August 2008
 Actor
Wes Studi (Cherokee) is perhaps
best known for his nuanced depictions of American Indians in traditional
western films and television series, a contribution for which
he was recognized with the Motion Picture and Television Fund's
Golden Boot Award in 2000. In 1998 the Dreamspeakers Film and
Festival honored him with its Career Achievement Award and in
2000 he was also honored as the Artist of the Decade at the First
Americans in the Arts Awards, Studi has played memorable roles
in major films such as The Last of the Mohicans, Heat,
and Dances with Wolves. He also has worked in television,
most recently in the pilot season of Kings, a 2008 NBC
series helmed by the director of I Am Legend, as well as
in the miniseries Into the West, Comanche Moon,
and Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. He also brought the
popular Tony Hillerman character Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn to life
in the PBS Mystery! adaptations of the author's work. Studi
also directed his short Bonnie Looksaways' Iron Art Wagon
in 1997.
Studi first gained recognition as a stage actor and playwright
at the American Indian Theatre Company in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He
was one of the original reporters on The Cherokee Advocate
(now the Cherokee Phoenix and Indian Advocate) and has
written two Cherokee-English children's books. A Vietnam veteran,
Studi was active in the American Indian Movement, participating
in the occupation of Wounded Knee and the Trail of Broken Treaties
in the early 1970s. Studi grew up speaking Cherokee in No Fire
Hollow, Oklahoma, a rural area named after his mother's family,
and has taught Cherokee language and syllabary courses. He is
the honorary chair of the national endowment campaign of the Indigenous
Language Institute in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Studi also plays bass
guitar for the band Firecat of Discord, named after an Oneida
figure that appears during difficult times.
Screened by NMAI
Image credit:
Wes Studi - photograph by Amalia Cordova, NMAI; Wes Studi - photograph
by Margaret Sagan, NMAI
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