HOLLYWOOD -- Graham Greene, who co-starred with Kevin Costner in 'Dances with Wolves,' credits the movie's success to an effort by the filmmakers to eliminate cliches.
Greene, whose character Kicking Bird is a Lakota-Sioux medicine man, may not be objective but he says the movie's representation of 'native people' is as genuine as anything he has seen in Hollywood.
He uses the term 'native people' in place of native Americans. 'Indians,' he says, 'live in India.'
Greene is a tall, handsome man with large and expressive brown eyes and black hair reaching his shoulder.
Costner almost didn't cast Greene in the pivotal role because he isn't ethnic-looking enough. That is to say he failed to resemble the profiles depicted on old nickels and Indian head pennies.
Nor does he look like the traditional warrior of cowboys and Indian epics.
Hollywood has portrayed native Americans with the likes of Paul Newman, Burt Lancaster (both with blue eyes) Robert Blake, Raquel Welch and Charles Bronson. That type of casting sets Indian actors on the warpath.
But Costner went to great lengths to hire genuine native Americans for 'Dances With Wolves,' although the actors were not cast according to Indian nations and tribes. Few moviegoers, however, are equipped to make such distinctions.
Greene, a full-blooded Oneida, was born on the Six Nations Reserve in Ontario, Canada. He makes his home in Toronto.
A polished actor in the Canadian theater, Greene has appeared in such movies as 'Revolution,' 'Pow Wow Highway' and 'Running Brave,' along with a number of television movies and a pair of Canadian Broadcasting Company series.
An outspoken critic of the treatment of native peoples, Greene cannot be called an activist. He works within the system, speaking out for change and fair treatment.
'No point in feeling rage,' he said. 'I feel sorrow for those who cannot see and understand. You can help a little by making people aware with the help of the most powerful tool in the world, the entertainment media.
'I hope I played Kicking Bird as real as possible to draw the audience into something they could relate to.
'My tribe originated in the Carolinas and migrated northward to New York and eventually to Canada, which treated native people no better. White people here invented apartheid and concentration camps centuries ago.'
Greene and other Indian members of the cast did what they could to broaden Costner's considerable knowledge of Indians. Coster asked about customs and rituals.
'We bantered back and forth,' Greene said. 'There was an effort by everybody to eliminate the cliches of native people, to show them making mistakes, being funny, their sensitivity and love of the land.
'Some of us had a difficult time with the language. I am not a Lakota, so I learned the dialect phonetically. For a month before production we worked with a language teacher nine hours a day.
'There were many, many Lakotas in the cast, along with some Nakotas, Dakotas, and Oglala. Those tribes are all part of the Sioux nation. I would say the actors and action fairly represent the people of the times.
'I wasn't around in the 1800s, so I can't say how accurate the film is. But there were people from the Rosebud Sioux Reserve who were pleased with it. And we had a lot of advisors to be sure things were done correctly.
'Costner didn't hire me for my historical knowledge. He cast me as an actor to give life and dimension to Kicking Bird. I leave politics to others.
'I was told some of the dances hadn't been done in over 120 years. The young actors had to learn from some of the elders. Ours is a matriarchal society, as were many tribes that deferred to the clan mothers, who had the real power.'NEWLN:
