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| 'The Ballad of Crowfoot' reveals the Blackfoot Chief's betrayal during the 19th Century in so-called Canada. |
Diné Filmmaker Arlene Bowman: 'The Ballad of Crowfoot' Deserves Place of Power
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| Arlene Bowman |
By Arlene Bowman, Dine' Filmmaker, Censored News
A Film Series requested a survey on their program. Date: November 14, 2024
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-32jc58bgI
2024, 4:00 – 8:00 PM, Where: UBC Robson Square Theatre, Main Theatre | 800 Robson St., Vancouver BC
This is what I said. They may not like it, but why hold back.
VANCOUVER, B.C. -- The Ballad of Crowfoot is written and sung by Willie Dunn a Mi’kmaq/Scottish folk singer, songwriter and activist who was apart of Challenge for Change Program created in the 1960’s. The program invited First Nations in Canada to create their videos.
First of all, when it played most of the people from the audience took off to get food. No one listened to it. But I made my friend listen to it.
I said it was important and good to hear it.
Ahe’ hee’ Thank you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-32jc58bgI
2024, 4:00 – 8:00 PM, Where: UBC Robson Square Theatre, Main Theatre | 800 Robson St., Vancouver BC
This is what I said. They may not like it, but why hold back.
VANCOUVER, B.C. -- The Ballad of Crowfoot is written and sung by Willie Dunn a Mi’kmaq/Scottish folk singer, songwriter and activist who was apart of Challenge for Change Program created in the 1960’s. The program invited First Nations in Canada to create their videos.
First of all, when it played most of the people from the audience took off to get food. No one listened to it. But I made my friend listen to it.
I said it was important and good to hear it.
VERY IMPORTANT SONG AND MESSAGE TO THE bilagaana White people in the audience who constituted a large part of the audience. Maybe that was why it was set the way it was set????!!!!! Who was responsible for this? I complained to one of the people who projected it. Did they express this to you? It mattered to me a lot. So here I get to express how I really felt about the Program. I express what Dunn tried to say in his song at this podium.
This music video earliest one, should have been presented as a solo presentation as the other videos presented. Why not? Or present National Film Board music, the video, then bring on a woman singer-guitarist, sing and play live the song.
However, the music video playback was presented less than. I would have made the audience listen to the song carefully. That is what Dunn wanted. To present the message to the white people -- how the Canadian federal government, white U.K., the primary colonizer manipulated, lied to Indigenous and stole our Indigenous lands; also, how U.K. same colonizer and Spain lied to U.S. and stole our lands which is the truth! He even included the Lakota and other Indigenous from the U.S. in the song, which is good. We were ripped off our rights and lands that produced LAND BACK, MISSING AND MURDERED WOMEN and other issues and more backlash, which both North American countries share.
Historically we have had the same bureaucracy and so-called democracy. The two countries are very different. This is not a boring song. Stems from the period of time when the “topical song” such as Eve of Destruction emerged and became a hit in the U.S. This could have happened to this song. I stem from that period of time. I liked this type of song. Then the program could have described Challenge for Change. None of this happened. Let down.
Requested Final message. This is what I expressed.
Arlene Bowman yinishye I am.
Nakai Dene Maternal mother’s clan nishli.
Tabaahi Father’s clan bashishchiin.
Todichiinii Maternal Grandfather’s clan dashichei.
Kinyaá anii Paternal Grandfather’s clan dashinali.
What I expressed to you about The Ballad of Crowfoot is what I wanted to express about the program overall. It may change or not and maybe it won't be, judging the slow pace of change that happens currently, regarding Native Indigenous people in Canada and U.S. All over the world. But more so this applies to both countries. I go back and forth. Make change more. MORE!!!!!!!! Obtain more Indigenous filmmakers and their works of all types. For an Indigenous program, make them be at the forefront of it all.
This music video earliest one, should have been presented as a solo presentation as the other videos presented. Why not? Or present National Film Board music, the video, then bring on a woman singer-guitarist, sing and play live the song.
However, the music video playback was presented less than. I would have made the audience listen to the song carefully. That is what Dunn wanted. To present the message to the white people -- how the Canadian federal government, white U.K., the primary colonizer manipulated, lied to Indigenous and stole our Indigenous lands; also, how U.K. same colonizer and Spain lied to U.S. and stole our lands which is the truth! He even included the Lakota and other Indigenous from the U.S. in the song, which is good. We were ripped off our rights and lands that produced LAND BACK, MISSING AND MURDERED WOMEN and other issues and more backlash, which both North American countries share.
Historically we have had the same bureaucracy and so-called democracy. The two countries are very different. This is not a boring song. Stems from the period of time when the “topical song” such as Eve of Destruction emerged and became a hit in the U.S. This could have happened to this song. I stem from that period of time. I liked this type of song. Then the program could have described Challenge for Change. None of this happened. Let down.
Requested Final message. This is what I expressed.
Arlene Bowman yinishye I am.
Nakai Dene Maternal mother’s clan nishli.
Tabaahi Father’s clan bashishchiin.
Todichiinii Maternal Grandfather’s clan dashichei.
Kinyaá anii Paternal Grandfather’s clan dashinali.
What I expressed to you about The Ballad of Crowfoot is what I wanted to express about the program overall. It may change or not and maybe it won't be, judging the slow pace of change that happens currently, regarding Native Indigenous people in Canada and U.S. All over the world. But more so this applies to both countries. I go back and forth. Make change more. MORE!!!!!!!! Obtain more Indigenous filmmakers and their works of all types. For an Indigenous program, make them be at the forefront of it all.
I used to be a programmer for IMAGe Nation, an Indigenous Film and Video Festival which annually exhibited films and videos every November in Vancouver B.C. It no longer exists, but I wish it did. I am an Indigenous Dine' independent filmmaker from Arizona, New Mexico, Utah where my Rez Dinetah is located. Completed shoot of Our Language about Tlicho Yati Dene language in Yellowknife Northwest Territories, and Dine’ bizaad in Red Valley New Mexico, U.S. this summer 2024.
Navajo is not our real name. Dine' is our real name which means the People. Dine' bizaad Dine' language. Canada and U.S. archaeology and linguistics express that we are related as Athabascans. Some Dine’ believe we always lived in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah.
Ahe’ hee’ Thank you.
The Ballad of Crowfoot Lyrics (excerpt)
Well, the buffalo are slaughtered, there is nothing to eat
The government's late again with the meat
And your people are riddled with the white man's disease
And in the summer they're sick and in the winter they freeze and
Sometimes you wonder why you signed that day
But they broke the treaties themselves anyway
And it's eighteen hundred eighty-nine
And your death star explodes and then it falls
[Chorus]
Crowfoot, Crowfoot, why the tears?
You've been a brave man for many years
Why the sadness? Why the sorrow?
Maybe there'll be a better tomorrow
The government's late again with the meat
And your people are riddled with the white man's disease
And in the summer they're sick and in the winter they freeze and
Sometimes you wonder why you signed that day
But they broke the treaties themselves anyway
And it's eighteen hundred eighty-nine
And your death star explodes and then it falls
[Chorus]
Crowfoot, Crowfoot, why the tears?
You've been a brave man for many years
Why the sadness? Why the sorrow?
Maybe there'll be a better tomorrow
Read the lyrics https://genius.com/Willie-dunn-the-ballad-of-crowfoot-lyrics
Biography
Arlene Bowman, Dine' (Navajo) filmmaker and producer, began life in Greasewood on the Navajo Nation, and grew up with her family in Phoenix. Today she makes her home in Vancouver, B.C. She completed her master's degree in film at the University of California at Los Angeles. Her films have shown at film festivals around the world, including the Amiens Film Festival in France, where she was a presenter.
Arlene Bowman, Dine' (Navajo) filmmaker and producer, began life in Greasewood on the Navajo Nation, and grew up with her family in Phoenix. Today she makes her home in Vancouver, B.C. She completed her master's degree in film at the University of California at Los Angeles. Her films have shown at film festivals around the world, including the Amiens Film Festival in France, where she was a presenter.
Arlene Bowman’s films includes the award-winning NAVAJO TALKING PICTURE(1986) about herself and her Shimá Sani' Ruth Biah; and SONG JOURNEY (1994), a documentary about Pow Wow women singers who sing songs in a traditional and not so traditional style.
WOMEN AND MEN ARE GOOD DANCERS (1994), a Pow Wow dance-music video, as well as several video poems (1998 & 2000.) Her mini digital video titled THE GRAFFITI is a 30-minute color experimental drama.
Arlene writes and speaks out on the racism and sexism in Hollywood and the film industry.
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| Photo by Arlene Bowman https://www.flickr.com/photos/arlphotofly/with/53492281830 |
American Indian Studies Center at UCLA writes:
Arlene Bowman discovered her passion for art at a young age, drawing faces and bodies in elementary school before transitioning to still photography at fourteen. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Still Photography from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1971 and later pursued filmmaking after moving to Los Angeles in 1977. Bowman furthered her studies by obtaining a Master of Fine Arts in film production from the University of California-Los Angeles in 1986, which is now her primary focus.
Some of the notable films and videos by Arlene include “ShiArl,” a 4:30 minute music video released in 2022, “Locked Doors,” a 4-minute song poem video from 2013, and “Illegal Anger,” a 4-minute song poem video from 2011. Additionally, she has worked on “The Graffiti,” a 30-minute experimental drama video from 2010, “Song Journey,” a documentary video that runs for an hour and was released in 1994, and “Women and Men Are Good Dancers,” a 5-minute video from 1994. In 1986, she created “Navajo Talking Picture,” a 40-minute color 16mm film.
Apart from filmmaking, Arlene is involved in photography, open mic performances, singing, dancing (particularly modern dance and jazz), and taking dance classes. Her aspirations include writing, directing, and producing a feature drama called “Turquoise Sun” in LA, along with organizing an Indigenous Woman Filmmakers’ Conference called “Turquoise Filmmaker” and establishing a non-profit organization to support low-income and Indigenous filmmakers. She is set to begin production on “Our Language,” a personal-experimental documentary about Na Dene and Dine’ speaking peoples in Canada and the U.S., in June 2024.. https://visualeye.wordpress.com/
“Mostly spent my time in the film/TV department when I attended UCLA but came to know some Native American students. Really good people. Glad Richard Oakes, a Mohawk guy help start American Indian Studies at UCLA. Also, he started the Occupation of Alcatraz from 11_20_69 to 6_11_71. I am an independent Dine’ filmmaker. After the Our Language personal video about preserving Dine’ & Dene languages in Canada and the U.S. is completed, I want to write, direct, and produce a personal narrative feature called Turquoise Sun in LA. Production for Our Language starts the week of June 21, 2024.“
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