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Although War Pony won a Golden Camera for Best First Feature Film at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, this British-American coming-of-age film has received far too little attention. It tells the story of two Native American boys: Matho, a 12-year-old in a hurry to grow up, and Bill, a 23-year-old juggling small jobs to support his family and girlfriend. The plot is simple, but it leaves a lot of space for the characters to grow and the viewer to get a glimpse of the culture and environment of the Oglala Lakota Tribe. War Pony is an important Lakota testimony of alienation from American society but an ode to Sioux life that everyone should watch.
Bill and Matho take us on an initiatory journey into the life of the Oglala Lakota Tribe, a subset of the larger Sioux Nation. Though they were once a nomadic group that inhabited the Great Plains region, colonization has, since 1877, resettled the Oglala on the Pine Ridge Reservation in present-day South Dakota. The 19th century saw mass westward migration of Euro-American settlers into Indigenous land, including that of the Lakota. This settlement was a violent process that included war between Native Americans and the United States, illegal confiscation and exploitation of Native American land, and forced relocation of Native Americans onto reservations.
In 1868, the United States Army and several Native American nations signed a treaty establishing the Great Sioux Reservation, containing the Oglala Lakota’s territory. The agreement forced Native Americans to give up part of their homeland and, eventually, their nomadic lifestyle by living on limited territory. In 1876, the US government started implementing a “sell or starve” policy to coerce Native Americans into ceding the Black Hills, a sacred Sioux territory, and allow mining and settlement there. The Agreement of 1877 redefined the boundaries of the reservations, fragmenting the Great Sioux Reservation into five smaller ones, including the Pine Ridge Reservation. Violent clashes with settlers, such as the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre, and overall hectic relations followed this agreement. Today, the Pine Ridge Reservation faces poverty and social challenges that War Pony unpretentiously presents while showing their powerful community.
The True Story Of Lakota Boys
War Pony was born when directors Gina Gammell and Riley Keough met with two Lakota men, Franklin Sioux Bob and Bill Reddy, hoping to create an authentic depiction of Native American life. The movie is based on Bob and Reddy’s experiences on the reservation. Sioux Bob explained that “a lot of Native films [are] either poverty porn or … about one topic. [They are] about one dilemma, … not about everything, [that is] what this film gives you, is everything.”
The film was mostly shot in the Pine Ridge Reservation and all Native American roles were played by Indigenous actors. The two directors explained that they had collected testimonies and put the story together over seven years. “The reason it took seven years,” they said, “is because we never wanted to leave Pine Ridge.” The filmmaking process was collaborative and aimed to include the community as much as possible to avoid creating a “smash-and-grab” film.
Unveiling the Living Conditions in the Pine Ridge Reservation
Throughout the film, the spectator follows Bill and his endeavours, navigating from one job to another to support his family. As his job hunt takes unexpected turns, the film explores significant life challenges on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Unemployment, poverty, and drug consumption are entrenched deeply in the community, including among children. With an over 60% unemployment rate and half of the population living below the poverty line, the Pine Ridge Reservation is one of the poorest counties in the United States.
Matho seems to be trapped in the poverty cycle that has settled within the reservation. The poor living conditions come with a high dropout rate, as making an income is more of a necessity for survival than getting an education. Matho gets rejected by a girl because she cannot “be with someone who will not make it to high school.” The lack of education then results in a lack of opportunity and low incomes, fueling poverty and substance abuse.
Alcohol as an Escape in a Dry Land
Escaping the harsh reality of life on the reservation usually happens through alcohol, and it does not spare Matho and Bill. Overall, at least 80% of the reservation families are “severely impacted” by alcoholism.
The Oglala Nation’s alcohol abuse system has a long history. As early as 1889, the Oglala Nation banned the sale and possession of alcohol to protect the community from alcoholism’s harmful effects. However, residents found alternative ways to buy alcohol. Many purchased alcohol in the nearby town of Whiteclay. With a population of just 14 and no formal local government, the town seemingly existed only to sell alcohol to the dry Oglala Nation. A police operation in 2012 found that Whiteclay’s four liquor stores sold the equivalent of 4.9 million cans of beer every year to mostly Native American clients. In 2012, the Oglala Nation filed a lawsuit against Whiteclay’s liquor stores for selling alcohol in full knowledge of the reservation’s ban and the “devastating effects” of alcohol on its inhabitants. The Oglala Nation sought $500 million in damages to reimburse the cost of healthcare and law enforcement.
Although the lawsuit was dismissed by the District Court of Nebraska, the Oglala voted to legalize alcohol on the reservation that same year, with hopes of using the resulting tax revenues to invest in education and detoxification centers. Yet, the tribal council never implemented the change. Since 2017, the state has rejected the renewal of the Whiteclay liquor stores’ sale licenses. Yet, alcohol over-consumption remains a latent problem affecting the health and economic opportunities of the inhabitants of the Pine Ridge Reservation, who have found other sellers.
Native Americans, but Apart from American Society
War Pony also unveils the social and spatial exclusion of the Pine Ridge Reservation and its inhabitants. For instance, Matho’s father collects figurines as a hobby and mentions that his last purchase took several months to be delivered; the reservation is always served last. This 30-second scene reveals the reservation’s isolation from the outside world.
Similarly, public transportation is never shown as an option for people to travel into and off the reservation. Billy notably transports young Native American women on his way to and from work at a turkey farm owned by a rich white couple. He soon realizes that these women are hired for sex by his employer. Native American women have a history of disproportionate sexual violence and prostitution. The marginalization of the Lakota makes them easy targets for human trafficking today. One in three Native American women experience rape during their lifetime, and they represent 40% of trafficking victims in South Dakota. Yet, tribal police lack adequate funding and human resources to deal with the caseload and conduct proper investigations.
War Pony cleverly uses these brutal realities of the Native American experience to explore racism, even among so-called progressives. In Billy’s relationship with his employer, Tim, it is cringeworthy to see how accepting Tim wants to appear but how racist he turns out to be. Tim and his wife laugh at Billy’s culture and treat him as amusing free labour. The couple represents the hypocrisies of white American society that puts on a tight smile but continues to exploit the Lakota in many ways.
Ensuring Survival for Lakota Culture
War Pony also raises questions about the survival of Lakota culture in a subtle way. When watching the movie, we notice that Bill cannot speak the Lakota language, and Matho’s education is in English. In 2016, the estimated number of first-language Lakota speakers was 2,000, accounting for 1% of the Lakota population. The disappearance of this language through generations is due to assimilation efforts, including punitive boarding schools and the lack of employment opportunities for non-English speakers.
Although a school in Pine Ridge started offering Lakota language classes in the late 1960s, a complete curriculum in Lakota was only developed in 2008. In 2012, the Oglala President announced a Lakota Language Revitalization Initiative for the survival of the Oglala culture. These efforts are ongoing, with funded programmes and workshops to learn the language. In 2022, the tribal council of the Standing Rock Reservation, another reservation mainly inhabited by Lakotas, passed a resolution to protect the Lakota language and all related intellectual property rights.
Beyond language, War Pony offers a glimpse of Lakota culture in a burial ceremony, and traditional music and dance. These experiences become established as moments of rest in the tumultuous lives of Bill and Matho. Throughout the movie, Gammell and Keough also use nature as a calming and majestic presence to highlight the continuing significance of the natural environment and subsistence activity in Lakota life. Fire and the bison are notably used as signs of solace and change in the boys’ journeys.
The Lakota Boys Have Grown Up
Is Sioux Bob right to say War Pony gives us “everything”? Not exactly. The film does not, for example, give equal weight to Native American women’s experiences. It could have been interesting to see a leading female character grasp the gender dimension of life in the Pine Ridge Reservation better. Nonetheless, War Pony recalls-or for others, reveals– that the Oglala Nation faces many challenges due to historical discrimination and continuous exclusion. In this context, Oglala youth struggle to find their bearings in a marginalized community. Yet, the Oglala Nation seeks reconciliation and representation more than ever, notably through reviving the Lakota language.
The struggle to get back the sacred territory of the Black Hills is still ongoing in the context of the broader Land Back Campaign, which intends to return ownership of Native American territories. The ongoing lawsuit for recognizing the protection of the entire Bears Ears monument, a territory considered sacred by several Native American nations, is one of the most recent cases of these attempts for reappropriation. Similarly, WWF and the Rosebud Sioux Tribe of South Dakota started a bison restoration project in the Great Plains to boost indigenous and locally-owned businesses. Although War Pony tells its story about Native American life during this time of Indigenous political upheaval, it has gone sadly unnoticed.
Edited by Anthony Hablak
