Subtitles:

• None (English Intertitles)

Extras:

• Introduction by Dr. Bob Blackburn (4:39)

• Finding the Film: (Bill Moore, Oklahoma Historical Society) (5:56)

• Heritage: Darren Twohatchet, Comanche (7:48)

• Heritage: Dorothy Whitehorse: Kiowa (6:28)

• Magdalena Becker: (William D. Welge, Oklahoma Historical Society) (3:35)

• The Music Score: (Mark Parker, Oklahoma City, University School of Music) (3:52)

• The Music Score: (Benjamin Nilles, Oklahoma City University Symphony) (3:02)

On October 17, 1920, audience members at the College Theater in Los Angeles were treated to a “sneak preview” of a new movie — a drama featuring a cast entirely made up of Native Americans. Motion Picture News called it “an original and breath-taking adventure.” A year later, the film played in Topeka, Kansas to little fanfare — we only know about the engagement because the theater placed a few small ads in a local newspaper. These two showings are the only known screenings of THE DAUGHTER OF DAWN, a large-scale production of Comanche and Kiowa life created by Norbert Myles and the Texas Film Company. After that, the film disappeared for nearly a century—without a trace.

Cinema, the twentieth century’s great art form, proved to be a powerful means for preserving history even as it also perpetuated myths and stereotypes. Although fascinated with images of the “wild west,” very few Silent films ever attempted to capture Native American life with the active participation of tribe members. Instead, most films set in the west were centered on white settlers, cowboys and soldiers and Native Americans characters were often played by white actors. But the few films that were created with the cooperation of tribal members, such as In the Land of the Head Hunters [which Milestone will be releasing in a brand-new restoration in 2013] and The Silent Enemy remain invaluable documents of KwaKwaka’wakw and Ojibway life. Alhough created by white filmmakers for general release, these films recorded legends and cultural history as handed down by tribal elders.

But time has not been kind to Silent cinema. Only 78% of films made before 1929 still exist and independent films were especially vulnerable to destruction and loss. So it was a lucky day when a private detective who had received some nitrate film reels in exchange for payment contacted Brian Hearn at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art. It turned out that his “fee” was an incredibly rare film, THE DAUGHTER OF DAWN, previously known only through articles and photos from the 1920s and a copy of the script at the Library of Congress. And miraculously, the film was complete and in excellent condition. The Oklahoma Historical Society with assistance of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian then acquired the precious film and set out to restore it.

The film features an "all-Indian cast...shot in Indian Country", with over 300 people from the Comanche and Kiowa tribes acting in the film, including White and Wanada Parker, children of Quannah Parker. The cast wore their own clothing and brought their own personal items, including tepees. The film features the "Tipi with Battle Pictures", which is a tepee in the collection of the Oklahoma Historical Society. There are lances and tomahawks in the film which represent honors earned in war by the Kiowa. Daughter of Dawn was filmed in May, June and July 1920. The filming took place in the Wichita Mountains.

The Daughter of Dawn was one of many docudramas that tended to romanticize Native American culture and lifestyle during the early 1910s and '20s. Other films of the period that boasted of all-Indian casts included In the Land of the Head Hunters (1914); Hiawatha (1913), shot by F.E. Moore's production company; The Vanishing Race, a 1917 film made by the Edison Studios; and Before the White Man Came (1920), which employed Crow Indians and Cheyenne Indians as actors.

The film score was never completed.

Gary Tooze

July 1st, 2016