Native Characters in the Movies Quiz

Answer: Magua

Magua is a Huron who poses as a Mohawk at the beginning of the film to infiltrate the British forces in an attempt to kill Colonel Munro, whom Magua held responsible for the death of his wife and family. Bumppo's adopted Mohican name is Hawkeye, with Chingachgook being his adopted father and Uncas his adopted brother.

At the film's conclusion following his death at the hands of Magua, Uncas is referred to by his father as "the last of the Mohicans."

Answer: Old Lodge Skins

George, who is a chief of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation of British Columbia, earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his role as the philosophical Old Lodge Skins. Perhaps his best line comes at the end of the film when he says about his failure to die at will, "Sometimes the magic works and sometimes it doesn't."

Answer: Jimmy Looks Twice

Walter Crow Horse is the tribal policeman and Leo Fast Elk is the murder victim. Thunderheart is a legendary warrior who was killed at the original massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890 and is portrayed in the film as an ancestor of investigator Lavoi.

Answer: Kicking Bird

Wind In His Hair is the warrior who befriends Dunbar, while Ten Bears is the chief of the band and Otter is one of the boys who tried to steal Dunbar's horse.

Answer: Little Wolf and Dull Knife

Cochise and his father-in-law Mangas Coloradas were Apaches, while Red Cloud and Crazy Horse were Sioux. Black Hawk was a Sauk (Sac) chief who fought the United States in a war named after him in the 1830s, while Blue Jacket was a Shawnee who inflicted the greatest defeat in history on an American force by Native Americans. "Cheyenne Autumn" was the last Western ever directed by John Ford.

Answer: Chato

For his service to the Army in helping "capture" Geronimo, Chato and all the other Chiricahuas who cooperated with the Army were forced to surrender their guns and join the rest of their tribesmen in prison in Florida.

Answer: Yellow Wolf

In the film's climactic moment, Yellow Wolf shoots a bundle of TNT with an arrow, setting off an explosion that seals the passageway between the white man's world and the world of the last Cheyenne Dog Soldiers. There was an actual Cheyenne warrior named Yellow Wolf who died in the Sand Creek Massacre.

There was also a Nez Perce warrior named Yellow Wolf who revealed the ways of life of his people to a white man named Lucullus McWhorter over a span of 28 years for a book called "Yellow Wolf: His Own Story."

Answer: Ben Yahzee

In the story, both code talkers are paired with whites whose job it is to make sure the Navajos are not captured by the enemy, which would threaten the effectiveness of the Navajo code. As Whitehorse is being dragged away, Yahzee's protector is forced to kill Whitehorse and his captors with a grenade. Later, Yahzee is wounded but is saved by his protector, played by Nicolas Cage, who is killed. Eventually, Yahzee returns home to his Navajo homeland.

Answer: Thomas Builds-the-Fire

Like the writings of Sherman Alexie, who wrote the film's screenplay, "Smoke Signals" also deals with typical problems of reservation life, including alcoholism and domestic violence. The story is based on an Alexie short story, "This is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona."

Answer: Running Deer

The climax of this film occurs in the reenacting of the Sun Dance, a Plains ritual involving self torture. It is through this ceremony that Horse completes his transformation as a Sioux after killing two enemy warriors in an attack on his village.