| White Fawn's Devotion | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | James Young Deer (uncredited) |
| Written by | James Young Deer (uncredited) |
| Starring | Princess Red Wing |
| Distributed by | Pathé Frères |
| Release date(s) | June 18, 1910 |
| Running time | 11 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | silent with English intertitles |
White Fawn's Devotion: A Play Acted by a Tribe of Red Indians in America is a 1910 American short dramatic silent film. The film, which features Princess Red Wing as "White Fawn", was shot in New Jersey at 24fps.[1]
White Fawn's Devotion is the earliest surviving film directed by a Native American, and also the first film shot in America by the French company Pathé. In 2008, it was added to the United States National Film Registry as being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Contents |
When a settler in the Dakotas gets word that he is to inherit a large fortune, his Native American wife is upset. Believing that she will lose her husband if he returns east, she stabs herself with a knife. Her husband finds her and removes the knife, only to have their daughter see him with the knife in his hand and her dead mother.[2]
James Young Deer (also known as J. Younger Johnston), the uncredited director and writer of White Fawn's Devotion, was the first documented Native American film director. A member of the Winnebago tribe, Young Deer was hired by Pathé Frères as a director and scenario writer, and frequently worked in collaboration with his wife Lillian St. Cyr, also known by her stage name Princess Red Wing. Out of the more than 100 films he made, White Fawn's Devotion is one of fewer than 10 films of Young Deer's to have survived.