Restored movie filmed near Fort Sill's Camp Eagle

FORT SILL, Okla., July 21, 2016 -- The Oklahoma Historical Society (OHS) presented the re-release of a silent movie July 14 in Oklahoma City. The movie, "The Daughter of the Dawn," was filmed in the 1920s on the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge and land that would become part of Fort Sill.

Many Soldiers have traipsed the western reaches of post doing land navigation training near what is now Camp Eagle. Those buildings were originally part of Craterville amusement park, which was open from 1924-1933. Many of the scenes of the movie were filmed nearby.

Guided by the principle to collect, preserve and share Oklahoma history, OHS learned of the film in 1999, obtained a copy of the script from the Library of Congress and recognized the film's significance. However, no actual film could be found and was presumed lost. This didn't surprise researchers as Dr. Bob Blackburn, OHS executive director, said less than 10 percent of movies made during the 1920s survived.

In 2004, the society staff received a tip about a private collector in North Carolina who called offering to sell "an incomplete" copy consisting of five of the six reels the film was mounted on. But, the collector's selling price was too high as the society was still paying off its new building near the state capitol. A year later, that price dropped to $7,000.

"He came down a lot from the initial asking price," said Blackburn who added, "we still didn't have any money, but that shouldn't stop us."

Blackburn said for the society to achieve its goals of preserving state history, it develops partnerships. In this case, calls were made to Lawton requesting help buying the film. A short time later he got approval that representatives from the McMahon and Lawton Community foundations agreed to provide the funds.

Receiving the film, they sent it to California to have it preserved onto a safety film media, and also converted to a digital format. Upon watching it. staff members noticed the intertitles weren't included with the copy. Intertitles were cards filmmakers used to display dialogue or an explanation of the scene being filmed. With the script in hand, OHS researchers determined what the intertitles were, and once inserted the film filled all six reels making it a complete copy.

"Literally, we had tears in our eyes as we now knew what we had collected and preserved, and it would be in our collection for all time," he said.

The only thing that remained was to share the film, and for that, Blackburn said a musical score was needed to accompany the film. Through a friend, Blackburn learned of Dr. David Yeagley, a Comanche classical composer. Yeagley agreed to do the score, but sadly died before the project was completed, said Blackburn.

"We knew right away, here was a poet who would understand this film, and who would understand what it would mean to the Kiowas and Comanches," he said.

Again facing huge costs to record the score, OHS then teamed with the Oklahoma City University's (OCU) School of Music to record the score and share in any resulting profits. Talks acquainted Mark Parker, dean of the Bass School of Music, with the historical importance of the project for the state even as he realized the benefit to the school of music.

"Very few university orchestras get the chance to undertake such a huge project of a 90-minute continuous performance of an original score synchronized with a film," he said.

Parker saw that as a good educational experience for OCU student-musicians many of whom may do studio work or film scores later in their careers.

Blackburn then spoke of the significance of the film to Native Americans as it shared a story of Indian life acted by Indians. It got away from how mainstream America portrayed Indians either as an adversary to be defeated or with white actors portraying significant Native American historic figures.

"Finally, you get to the final phase of American Indians in cinema where movies are about American Indians, peopled with American Indian actors -- full bodied stories with all their emotions," he said.

Blackburn added "Daughter of the Dawn" fits that ideal of real people and real emotions with intrigue, conflict and politics, resolutions and love.

"For us at the historical society, it is also a historical document, a window into the past where 300 Kiowas and Comanches would bring out their own artifacts they had kept at a time when the federal government and the reformists in America were trying to stamp out Native American culture," he said.

Despite these attempts to homogenize Native Americans, Blackburn said the movie shows that Native American culture was still "very much alive" in the 1920s.

The DVD/Blue-ray release event was attended by many Native Americans who are descendants of the actors portrayed in the film. Terry Tsotigh, a Kiowa tribesman and musician of many instruments, said he enjoyed the movie as well as Yeagley's explanation of how he came up with the musical score.

"It was really nice and brought out some feelings of pride to see one of my true relations in the movie," said Tsotigh, speaking of his great grandfather who played Black Wolf in the movie.

Tsotigh said movies, such as this one, can be a great tool in educating the general public about Native American culture.

The film is $29.95 for a DVD or $34.95 for Blu-ray disc. Included with the film are documentaries on the history of the film, the American Indian history and material culture depicted.

Copies can be bought online or at the Oklahoma History Center, 800 Nazih Zuhdi Drive in Oklahoma City. Directions and more information are available online at www.okhistory.org.