The Vanishing American
(1925, 109 min. Color-tinted B&W) US
Director: George B. Seitz

Based upon a Zane Grey novel, Nophaie (played by 1920s heartthrob Richard Dix) returns to the Navajo reservation with other Navajo veterans of WWI where he confronts and fights the corruption that has taken root there while the soldiers were away. This melodrama starts with an odd quasi-anthropological reprise but becomes a stirring and poignant tale about the corruption of the official world put in charge of Native reservations and Native bravery.

Image credit: Audience at Club Red Radio, 2000 Native American Film and Video Festival - Photograph by Amalia Cordova, NMAI; Image from a poster for the original release