American Indian Artists, Inc.
(AMERINDA)
The Radio Play Double-Feature
FILES OF THE INDIN POLICE
and
IT CAME FROM ACROSS THE BIG POND
Featuring
NIC BILLEY, DYLAN CARUSONA, DONNA COUTEAU, MATTHEW CROSS, MATT
ANGER, INA McNEIL, & TAYLOR RED FOX
Written by WILLIAM S YELLOW ROBE, JR.
Directed by JOHN SCOTT-RICHARDSON
Produced by DIANE FRAHER
Dialogue
Recorder: JACQUELINE JACKSON
Sound Design: BOB SCHOTT, SR.
Now
livestreaming at
www.amerinda.org
FILES OF THE INDIN POLICE
Rachel Many Fortune Rainbow Eagles hosts her YouTube Tribe from a small
apartment in a big city. She has built a yoga routine around tips learned from
an elder at a casino. Relax, stretch your legs, and listen to her latest
composition, “Music for Sacred Squirrels”. A knock at the door
interrupts the tranquility. “Fry Bread Gram.”
Her suspicions are aroused,
but she answers just in case. It’s not a “Fry Bread Gram”. It’s men in
black, demanding her “Real Indian Name Certificate.” They are not tribal police.
They are Indin Police, routing out “Pretendins”. She is busted, even though she
insists that her DNA is at least 0.325 per cent possibly Indian. Charged with
“cultural appropriation”, she is sentenced to life…on an Indian Reservation.
This clever radio play sums up so many clichés about Native Americans,
making its point with humor while definitely getting the message across. Highly
entertaining.
-Karen D’Onofrio-
IT CAME FROM ACROSS THE BIG POND
Everything is weird. Indians
are changing. Men in black suits are prowling around. Mormon missionaries?
Jehovah’s Witnesses? The neighbors are burning their camping equipment and
cutting off their braids. They are driving Toyotas. Where are all the big Ford
trucks?
The strangers knock. Tempting. Maybe there’s going to be a “49”.
Can’t resist that. The refugees open the door. Oh no! It’s the guys from “Social
Gentrification and Assimilation”, who turn them white. Because it’s easier to be
white. Just accept that and move on.
This tongue-in-cheek production
adroitly characterizes the struggle to maintain cultural identity while somehow
surviving and succeeding in an ocean of people-not-like-you. Don’t answer that
door…
-Karen D’Onofrio-