media representatives.
The Oneida Nation has turned to film before to convey its history and culture.
The 11-minute computer animated short, “Raccoon & Crawfish,” is based on a centuries-old Oneida legend focusing on the moral that lying is wrong and has consequences. The 2007 film is the product of the Oneida Nation’s Four Directions Productions.
The DVD of the short film and an accompanying book are currently on sale at Oneida Sky in Turning Stone Resort Casino, all 12 SavOn convenience stores and at the OIN Shako:wi Cultural Center.
Thanks for the interesting info.
As a risk of sounding like a simpleton, I think we should have offered the American Indians some kind of representation within the American Government.. Instead of the crap Indian Reservations..
This is nice and interesting.
It’s been so long since I read some of the RevWar histories, but I wonder if this was the tribe (it was definitely in mid-upstate NY) whose chieftain called the American general in command up there “a coward” because he would not press on and go after the British. LOL! I can’t remember which general it was, either - Herkimer, van Renssalaer, or another of those Dutch/German types up there in NY.
BTTT
‘It is a little known fact but nearly all indian tribes sided with the British in the American revolution’
Of course only the tribes in the Mississippi Valley or further east took any part in the Revolution. Those in the Louisiana Territory or the Spanish or Russian territories took no part.
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