‘The Daughter of Dawn’, an astounding lost film from the 1920s starring Native Americans
More than 80% of all silent films ever made are gone. Nobody had a sense of the value of these things, and so most of the films of the period were destroyed rather than stored. Many classics, many historical moments, are lost forever to time.
One of those films was Daughter of Dawn, a 1920 feature length silent movie. What sets Daughter of Dawn apart from other lost silent films is that it was shot entirely with a Native American cast. At a time when white people were regularly playing Indians, this is a big deal. An even bigger deal is the fact that Daughter of Dawn isn’t a cowboys and Indians film; it doesn’t feature an appearance by heroic whites. It’s a love story set entirely within an Indian tribe. 300 Comanches and Kiowas brought their own clothes, weapons and props to make the film authentic. There are two buffalo hunt scenes that are shot with real buffalo herds and real riders bringing them down.
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