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January
2005
 Filmmaker
and writer Dan Jones (Ponca)
is the chairman of the Ponca Tribe and former director of the
Ponca Nation's Office of Environmental Management, where he has
led efforts to hold major polluters accountable for petroleum
contamination on the Ponca reservation. His first book of poetry,
Blood of Our Earth, is being published in 2005 by University
of New Mexico Press. Jones' television productions include The
World of American Indian Dance, which premiered on NBC in
2003. In 2001 Jones was the co-host of the First Americans in
the Arts awards ceremony, and produced the event's webcast. In
1993 he received the Muse Award from the Association of American
Museums for a work produced by the new Smithsonian National Museum
of the American Indian. Jones is a traditional straight dancer
and resides in his hometown of Ponca City, Oklahoma.
"The power film and television can have to educate and enlighten
people on about any issue that matters to people as a whole cannot
be understated. We as American Indian people have been under-represented
in about every issue that matters to us as a people. Our ability
as American Indians to reach a mass audience is still being developed.
Though it hampers our ability to be heard, it does not hamper
or diminish the quality we strive for in the presentations we
design or the issues we choose to assume. The power of our collective
cultures is only enhanced by the power of film and television
medium, and one day we will have our rightful place in mainstream
American society."
Screened by NMAI
Image credit:
Both Dan Jones - courtesy of the filmmaker
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