"As much time as we spend watching movies, it's easy to believe that actors take jobs because they identify with some part of a film. The wool was ripped from my eyes this week. I've watched actor Wes Studi in films for years -- "Geronimo," "Dances with Wolves" and "Avatar," to name a few. He's beautiful -- a classic, stoic American Indian; a noble face absent of fear and seemingly full of ancient knowledge.

He's only acting, and I shouldn't be disappointed. I got my movie ticket's worth. But that's why we buy tickets in the first place: We want to believe even though we know, intellectually, it's all pretend. Mr. Studi has a new role. He's been hired by the Pebble Partnership to tour villages in the Bristol Bay region and pose as one of their own to sell them enough toxicity to ruin their way of life. The Lake and Peninsula Borough began voting by mail on the Save Our Salmon ballot initiative, which has survived legal challenges from proponents of the Pebble mine. The initiative is simple. It states that any resource extraction development using more than 640 acres of land that would adversely affect anadromous waters (waters already known to be salmon habitat) would require a permit from the Lake and Peninsula Borough before the state and federal permits could go through."

Get the Story:
Shannyn Moore: Actor's disappointing role: Pebble shill (The Anchorage Daily News 9/18)

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Opinion: Pebble Mine supporter insults Alaska Native leaders (9/9)