James Cameron may have raked in the dough with his movie “Avatar,” depicting a fictional paradise called Pandora – but he took it in the shorts from indigenous people, who found his Na’vi characters a caricature – and a simple-minded one that that – of Native people. (See previous Buffalo Post entry.)

Instead of getting defensive, Cameron got busy. He’s announced that his next film – in 3-D, of course – will focus on the fight by indigenous people (real ones) against Brazil’s giant Belo Monte dam project, which would destroy much of their lands.

In the video above, titled “A Message from Pandora,” Cameron talks about the project.

“It was heartbreaking,” he says, “Here were people whose lives were going to be altered irrevocably. … For these people, it’s the end of their world as they know it.”

Gwen Florio

Tags: "Avatar", A Message from Pandora, Belo Monte dam, Brazil, buffalo post, Gwen Florio, indigenous, James Cameron, Na'vi, Native American news, Pandora

James Cameron took a lot of heat (see previous post, here) for the way his blockbuster 3-D film “Avatar” seemed something of a rip-off of indigenous culture.

Now the Hollywood director has traveled to the Amazon on behalf of indigenous people who are fighting Brazilian government’s huge Belo Monte dam project — a cause, he says, that’s inspiring work on an “Avatar” sequel. He says he’s planning to go back this week with actress Sigourney Weaver and at least one other member of Avatar’s cast, the New York Times reports here.

The Times says of the project:

It would be the third largest in the world, and environmentalists say it would flood hundreds of square miles of the Amazon and dry up a 60-mile stretch of the Xingu River, devastating the indigenous communities that live along it. For years the project was on the shelf, but the government now plans to hold an April 20 auction to award contracts for its construction.

Stopping the dam has become a fresh personal crusade for the director, who came here as indigenous leaders from 13 tribes held a special council to discuss their last-ditch options. It was Mr. Cameron’s first visit to the Amazon, he said, even though he based the fictional planet in “Avatar” on Amazon rain forests. Still, he found the real-life similarities to the themes in his movie undeniable. …

Mr. Cameron, 55, first encountered the cause in February, after being presented with a letter from advocacy organizations and Native American groups saying they wanted Mr. Cameron to highlight “the real Pandoras in the world,” referring to the lush world under assault in his movie.

” We have to try to stop this dam,” says Cameron, who’s writing to Brazil’s president, seeking a meeting and urging him to stop the dam. “Their whole way of life, their society as they know it, depends on it.”

Gwen Florio

Tags: "Avatar", Amazon, Belo Monte dam, Brazil, buffalo post, Gwen Florio, indigenous, James Cameron, Native American news

Each campaign season manages to surprise us anew with the creative ways in which candidates attack one another.

Native Americans news takes to the campaign trail today with this year’s early frontrunner in that particular category. It comes from J.D. Hayworth, the Republican primary opponent of former presidential candidate John McCain of Arizona, with an ad that McCain terms a slap to Native Americans. (See the ad on Hayworth’s Web site, here.)

The ad depicts McCain in blue warpaint, a la the Na’vi people in the blockbuster movie “Avatar,” and spoofs him as the Oscar nominee for “Best Conservative Actor.”

Lots of people see the Na’vi in the movie as a sort of Native people in space, and McCain took that tack when blasting the ad. As Fox News recounts here:

“Ex-Congressman J.D. Hayworth should immediately apologize and take down his latest online ad, which is an outrageous offense to John McCain’s lifetime of honorable service to our state and nation, and insulting to Native Americans here in Arizona and across America,” McCain campaign manager Shiree Verdone said Thursday in a written statement.

Hayworth’s campaign suggested that McCain get a sense of humor.

But a member of the Navajo Nation contacted by Fox wasn’t laughing:

“Several staff assistants in the president’s office (who are Navajo) took a look and agreed that, at best, whatever message is trying to be conveyed is muddled and, at worst, some native people will find it offensive,” spokesman George Hardeen said in an e-mail message.

“No other ethnic group is so frequently publically maligned in this very fashion, and here we have a candidate for U.S. Senate succumbing to the temptation of using images of race to bait an opponent,” he said.

Meanwhile, we’re heading off to the store for some hip waders to get us through what promises to be a long and very muddy campaign season.

Gwen Florio

Tags: "Avatar", Arizona Republican Senate primary, buffalo post, ethnic stereotyping, Gwen Florio, J.D. Hayworth, Na'vi, Native American news, Navajo Nation, Politics, R-Ariz., U.S. Sen. John McCain

James Cameron, whose “Avatar,” has been mocked in some quarters as “Dances With Wolves” in space (see previous post here), recently screened the film for tribal leaders in Ecuador.

They hadn’t seen “Dances With Wolves.”

No, they had a different criticism of the film and its giant blue Na’vi people, according to the New York Times’ Carpetbagger blog, here:

Then there was an Ecuadorean tribal leader who, having watched the movie, took issue with its seeming insistence on armed resistance, rather than mere dialogue, in defense of the environment.

“This movie needed a better message,” Mr. Cameron recalled being told by the elder.

“Wow!” he added. “I’ve been schooled.”

Gwen Florio

Tags: "Avatar", Avatar movie, buffalo post, Ecuador, Gwen Florio, indigenous, James Cameron, Na'vi, Native American news

The Press Trust of India gets into the “Avatar” commentary with this piece pointing to the “Avatar”/”Pocahontas” comparisons making the rounds on the Web.

“A complete rip-off” the Press Trust calls “Avatar,” and offers this harsh commentary:

“Titanic” director James Cameron spent 12 years waiting for the technology to make his dream project ‘Avatar’ but it seems that he did not have time to work on the story. He instead decided to get “inspired.”

Anyhow, we’ve posted one of the videos above, but there are lots. Here’s something to think about – what’s going to be the next film that, um, inspires yet another comparison?

Gwen Florio

Tags: "Avatar", "Dances With Wolves", "Pocahontas", buffalo post, James Cameron, Native American news

Buffalo Post and other news outlets began writing back in August about the dangers that the H1N1 – or swine flu – virus poses to Native people.

Nearly six months ago, it had already become apparent that the virus hit Native communities – which are often isolated and poor, with people living and going to school in overcrowded buildings – were suffering disproportionately.

In some First Nations reserves in Canada, leaders declared a state of emergency, and there was a brief scandal when the government responded, in one case, by sending body bags to the northern reserves.

Last week, the federal Centers for Disease Control released a report that detailed what everybody already knew. In the dozen states studied, Native people made up 9 percent of the deaths from H1N1, even though they only constitute 3.3 percent of the population.

Now the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has releaesed a video, urging Native people to get vaccinated against H1N1.

Wes Studi, the Cherokee actor from “Avatar,” “The Only Good Indian,” and “Dances With Wolves,” urges people to “take three” to protect themselves.

Get your shot. Wash your hands. And if you get sick, take medicine – and protect the circle of life.

Gwen Florio

Tags: "Avatar", "Dances With Wolves", "The Only Good Indian", buffalo post, Centers for Disease Control, H1N1 influenza, Native American news, Swine flu, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Wes Studi

Tags: "Avatar", "Dances With Wolves", buffalo post, Na'vi, Native American news

A lot of folks are having way too much fun whomping on “Avatar.” The latest is David Brooks at the New York Times, who goes beyond the old “Dances With Wolves”-in-space criticism and also invokes “A Man Called Horse” and “Pocahontas” – only in blueface, of course.

“Would it be totally annoying,” Brooks wonders here, “to point out that the whole White Messiah fable, especially as Cameron applies it, is kind of offensive?”

It rests on the stereotype that white people are rationalist and technocratic while colonial victims are spiritual and athletic. It rests on the assumption that nonwhites need the White Messiah to lead their crusades. It rests on the assumption that illiteracy is the path to grace. It also creates a sort of two-edged cultural imperialism. Natives can either have their history shaped by cruel imperialists or benevolent ones, but either way, they are going to be supporting actors in our journey to self-admiration.

Well, yeah, a lot of people are going to find that annoying. And a lot of other people are going to find it annoying but will kick back and enjoy the special effects, anyway. We expect we’ll fall into that latter category, when we finally get up the gumption to brave the crowds at the multiplex.

Gwen Florio

Tags: "A Man Called Horse", "Avatar", "Dances With Wolves", "Pocahontas", buffalo post, David Brooks, James Cameron

Studi's character Eytukan

Not only has the hard-working, award-winning Cherokee actor had his share of roles in movies about Native people – “Geronimo: An American Legend,” “Last of the Mohicans,” or “Dances with Wolves,” and most recently “The Only Good Indian” – those roles have a certain similarity.

As the Tulsa (Okla.) Native Times points out here, the characters usually stand up to power.

Well, Studi’s at it again, this time in James Cameron’s 3-D blockbuster “Avatar,” which has been called “Dances With Wolves in Space.” That’s because the indigenous population on the film’s planet Pandora, the Na’vi, look strikingly Native American – only, you know, with cornrows and blue skins and pointy Spock ears. As the Native Times reports of Studi:

He recently spoke at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian about tapping into the warrior role. It’s “almost therapeutic how easy it is to get into that mindset of warrior-ism,” Studi said. “You kind of think of the injustice Indian people lived through. It’s pretty easy to draw from the kind of feeling. You have a completely different aggression than the white folks.”

In real life, Studi has been honored for his work to preserve Native languages. In “Avatar,” Studi and the other actors had to learn the Na’vi language, created especially for the movie.

No problem, says Studi.

“Because I do speak another tongue besides English,” Studi says, “my tongue is more willing to take chances.”

Gwen Florio

Tags: "Avatar", "Dances With Wolves", "Geronimo: An American Legend", "Last of the Mohicans", "The Only Good Indian", buffalo post, Eytukan, Na'vi, Native Amerian films, Native American news, Wes Studi