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HBO:
What were your initial thoughts about Bury
My Heart at Wounded Knee?
Adam Beach:
I knew coming into the project that obviously
this story needs to be told from the
perspective of how the [U.S.] government was
involved in trying to take the lands of the
Indians and resettle them on these
reservation systems. But also show the
struggles that Indian people have with just
standing up for their sovereign right as
peoples. And the importance of showing this
is just enormous. We need to tell this story.
HBO:
What has the shoot been like so far?
Adam Beach:
Well, HBO hasn't put a limit on anything.
They want the best. Today I was doing a
scene where I've given up, I've lost my soul,
my spirit. And what (director) Yves (Simoneau) did
was he had me do it like nine different times.
He had me do a version where I'm letting go, a
version where I'm angry, sad, because he
wanted to find the right moment. I've never
worked with anybody who does that. Usually, a director has an interpretation of
what they think, but here Yves wanted to
really search and use me as a tool of emotion.
We were all exploring together, finding that
deep value of really interpreting the truth
behind this story.
HBO:
What were your first impressions about your
character?
Adam Beach:
Well, I play Charles Eastman. And the first
thing I did was hire a voice coach who could
help me with the details of this era, 'cause
man, that was the toughest thing for me, was
just to explore that world of being a
distinguished Victorian gentleman, and
walking and talking a certain way. And the
way they saw things, their values, how they
wore their clothes. There were so many
details. So that was really exciting learning
about all that.
I learned that Charles Eastman was a product
of assimilation by the government. He did
succeed in becoming an educated man, but
what he came to realize is that if you lose your
culture and traditions, you lose your identity
not only as an Indian, but as a part of society.
He learned that in the end it didn't matter
how educated he was if he was not helping his
people. It didn't matter at all.
And in the story you see how much he loses of
himself because there's nothing he can do to
help his people move forward when there's a
government pushing them and killing them
off.
HBO:
What do you think the government was trying
to accomplish through assimilation, and what
do you think actually happened?
Adam Beach:
The idea was to help motivate the Indian
people by molding them into becoming part of
white society. But what they didn't realize is that
you can't get rid of the Indian. You can't take
away their identity to make them a part of
another society. And that's where the conflict
was: they didn't realize that as Indian people,
they already embodied a tradition that
connected to Mother Earth and there was a
spiritual guidance; everything was already
laid down in stone. The Indians didn't want
to change. So there was this idea being forced
onto a people that had been living this valued
life for generations. And that's where it went
wrong. The government didn't want to understand the
lifestyle and culture and traditions of the
Indian.
HBO:
And the legacy of this assimilation has had a
lasting impact on American Indian peoples to
this day, hasn't it?
Adam Beach:
Absolutely. One of the things I want people to
understand with this film is that the tragedy
of Indian people across North America still
exists. You know, everybody wonders why we
are the way we are today. There's so much that comes from this story. I
want people to understand how in the late
1800s, the government and the
churches established residential schools,
boarding schools to rid the Indian, to bring
them into society, and to destroy their culture
and tradition.
And if you can imagine people trying to tell
you being Indian is bad, is wrong - your
culture, your tradition is dealing with the
devil. It affects my generation, why is my world so much more of a
struggle? It's because after a hundred years
of this manipulation of 'you're not a good
person,' it really affects us.
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Adam Beach and Aidan Quinn in "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee."
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Our generation is starting to understand that
we have to rid ourselves of this subconscious mentality
that you're a bad person. That's gonna take
time. But I've come to understand where the
pain comes from in living on a reservation, at
being corralled onto a little piece of land.
A lot of the generation that I speak for now
are just starting to come out of it, to say, we
are proud, we are a strong people. We have
traditions that could teach the world how to
relate with Mother Earth, how to relate with
themselves, to the animals, to plants, to a
stone, to the trees. I could go on.
HBO:
How did your own personal experiences feed into your work on this role?
Adam Beach:
Charles Eastman has to see a lot of his people
die. And for me, when I was eight years old,
my mother was hit by a drunk driver and she
was eight months pregnant and she died in
front of my house in a ditch. And then two
months later, my dad, he drowned. He was
drinking a lot and under medication for
depression.
And after those two experiences, I've had to
grow up with this loss. Once you lose your
parents, you get this numbness, this feeling of
having to really be able to connect yourself
with someone. I depended on my brothers for
that connection, but to have that feeling of
being taken care of...I lost it when my parents
passed away.
So with Charles Eastman having to see his
people die, there's an easy connection with having to hold in all those feeling of loss. And the thing I want people to learn with Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, is that
this incident is just one of many. They chose "Wounded Knee" as the story to tell, but this has happened throughout history with many different tribes across North America. And I hope people understand that these stories have to be told truthfully from a
perspective where you get to feel what these
people have gone through.
HBO:
Tell us about the American Indian community
today, and your involvement with it.
Adam Beach:
One of the things I've come to understand is
that I'm a role model for my people. For the
past ten years, I've been going to schools and
talking to kids, and just motivating them to
understand that we can succeed in our hopes
and dreams if we really work hard. I think
what we have now is definitely a stronger
unity amongst all Indian peoples in North
America. We're coming together. But I think
our ultimate strength is to be rid of this
mentality that we cannot succeed.
When I was sixteen I started acting, and I also
started to embrace my tradition and culture.
I had a young medicine man interpret for me
what it is to be an Indian. He really caught me
at a good time because I was really vulnerable
after the loss of my parents with all of the
feelings of abandonment. I went in a bad
direction.
And when two of these opportunities came to
me--finding out who I was as a native person,
but also redirecting it with the hope of
becoming a good actor, it really broke a mold.
I've learned that for Indian people, the
opportunity for us to succeed is very slim. So
acting was a great tool for that. And in the
process of learning about my culture, I've
learned how to connect myself again to my
ancestors. I've been doing that since I was
sixteen, and I'm thirty-four now.
So now I've come to understand that we, as a
people, have a lot to share with the world.
And I continue to teach people what I've
learned. I go to South Dakota for ceremonies
when I have the time. And when you learn
what the Indian peoples have gone through to
hold onto their culture and traditions...wow,
it's an amazing story.
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