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FINDING THE RIGHT GUY FOR AN IMPORTANT ROLE
DOCUMENTARIAN CASTS LOCAL NON-ACTOR FOR FILM
By GINGER MIKKELSEN
The View/Las Vegas RJ - Wednesday, January 15, 2003
 Las
Vegas resident Leon Yazzie was working at a pawn and antiques shop
when he was discovered by a documentary filmmaker. Local movie man
Stan Armstrong liked Yazzie's look and knew the full-blooded Navajo
would be perfect for the part of Stand Waitie, the only American
Indian to attain the rank of general in the Confederate Army.
"You look at Leon and he just has a classic look, like someone
out of a John Wayne movie," Armstrong said.
Yazzie was whisked off to Missouri to film an upcoming project detailing
the participation of American Indians in the Civil War.
A 15-minute promotional trailer for the Native American film was
shown at a Native American film festival held in November in downtown
Las Vegas, and the trailer also has been running on the University
of Nevada, Las Vegas, public television station. But Armstrong said
the full film probably won't be released until next November, as
the director currently has his hands full now promoting his documentary
"Black Confederates: The Forgotten Men in Gray."
Yazzie said he can't wait for the American Indian film to come out.
The local goldsmith and pawn shop manager was one of several Las
Vegans tapped for the upcoming movie. He performs as Waitie in re-enactment
segments.
Though Yazzie spoke no lines in the film, he still took great pains
to study his character by reading books, watching films and talking
to experts.
"It's all still so new to me," Yazzie said. "A lot
of people don't know too much about the American Civil War. All
they know is Ken Burns."
Through his studies, Yazzie learned Waitie was well-respected and
powerful. The confederate officer was the last general to surrender
at the end of the Civil War. Waitie gave up the fight June 23, 1865,
two months after Gen. Robert E. Lee's surrender.
The film also will cover the efforts of American Indians fighting
on the Union side of the war. Harry Goodwolf Kindness, a local man
of Iroquois decent, was chosen to play the role of Ely Parker. Parker
served as an aide to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, and was present at Gen.
Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox Courthouse. According to
Armstrong, Parker helped draft the terms of Lee's surrender.
Armstrong was inspired to work on both the "Black Confederates"
and the American Indian film in part to honor his own heritage.
Both the filmmaker's parents are black, but his great-great-grandfather
was a full-blooded Choctaw. An ancestor on his mother's side was
a black Confederate soldier.
Through his studies, Armstrong learned that many of the American
Indians fought in the Civil War because like the whites around them,
they owned slaves.
Yazzie said he hates to hear that whites were not the only ones
to hold slaves.
"I have a hard time believing it," he said.
But Armstrong said the possibility can't be hidden.
"We can't hide from our past," the director said. "The
documentary on black Confederates and the Native American work is
opening up a lot of eyes for blacks and whites. But it's all there
in the history books."
Armstrong said the participation of American Indians in the Civil
War is a topic Hollywood hasn't detailed. Other than "The Outlaw
Josey Wales," a film that tells the side tale of Loan Waitie,
a fictional stand-in for Stand Waitie, few films delve into the
subject. Armstrong said he hopes that will change.
"The only new thing in this life is the history you don't know,"
he said.
In telling stories from the Civil War, Armstrong said he strives
to fairly tell both sides of the story, in spite of his personal
heritage.
"I think, as a filmmaker, I have to look at both sides,"
he said. "You have to weigh the odds. We can never understand
what it was like to be a part of that time."
Armstrong said it's too easy to just pass judgment against slave-owning
American Indian Confederates.
"We sit here with our MTV and our cellular phones and we have
it made. In doing the re-enactments for the movies and being a part
of the society, it gave me more of a sympathetic look at the way
people like Stand Waitie had to live," he said. "He was
doing what he thought was good for his people at the time. As a
director, I have to look at things from both sides.
"We as Americans have a lot of skeletons. We should be able
to embrace our past in order to look forward to our future. Without
knowing our past, where can we go? I learn so much about myself
from learning where I came from."
Once the American Indian film is completed, Armstrong hopes to explore
the history of west Las Vegas.
"I don't want to be the Civil War guy anymore," he said.
"I love the period, but I'd rather explore Las Vegas."
In the future, Armstrong hopes to collect and tell the stories of
more than just the former Moulin Rouge casino.
"Most people don't know about Jackson Street, the Mecca of
west Las Vegas. It was like the Strip for blacks," he said.
As for Yazzie, he said he loved playing an American Indian Confederate,
but has no intentions of hitting the movie screen full-time any
time soon.
"I'm too old to do that, but I'd still love to learn more about
things behind and in front of the camera," he said.
Copyright © 2003, Las Vegas Review Journal
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