I was there

Did you watch episode 6 of “Into the West” last night and wonder (again) where I was? Well, I was there and very visible.

I was most visible carrying bodies during the clean-up of the Wounded Knee massacre site. Unfortunately, when I was most visible, they only showed me from the back. Anyway, I'm the man in the dark blue jacket, gray pants, and floppy black hat. You can see me as one of 4 carrying a body (this one was a real person acting dead, and he was VERY heavy – 4 of us had a difficult time carrying him). Then, as Margaret Light Shines and the newspaper reporter approach each other, I'm one of 2 carrying another body (also a real person, but this one wasn’t quite as heavy) right out in the foreground. That’s shown from a couple of different angles (neither one showing my face). So, so far there’s my claim to movie fame (but wait until “Bordertown” and see if I'm not recognizable in that).

Here’s some trivia for you about that scene with Margaret Light Shines and the newspaper reporter meeting on the grounds at Wounded Knee. In part of the scene that was cut out, the reporter says to Margaret Light Shines, “Everyone will know what really happened here. I promise you that!” (Those lines really stuck with me.) Then, for some reason, it didn’t happen (in real life). The Indians have always known that it was a massacre and that unarmed men, women, and children were slaughtered. However, in white history, it was called the “battle” at Wounded Knee. Only now are many people finally learning “what really happened here.” I think it was a mistake to cut those lines out of the finished version.

I was also in several other scenes where only I could pick myself out. I was a soldier standing in a line in the background in one scene at the Pine Ridge Reservation. In another one I was standing on the porch guarding the Indians as they waited in line for their rations. And I was way up in the background loading bodies on a wagon in another one at Wounded Knee.

As in episode 4, though, some of the scenes in which my face would be seen were edited out. They entirely cut out the scene in which I would have been most visible. The buffalo soldiers (a special unit of black soldiers – shown in the final cut, but never identified as such) go out and round up some Indians who had left the reservation and bring them back. As they reenter the reservation, I was one of the soldiers guarding them, directly opposite the camera with it facing me. If they had left that scene in, I couldn’t have been missed. But apparently that scene wasn’t crucial to the story, and they cut it out.

As Margaret Light Shines walks toward the buildings at Pine Ridge with a group of children, she walks past a wagon. I was by the wheel on the other side of the wagon, just out of camera range.

In a scene when Robert Wheeler gets off his wagon and approaches the Governor at Pine Ridge Reservation (David Paymer’s character – sorry, forgetting the character’s name right now), I was behind his wagon – just out of camera range.

As the soldiers pass Robert and Clara Wheeler’s home, I was at the end of the line, and they cut before I entered.

As the soldiers enter the Pine Ridge Reservation, I was at the end of the line, and they cut before I entered.

And finally, as the Indians push toward the reservation office when they hear the shooting and cannons at Wounded Knee, I was behind them. They chose to show only fairly close shots of that, though, and I was on the cutting room floor again.

Fame can be so elusive.

More seriously, though, I didn’t even get the opportunity I would have loved to have to do a speaking role (and get my SAG card). They auditioned several local actors for the role of the freighter who confronts Loved by the Buffalo as he’s cutting hair off the bodies and says, “What you doing’ there, Chief? Them’s worth $2 a piece.” (etc.) I don’t know how they chose the ones to audition, but I wasn’t selected. Anyway, they ended up choosing an actor from L.A. for the role. I think I could have done the role better than he did, though. I was so close to my immediate goal of having a speaking part in a film and missed it.

I think ITW has been outstanding, and I hope they decide to turn it into a series. There was talk about that on the set all along. What do you think? If you agree, I encourage you to call, write, or email TNT asking for more.

If you don’t get TNT or for some other reason haven’t seen ITW, the DVDs come out in October.

Michael John Gabriel