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Native America Calling: A John Wayne treasure or disaster?
Friday, March 13, 2026
The Searchers: Cinematic Treasure or Stereotypical Disaster?
John Ford’s 1956 film “The Searchers” is often lauded as a masterpiece.
It follows Ethan Edwards (John Wayne) as an unapologetically racist ex-Confederate soldier on an obsessive odyssey to find his niece who was kidnapped by Comanches. The question of what he does when he finds her is a central tension of the plot. It was one of the first films added to the National Film Registry and ranks among the greatest films of all time by the American Film Institute.
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Guests on Native America Calling
Sunrise Tippeconnie (Commanche, Navajo, and Cherokee), director of programming at deadCenter Film and co-host of the “Reel Indigenous” podcast
Julianna Brannum (Comanche), documentary filmmaker
Zacharias Kunuk (Inuit), filmmaker
Banchi Hanuse (Nuxalk), filmmaker, co-founder of Nuxalk Radio, and director of “Ceremony”
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