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TV shows take on a variety of topics including politics, culture and crime. Regular Native American characters are not common in most series, but many shows do take on the topic of Native Americans for one episode. Have you ever seen the Seinfeld episode with the cigar store Indian? What about the episode of the X-files that takes place on a reservation? On this show we’ll discuss when TV shows attempt their “Native American Episode.” We’ll cover plot twists, stereotypes, and general misinformation. What is your favorite “Native American Episode?”
E-mail your favorite show to comments@nativeamericacalling.com
Guests:
Kimberly Norris Guerrero (Colville, Salish-Kooteni and Cherokee) – actress
Rachel Cassidy (Cherokee) – owner, Rae of Light Productions
Break Music: My Winter Song (song) Andrea Menard (artist) Sparkle (album)
Nice interview with Kim Guerrero. In 2008, Castle Rock, the production company of “Seinfeld” was so excited that we were asking to screen the “Cigar Store Indian” episode at the National Museum of the American Indian, that they donated a copy of it to our collection.
I called in to mention a Chris Isaak Show episode from 2004 called “The Family of Man.” In the episode, Chris Isaak tries to use his celebrity to skirt important legal guidelines for archeological excavations when builders of his luxury home unearth Native objects while digging the foundation. He offers to play the local tribal casino, in the hopes that his new friends will allow him to skip the excavation. The subplot is one of Chris’s band members discovers he is “part Native American” and ends up physically inserting himself into a museum exhibit at the local tribal casino museum in an attempt to “discover” himself. Certainly an episode to track down.