Navajo leaders are satisfied that director Robert Redford is making an effort to employ Native Americans in his film, "Dark Wind," the tribe's administration said Friday.
"The Navajo Nation has been working with the producers of Robert Redford's latest film, `Dark Wind,' since April," according to a statement released through tribal press officer LeNora Begay.Some Navajos have objected to Redford offering the leading role of a Navajo policeman to a non-Indian.
Lou Diamond Phillips, who is part Cherokee, Scots-Irish, Filipino and Hispanic, has been selected to play Jim Chee, a fictitious Navajo police officer, in a film based on New Mexico author Tony Hillerman's novel, "The Dark Wind."
" `Dark Wind' officials have assured us that Navajos and Hopis will work on the production of the film," the official statement said.
Indian actor Gary Farmer, who will play a Hopi in the movie, said Phillips was chosen for the lead role because Phillips is "bankable."
"If you're going to spend $5 to $10 million on a movie, you have to have a bankable star," said Farmer, 37, a Cayuga who lives in Canada. A movie "is a product. It's like Avon."
However, the Navajo administration said it recognizes the commercial nature of films and has no quarrel with a producer's right to capitalize on an actor's popularity.
"The producers of `Dark Wind,' like all other feature films, choose actors they feel will promote their production," the statement said. "However, we as a tribal government cannot oppose their decisions. All we ask is that they be sensitive to our needs, culture and language in making films based on the Navajo."
Sammye Meadows, the Native American liaison for Dark Wind Productions, now on location in Tuba City, said earlier this week Redford and others searched from coast to coast to find a Navajo actor to play Chee.
Hillerman defended Redford Thursday, saying the director at one point postponed the casting of the film because he was dissatisfied with the representation of Native Americans.
Redford is planning to begin shooting the film Sept. 10 on the Navajo and Hopi reservations.