Candy Moulton: Filming the West – Diverse Wyoming Stories

An epidemic has spread across Indian Country – or maybe was always there but hidden in the shadows – the death and disappearance of Indian women. Filmmakers Sophie Barksdale and Jordan Dresser poignantly share stories of women from the Wind River Reservation in their film “Who She is.”

This beautifully presented film about Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women – MMIW – makes the issue personal with stories told by one woman who went missing, but was fortunately found, and by sisters of others who were murdered. The film has won recognition at a variety of film festivals and will be part of a feature presentation at “Filming the West,” a historical symposium Aug. 16 and 17 in Encampment, which is part of the museum’s annual Tramway Days.

Here is a sobering statistic: In 15 years of conflict in Iraq, the United States had 4,541 fatalities. In 2016 alone, there were 5,712 MMIW cases reported in the United States. Yet many people have no idea there was even one such case.

Barksdale and Dresser, working with Caldera Productions, and with funding support from the Wyoming Council for the Humanities and the Wyoming Division of Victim Services, use animated sequences, powerful storytelling, and effective visuals as they share stories of victims on the Wind River Reservation. They also shed light on the overall issue of MMIW.   

In addition to the film “Who She is,” they have a companion education piece “Who She Is – Understanding MMIW.” Both films will be shown on Aug. 17, beginning at 1 p.m. At the Grand Encampment Opera House.

“Filming the West” begins on Friday, Aug. 16 at 6 p.m. to include a showing of “The Treasure of Hidden Valley,” a film made by Encampment residents in 1976 to celebrate the Bicentennial of the United States.  It is based on a book of the same name by Willis George Emerson, a founder of Grand Encampment, and is a historical portrayal of the Grand Encampment Copper boom and area founding.

That evening program will also include discussion about the filmmaking process and working with historians and tribal members for the making of “The Battle of Red Buttes,” a film that provides both military and tribal perspectives related to events in 1864 leading up to the fight that occurred July 26, 1865, near Platte Bridge Station.

In the film, descendants of tribal warriors share how the Massacre at Sand Creek in southeastern Colorado led to attacks on the military station in central Wyoming. The film was developed for the US Bureau of Land Management and the National Historic Trail Center in Casper.

Full disclosure here, I am on the Board for the Grand Encampment Museum and co-wrote and produced “The Battle of Red Buttes.”

Other programming on Aug. 17 includes a discussion by Steve Peck about “Wyoming Chronicles,” an ongoing program series for Wyoming PBS, and a presentation by Alan O’Hashi, a filmmaker with roots in Wyoming and who spent time on the Wind River Reservation. He will show and discuss “Arapaho Covered Wagon Redux” a reimaging of a 1923 film with new soundtrack by the Northern Arapaho Eagle Society.

The programming for “Filming the West” is part of the Annual Tramway Days sponsored by the Grand Encampment Museum. It is free and open to the public. Funding is provided by the Wyoming Council for the Humanities, the museum, and private donors.

The Schedule:

Friday, Aug. 16, 6 p.m. – Screenings of “The Treasure of Hidden Valley” and “The Battle of Red Buttes.”

Saturday, Aug. 17, 10 a.m. – “Wyoming Chronicles” with Steve Peck; 1 p.m., “Who She Is” with Sophie Barksdale and Jordan Dresser; 3 p.m. “Arapaho Covered Wagon Redux” with Alan O’Hashi.

Candy Moulton can be reached at: Candy.L.Moulton@gmail.com