'I’m an Indian Inside': Russian Interpretations of American Indian Powwows in Bea Medicine’s Seeking the Spirit: Plains Indians in Russia

• In Event: Convergent Roads: Discourses of Peace and Conflict among American Indian, Euro-American and Russian Cultures

Abstract

Directed by Liucija Baskauskas and produced by Bea Medicine, the film “Seeking the spirit: Plains Indians in Russia” (2005) shows a group of Russians and Lithuanians holding a powwow outside of St. Petersburg. Several hundred men, women and children create an “Indian village” and
powwow arena in a Russian forest where they live and dance for a month each summer. What is unique about this documentary of the Russian “powwow” is the producer’s decision to take the raw footage of the Russians and show it to Ogallala Lakota back in South Dakota, USA. The film then shows the Indian reactions to watching the Russian’s interpretations of American Indian culture. This paper explicates the Russian views on why they want to “be like Indians” and why they believe there is a similarity between their culture and what they think is central to “Indian culture.” This includes their views on modern life, the relationship of humans to nature, and the
choices made for coping with a changing world. American Indian interpretations of the Russian versions of Indian culture include discussions of the way cultural artifacts and used and misused, and their views on whether one culture should try to emulate another. In addition to this exegesis of Seeking the spirit, descriptions are provided of the reaction Indians from other Plains tribes have to the film as a whole. U-Mo'n-Ho'n (Omaha), Ho-Chunk (Winnebago), Ponca, and Santee students provide their interpretation of the Ogallala Lakota interpretations of the Russian interpretations of Indians.

Author

• Charles Braithwaite, University of Nebraska, Lincoln