White Fawn's Devotion (1910)

WHITE FAWN'S DEVOTION  (1910)  ¢ ¢ 1/2
    D: James Young Deer
    Princess Red Wing
An English trapper living in a log cabin with his Indian wife and their young daughter learns that he's come into a fortune, but he has to go away to get it. The Mrs. doesn't like that idea, and when he insists on going anyway, she stabs herself. Circumstantial evidence suggests that the trapper killed her, and the other Indians are about to kill him, when the wife shows up in the nick of time to save the day (or at least the trapper), because she wasn't dead, after all. That's the story and that's the film, which is thought to be the oldest existing movie directed by a Native American. According to the notes in the DVD package, James Young Deer made more than 100 pictures for Pathé between 1910 and 1913, but he was never credited on screen for them and most of his films from the period are lost. A forgotten pioneer. I'm not sure what it says about the movie's authenticity, but it looks like the actor playing the Indian chief is wearing a union suit. Complete title: "White Fawn's Devotion: A Play Acted By a Tribe of Red Indians In America".