_Powwow Highway_: Questions for Thought & Discussion

As you watch Pow Wow Highway, consider the following questions:

1. What are the generic conventions of Pow Wow Highway--what "kind" of film is it? From whose point of view do we experience the story?
2. How are Indians represented in the film? What "types" of Indians does the film present? 
3. What is significant about the representation of Native people and Native life in the film, especially in the historical context of representations of Indians in film, and from an indigenous rather than dominant culture or mainstream perspective?
4. What are some of the conflicts in the film, and how do they reflect Indian historical reality, but on the reservation and at Pine Ridge?
5. What scenes might be trying to convey a traditionally Native way of seeing the world, of reality, of combining the every day with the mythic?
6. Buddy is a political activist with little use for Cheyenne tradition. Does Buddy "enlarge" his identity as a Cheyenne over the course of the film? Consider the scene when Buddy Red Bow uses the car window as a war shield.
7. How does Philbert embrace tradition in unexpected ways? Consider Philbert's connection to his car/pony. In what ways does Philbert function as a traditional trickster figure? 
8. Native people generally tend to like this movie.  Why might that be true?  
9. Do you think this movie is anti-colonial?  In what way?
10. How does this movie relate to the other movies we have watched in this course?