Professor creates space for Indigenous narrative sovereignty

To say that Joely Proudfit stays busy feels like a significant understatement.

She serves as director of American Indian studies at California State University San Marcos and is also director of the school’s California Indian Culture and Sovereignty Center, which encourages collaborative research and community service relationships between the university and tribal communities. She was appointed to the National Advisory Council on Indian Education in 2016, and in 2021, she became the first Indigenous woman appointed to California’s Commission on the Status of Women and Girls. And when it comes to Native American representation in media, she remains just as active.

“I’m going to continue to work in media and arts and entertainment and supporting that,” she says, having founded Naqmayam Communications and Native Media Strategies. The former is a Native American public relations agency that serves as a liaison between tribal and nontribal organizations, and the latter provides Native American consultants to facilitate more authentic Indigenous representation in media.

“I’m going to continue to cultivate those relationships, and work to strengthen productions and authenticity and storytelling, and work with entertainment professionals in that capacity, because I do think that there’s a lot of opportunity to educate.”

Proudfit, who is Payómkawichum/luiseño, started the California’s American Indian & Indigenous Film Festival in her classroom on the CSUSM campus (where it has grown to its current home at the Pechanga Resort Casino in Temecula) and was recently named one of Variety magazine’s Entertainment Educators of the Year. She took some time to talk about her work to highlight and uplift the stories and issues of Native peoples. (This interview has been edited for length and clarity. For a longer version of this conversation, visit sandiegouniontribune.com/sdutlisa-deaderick-staff.html.)

Q: You’re the founder of Native Media Strategies, which provides Native American film and television consultants for various media projects. Can you talk about what led you to create this kind of company?

A: My PH.D. is in political science and people always ask, ‘What is a political scientist doing in media and art?’ Well, I like the saying that American Indians are the first storytellers because it’s true, we are, but we haven’t been telling our own stories. We haven’t been telling the story that most Americans, and the world, know about us. Our stories have been shaped by someone else, from the dime store novels, to comic books, to TV and film, to cartoons; it’s always been through someone else’s lens. It’s only been recently that Natives have been in charge of our own narrative. Several years ago, I started the company with a colleague of mine to bridge the gap between authentic Native storytelling and content within Hollywood. Folks in Hollywood, in recent years, have been wanting to do the right thing, wanting to be honest and inclusive, wanting to be collaborative, so I attempted to create that bridge to offer an authentic, collaborative opportunity for those who want to work together. I think that when we are collaboratively working together, we learn from each other.

Q: When you think about your own lived experiences as a Native American person, what would you say has been missing from the representation we typically see in the fictional characters that are rendered on screen?

A: Native women have been missing, authentic Native representation has been missing. One of my heroes is Buffy Saintemarie, a musician, an educator, a philosopher. She is amazing to me and I felt a special place in my heart because when I was a kid watching ‘Sesame Street,’ there she was in all of her beautiful [indigeneity]. She was the first Native woman I saw on TV as a real, authentic, contemporary Native woman. Hers was the first Native family I saw on TV, her and her husband and son. She was the first woman I saw breastfeed on TV, so seeing authentic representation is powerful, it truly does matter. I’m glad that, today, we’re starting to see new opportunities.

Q: What do you think some of the reasons are for these stereotypical and inaccurate portrayals of Native American communities?

A: They don’t involve us, they haven’t opened the door to us, we haven’t had a seat at the table. I like to say, ‘Nothing about us, without us,’ so if you want accurate representation with Native people, you have to include Native people at the table. Not merely as consultants, not merely as actors and actresses, but behind the camera, in the writers’ room, directing, producing. In all things. This is in the arts, in business, in politics. The road to hell is paved with good intentions, so if you want to do right by Native people, ask Native people. Never assume for us, don’t speak for us, ask us. Bring us in, be intentional, be collaborative, create relationships. Being Native means being in good relationships with one another, with the ecology, with the planet, and being in good relationships with Natives creates a positive environment, momentum, ecology, world, art, all of those things.

Q: What would you like to see happen in bringing more layered, nuanced and realistic representations of Native American communities to media?

A: I would like to see more diverse stories being told in all areas: drama, comedy, futurism, science fiction, animation. I’m starting to see that. I know Native people who have directed episodes of ‘Star Trek’ this year, I know Native people who are working on superhero movies, I know a California Indian showrunner of an animated show [Netflix’s “Spirit Rangers”], and there are some dramas on the horizon. I want to see more of it, I want to see more investment in it, but I also want to see Native people above the line and telling stories that don’t necessarily have to be, ‘There’s a Native director because this is a Native story.’ The Native director should be doing everything else, as well. Create more space and opportunity. “Reservation Dogs” is a great example of being creative and diverse and being able to tell a contemporary story that’s directed and created by Indigenous voices with an Indigenous writers’ room and shot on Indigenous lands in Oklahoma. I want to see Hollywood taking risks and allowing Natives to lead and for Native narrative sovereignty to be prioritized.

Joely Proudfit