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Subtitle on footage: “A Play Acted By A Tribe Of Red Indians In America”.
“White Fawn’s Devotion is probably the earliest surviving film directed by a Native American. Pathe Freres, the world’s largest film company at the time, opened a studio in New Jersey and hired Native American James Young Deer as director of its westerns. Born in Nebraska of Winnebago ancestry, James Young Deer had trouped the country with Wild West shows and circuses before landing roles in film westerns.
“In part because he was never given credit on-screen for any of the aprox 120 films he directed for Pathe between 1910 and 1913, he has become a forgotten figure and his films are impossible to attribute with certainty.
“In White Fawn’s Devotion a man named Combs, his Indian wife named White Fawn and their daughter live in a Dakota log cabin. When Combs makes plans to claim an unexpected legacy White Fawn fears he is leaving forever with their child and attempts suicide. The daughter, finding her father bent over her mother holding a bloody knife, mistakenly reports murder to the Indian grandfather. After the chase by the tribe, Combs is set for execution at the hands of his reluctant daughter, until White Fawn - who has only wounded herself - arrives to set things right.
“For all its simple pantomime style, White Fawn’s Devotion arrives at a conclusion almost unknown in the era: the interracial couple live happily ever after.
“Between 1908 and 1912 Native American images were seen more widely on movie screens than ever again.” - Treasures From American Film Archives. Notes by Scott Simmon, pp.69-71).