CULTURALLY CORRECT

Floyd Red Crow Westerman, a Dakota Sioux, is encouraged by the way Hollywood is now portraying Native Americans.

In “Buffalo Girls,” Westerman plays Calamity Jane’s sidekick called No Ears, a man of quiet, mystical wisdom.

“My part is fictitious,” says Westerman, “but he’s like the protectorate, the soul mate of Calamity Jane. There’s always a deep understanding, a confidence in each other.”

By contrast, Russell Means is cast as Sitting Bull and plays him as a surly figure who joins the Wild West Show despite his long and bitter conflict with white settlers.

“It’s true to the character that he was,” says Means, a Lakota Sioux who calls himself an Indian “militant.” “He (Sitting Bull) is not a fierce, predator savage. He is an honorable man.

“It furthers what I’m all about in this industry. I will only accept Indian characters, just Indian characters, that are treated correctly and rightly in the script.”

Native Americans are now played mostly by real Native Americans, not white men in makeup, and they have more to say about how their roles are written.

Westerman believes that’s largely due to “Dances With Wolves,” in which he was cast as Chief Ten Bears.

“Hollywood is much more sensitive to trying to create portrayals that are more accurate,” he says. “Language had a lot to do with it. Language validates culture, so with the use of the language (Lakota) America learned a lot also. Someone came up to me after a ‘Dances With Wolves’ showing and said, ‘Was that a real Indian language?’

“They failed to believe that we had a language; they thought we stood around for centuries making primitive sounds.”