“The Daughter of Dawn” Film Release Event

On July 14 the Oklahoma Historical Society will host a release party for “The Daughter of Dawn” at the Oklahoma History Center. The program will begin at 6 p.m. and is free and open to the public. The film is an 80-minute, six-reel silent film shot in May, June, and July of 1920 in the Wichita Mountains of southwest Oklahoma. The DVD will be available for purchase at the event. In 2014 the OHS partnered with Milestone Films out of New Jersey for distribution of “The Daughter of Dawn.” The movie has been shown at several film festivals over the last two years.

OHS Executive Director Bob Blackburn will share the story of how this 96 year-old film was saved, preserved, and now shared with the world. Clips of “The Daughter of Dawn” will be shown. Matt Reed, Curator of American Indian Collections at the Oklahoma History Center, will discuss the historical context revealed in the movie. The OHS will also be recognizing the many partners that helped to make the DVD possible.

The film features an all-Indian cast of 300 Kiowas and Comanches. These people, who had been on the reservation less than fifty years, brought with them their own tipis, horses, clothing, and material culture. The Daughter of Dawn is played by Esther LeBarre. Her character is the daughter of the Chief of the Kiowas, played by Hunting Horse. The two young men who are romantically interested in her are White Eagle, played by White Parker, and Black Wolf, played by Jack Sankadota. Another integral character is Red Wing, played by Wanada Parker. Both White Parker and Wanada Parker were children of Comanche Chief Quanah Parker.

The film includes a significant tipi that is currently on exhibit at the Oklahoma History Center. The tipi in the movie was renewed in 1912 with images painted by Haungooah or Silverhorn and Stephen Mopope, one of the Kiowa Five. That very tipi was given to the Oklahoma Historical Society. The exhibit will be open to the public the night of the program.

The script for the movie was developed by Norbert Myles, an actor, writer, and director brought into the project by Richard Banks, who started the Texas Film Company in 1916. Myles wrote on the cover of his script that, “This story has been made possible by R.E. Banks, whose knowledge of the Indian, and of his traditions, was gained during the twenty-five years that he lived with them.”