NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� The financial crisis of 2008 hit Mary Kathryn Nagle differently. As a playwright and a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, she saw parallels to events that negatively impacted Indigenous people centuries ago.
Her play 鈥淢anahatta鈥� juxtaposes the recent mortgage meltdown when thousands lost their homes to predatory lenders with the shady 17th-century Dutch who swindled and violently pushed Native Americans off their ancestral lands.
鈥淎 lot of times history does repeat itself," Nagle says. 鈥淚鈥檓 really interested in the ways in which we can connect to our past, carry it with us, learn from it, and maybe change outcomes so that we鈥檙e not just doomed to repeat the past in the present.鈥�
Nagle's 2018 play has landed in New York City and it's just the latest in a flowering of Native storytelling. From 鈥淒ark Winds鈥� and on TV to 鈥淧rey鈥� on the big screen and Larissa FastHorse becoming the first Indigenous female playwright on Broadway, barriers are being broken.
鈥淚 hope it鈥檚 not a moment. I hope it鈥檚 the beginning of an era,鈥� says FastHorse, a member of the Sicangu Lakota Nation and a 2020 MacArthur Fellow. 鈥淲e stand on the shoulders of so many folks that came before us.鈥�
In 2020, the University of California, Los Angeles that examined media content from 2018-2019 and found Native representation to be between 0.3%鈥�0.5% in film. In television or on stage, Native representation was virtually nonexistent. ( 9.7 million Americans claimed some Indigenous heritage in 2020, or 2.9% of the total U.S. population.)
鈥淭he truth was most theaters had never produced a single play by a Native playwright. Most Hollywood film studios had never produced any content actually written or produced by Natives. It may have been about some Native people, but it was not written by Native people. And we鈥檝e just seen that flipped on its head,鈥� Nagle said.
Non-Native storytellers are also exploring the history of white atrocities on Native Americans with Martin Scorsese鈥檚 telling the story of the Reign of Terror in Oklahoma, and documentary-maker Ken Burns examining an animal central to the Great Plains with
Nagle recalls moving to New York in 2010 and asking artistic directors of theaters why they weren't producing Native work. They would answer that they didn't know any Native playwrights or that there weren't enough Native audiences to power ticket sales.
鈥淕ood storytelling is good storytelling, whether the protagonist is white, Black, Asian, LGBTQ 鈥� it doesn鈥檛 matter,鈥� said Nagle, who is on the board of a nonprofit working to deal with the erasure of Native people.
鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot of projects out there that are changing the narrative and that are proving that our stories are powerful and that non-Natives are really moved by them because they鈥檙e good stories.鈥�
Madeline Sayet, a playwright and professor at Arizona State University who also runs the , sees the contemporary Native theater movement flowing from the Civil Rights Movement of the 鈥�60s and 鈥�70s and an increase in awareness of Indigenous issues ever since Native people won the right to legally practice their culture, art and religion.
She connects the Wounded Knee occupation of 1973 to the Standing Rock standoff over the in 2016 to Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S History鈥� winning the National Book Award this year.
Sayet, a member of the Mohegan Tribe who became the first Native playwright produced at the Public when her 鈥淲here We Belong鈥� made it in 2020, said keeping Indigenous stories being produced depends on changing funding structures and getting long-term commitments from theaters and programs like
鈥淧art of what鈥檚 really helping right now is us all creating more opportunities for each other instead of in competition with each other,鈥� she said.
FastHorse, who made history on Broadway in 2023 with her satirical comedy which follows white liberals trying to devise a culturally sensitive Thanksgiving play, has since turned her attention to helping rewrite some classic stage musicals to be more culturally sensitive.
鈥淣ative people have been exotified in a way that keeps us othered and separate, sometimes in a negative way, as in, 鈥榃e just kill all the Indians鈥� and sometimes in a 鈥榩ositive' way where they鈥檙e this special, magical thing.鈥�
She has recently reworked the book for an upcoming touring musical revival of the 1954 classic 鈥淧eter Pan,鈥� which was adapted by Jerome Robbins and has a score by Moose Charlap-Carolyn Leigh and additional songs by Jule Styne, Betty Comden and Adolph Green.
FastHorse found the character of Peter Pan complex, the pirates funny, the music enchanting but the depictions of Indigenous people and women appalling. There were references to 鈥渞edskins鈥� throughout, a nonsense song called 鈥淯gh-A-Wug鈥� and Tiger Lily fends off randy braves "with a hatchet.鈥�
鈥淚 was like, 'What? We鈥檙e having little kids read this? This is just rape culture written out, exoticized with a Native person to boot,鈥� she said. 鈥淭his is what makes you a good woman? If you fight hard enough to keep the men away?鈥�
FastHorse widened the concept of Native in the musical to encompass members of several under-pressure Indigenous cultures from all over the globe 鈥� Africa, Japan and Eastern Europe, among them 鈥� who have retreated to Neverland to preserve their culture until they can find a way back.
The playwright said one of her guiding principles in the reworking was to make sure a little Native girl in South Dakota could see herself and celebrate. 鈥淭hen we鈥檝e done our job and she can join the magic instead of having to armor herself against the magic.鈥�
Nagle is enjoying making her debut at the Public Theater 鈥� her play runs through Dec. 23 鈥� but is realistic that no one play is going to teach everyone every single lesson they need to know about Native people after hundreds of years of misinformation.
鈥淚 think one thing I鈥檓 just hoping that people take away from this play is like, 鈥榃ow, Native stories are really compelling. Native people are incredible. They鈥檙e incredibly resilient. They鈥檙e incredibly brilliant. Yes, there鈥檚 tragedy, but they have such incredible senses of humor,'鈥� she said.
鈥淚 want them to love my characters the way I love them. I want them to feel the heartache. I want them to feel the laughter. I want them to feel the love," she said. "And I want them to leave the theater just wanting to know more about our tribal nations and our Native people.鈥�
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Mark Kennedy is at
Mark Kennedy, The Associated Press
