Is it getting better?  Or is it getting worse? 

If you’re an optimist, you are deemed too stubborn or naïve to see the obstacles the handwringers and naysayers sulkily embrace.  You know what obstacles I’m talking about, right? 

…It’s hopeless.  If you’re poor and Native you will never  make it in the movie industry. 

…It’s hopeless.  Hollywood won’t cast Indians. It won’t It won’t It won’t. 

…It’s hopeless.  Hollywood’s idea of Indians is Geronimo, Little Big Horn, Pocahontas, tomahawks, and tipis. It won’t change. It never will.  

…It’s hopeless.  How can a guy or gal with a $50,000 budget write, film, edit and cast a movie that anybody in their right-flippin’ mind will want to watch? 

…It’s hopeless.  Audiences will never fill a theatre to see a story about Indians. Nobody wants to see reservation life. Nobody wants to see casinos. Nobody (meaning White folks) won’t pay ten bucks to watch Indians as funny, sexy, educated, dysfunctional, contemporary North Americans. 

Know what?  Some of the above may be true. 

Know what else?  All of the above will change. 

Nevertheless, the handwringers and naysayers are not bashful to tell us how we’re misguided (code: dumbass Pollyannas) for even attempting to  promote the concept of Native performing arts.  They snicker, they patronize, they write us off as wasting time on the…hopeless.  Why not, I’ve been “advised,” throw our energy into something more worthwhile (code: safe and popular) rather than promoting the art of an ethnic group that comprises less than two percent of the population? (code: wasting our time on a money-loser.)  

It should come as no surprise that many of the handwringers and naysayers aren’t Native themselves.  It should come as a surprise that some of them are.  

Is it getting better?  Or is it getting worse? 

It’s getting better.  

There’s too much talent in Native America clamoring for a voice.  There’s too much energy with the infusion of Native media outlets and the web and dumbass Pollyannas who are Indian and White and from North America to the Netherlands and are certainly stubborn, but not naïve.  Yes, it’s getting better. 

Meanwhile, the handwringers and naysayers will be doing what handwringers and naysayers can always, always, always be counted on to do.  

Which is follow. 

Which is why the dumbass Pollyannas will lead the way.