Native American Drama

AMERICAN DRAMA Critical Survey of Drama NATIVE AMERICAN DRAMA Indian Theater Ensemble resolved not only to rectify the cultural image of the Native American but also to Introduction produce a body of drama intended primarily for the Indian community. Native American drama is both contemporary and lost in time, readily accessible and nearly irretrievable, familiar in form and uncharted in contour. This double aspect of Hanay Geiogamah what can be considered the drama of Native Americans A key figure in the history of contemporary Native comes from two separate bodies of work: one, an eth- American drama is playwright Hanay Geiogamah. His nic drama that flourished in the last three decades of the work is well represented in two anthologies of Native twentieth century and continues to flourish; the other, American drama: Seventh Generation: An Anthology a living art form tied to religion, ritual, and dance that of Native American Plays (1999) and Stories of Our began to perish at the end of the nineteenth century with Way: An Anthology of American Indian Plays (1999). the increasing removal of Indian peoples to reservations Of Kiowa and Delaware background, Geiogamah was and that is now all but lost as a vibrant form. active in the crucial founding years of the American Indian Theatre Ensemble, which produced his one-act Historical Background play Body Indian (pr. 1972). Contemporary Native American drama, like the drama Body Indian is a difficult play and demonstrates the of other American minority groups, was born in the problems Native American playwrights face in creating cultural revolution of the late 1960’s and early 1970’s a new, realistic drama based on contemporary Native as the success of the Civil Rights movement and the American life. At first reading, the play seems to be about failure of the Vietnam War became apparent to most alcoholism (a disease that has disproportionately plagued Americans. As the viewpoint of a single dominant Native Americans since early European settlers used racial group loosened its hold on the culture, the valid- alcohol as an item of trade), and its realism is intense and ity of other viewpoints was considered. Drama was a shocking. Bobby, in his thirties, is alcoholic; he has lost a powerful tool in this cultural revolution. Black play- leg in a drunken stupor on the railroad tracks. As the play wright Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun (pr. begins, he arrives at his Indian “uncle’s” apartment with 1959) gave Americans an unforgettable glimpse of the two of his aunts. The group gathered there has been drink- dignity and self-defined agency of an African Ameri- ing for some time, as have Bobby and his aunts. There is can family. Frank Chin and other Asian American play- some socializing and more drinking. Then Bobby, who wrights established a theater group that would educate has hidden in his artificial leg some money he plans to the United States about issues such as the atrocities of use to enter a detoxification program, passes out. The Angel Island, the heroism of workers on the transcon- group of friends and relatives move toward him, intent tinental railroad, and the unnecessary humiliation of on finding some cash to restock the dwindling wine sup- the Japanese American internment camps. ply. Before the play ends, Bobby has been robbed a half The American Indian Theatre Ensemble, founded dozen times; his money is gone, and his uncle is about to in 1972 and changed to the Native American Thea- leave the apartment to pawn Bobby’s artificial leg. tre Ensemble in 1973, took on the tremendous and The problem for a mainstream audience is the exhilarating task of presenting, through drama, Native tone of the play: The intense realism seems to be the Americans in their own terms. The figure of the tool of social tragedy. In an interview in a special Indian in American literature, as in popular literature “Ethnic Theater” issue (1989-1990) of the multicul- and culture of several centuries, was a misrepresen- tural literary journal Melus celebrating the first ten tation, skewered between the misbegotten poles of years of the New WORLD Theater, Geiogamah him- the uncivilized “savage” and the romantic keeper of self admits to being unsure of the play’s tone before nature’s secrets. In a labor no less Herculean than that he took it to a Native American audience. That audi- of African American dramatists, Native American ence’s reaction to the humorous side of the play made playwrights tried to shake themselves free of centuries the playwright realize he had created a tragicom- of stereotypes to create realistic characters conceived edy, one that not only successfully brought a social from their own personal experiences. The American problem into the light of community attention but 36 Critical Survey of Drama AMERICAN DRAMA also emphasized the indigenous communities’ ability between a desire to flee the reservation and a need to to survive the most hopeless of situations. The “sar- protect his younger sister from the threat of sexual abuse donic smile” that the stage directions indicate Bobby from his mother’s current boyfriend. Help and guid- is wearing as he surveys his final state in the play ance are provided by his aunt Thelma, who retains the has been linked to the Coyote/Trickster character in healing ways of the community. Eddie, only a teenager Native American mythology: Have we been tricked himself, forces his mother to sign papers documenting into overlooking the humor of the play? her boyfriend’s sexual abuse and signing over custody The play also functions at a symbolic level, as the of his sister to his aunt before he leaves home. Eddie’s title Body Indian suggests: Bobby represents the impov- vitality and instinctive turning to healing ways mark a erished Native American population, bled of vitality to turning away from an attitude of helpless victimization. a level at which victims begin to victimize each other. Yellow Robe has been an articulate spokesperson Sound effects of drum and rattles compete with the for Native American theater. Interviewed for the special sound of an approaching train and train whistle; stage “Ethnic Theater” issue of Melus by Roberta Uno, an directions indicate that the cast freezes at this symbolic Asian American playwright and then artistic director of annunciation of European modernity, the soulless cul- New WORLD Theater, the Montana writer spoke out on ture that has terrorized the Native American population differing expectations of mainstream and minority play- as it displaced them from their homelands. wrights. Although mainstream writers are seen as pos- Another play by Geiogamah is 49 (pr. 1975). This sessing individual voices, minority authors are seen as upbeat play deals with the kind of social gathering of spokespersons for their people, he asserted. Commenting primarily young Native Americans called the “49.” The on his own choice to work on the East Coast rather than event begins after midnight and lasts through the night; the West Coast, Yellow Robe pointed out that, for many it is a social, sexual, and spiritual event during which Westerners, the idea of paying money to see Indians per- young Native Americans discard their apathy toward form onstage is totally alien. tradition and sing the songs of the tribe. The vitality of In his one-act play Sneaky (pr. 1987), Yellow a whole people flows back into them, and they actively Robe constructs a rebellion against the meaningless- resist police efforts to break up their gathering. The ness of modernity. The three Rose brothers, all in their pace of the play is quick as scenes alternate between thirties, steal their mother’s body from a funeral parlor the choruslike prophecies of Night Walker, the ceremo- in order to give her a traditional funeral and send her nial leader, and the looming confrontation between the back to her people properly. A good deal of comedy young group and the police. The tone of the play is the ensues as Frank, the oldest and the mastermind of the polar opposite of Body Indian; the resistance and hope plan, tries to convince the others while supervising of the young people in the play reflect the increasing Kermit, the youngest, who is in an alcoholic haze. The optimism and activism of the mid-1970’s. act pulls the three brothers together; in the final scene, their mother’s body is placed in a tree and, searching William S. Yellow Robe, Jr. for an Indian way to pray, they create an “Our Father” Another influential and prolific playwright is William prayer that deconstructs modernity. S. Yellow Robe, Jr., an Assiniboine Sioux from the Fort Peck reservation in Montana. He has been asso- Other Modern Playwrights ciated with the Sante Fe Institute of American Indian Like every form of minority drama, Native Ameri- Arts (IAIA), where he taught playwriting for three can drama has to fight against indifference and lack of years beginning in 1993. The IAIA had been running knowledge on the part of some mainstream audiences. a training program in indigenous theater for several The playwright must be aware that he or she is also writ- years at the time Yellow Robe joined the faculty. Like ing for audiences who may not be aware that Indians still Geiogamah, Yellow Robe employs a social realism in exist. This creates a double burden of the need to educate his plays that is tempered with the moderating influ- as well as to create vibrant drama, a heavy load for any ence of memory and tradition. playwright to incorporate into a single play. Yellow Robe’s The Independence of Eddie Rose Roxy Gordon and Leanne Howe, both Choctaws, (pr.

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