In 1992 a movie hit the theaters called Thunderheart. The movie was a loosely based on what was known as the Second Wounded Knee. It portrays the American Indian Movement’s (AIM) protest against the federal government in the town of Wounded Knee. The movie casts a young Val Kilmer as a FBI agent (Sioux by heritage) tasked with investigation a murder on the res (reservation).
The movie was filmed mostly on the Pine Ridge Indian reservation where I spent most of my summers. The rez, as locals call it, is located in South Western South Dakota and shares the Nebraska border (a small section of Pine Ridge is also in Nebraska). The reservation is home the Oglala Sioux Nation.
I’ve spent a lot of time on the reservation as that’s where my maternal family is from. They were Dutch, Irish, and German settlers who ranched and farmed the fertile soil. In fact, I still have family living on the reservation today. I was in Wanblee when one of the last scenes of the movie was filmed; the chase scene. When I first watched the movie I have to admit that I got caught up in the background and missed most of the plot because I was seeing familiar sites on the big screen. I would often point out ‘I’ve been there’ or ‘I know where that is’ or even ‘I’ve been in that vehicle’. You seen most of the vehicles in the movie were owned by my relatives!
The set wasn’t built in Hollywood, rather the homes are actually those found in Wanblee. If you’re looking for a movie and want to see the sights that I grew up with, please check out the movie. I enjoyed the movie a lot. Of course it may be a little hard to find, but I’m sure you could buy from iTunes/Amazon; it’s worth it.
It has a Fresh score of 87%. If you do watch it, let me know what you think. I’m thinking it may be time for me to watch it again as I’m feeling nostalgic for South Dakota.
After watching the movie, if you are interested in knowing more about Pine Ridge in the 70’s you could watch ‘Incident at Oglala’ on Netflix. It is a documentary about the Second Wounded Knee.
An additional source for information about Pine Ridge Indian reservation is this National Geographic article.