Te Ata on the silver screen
The famed Chickasaw storyteller’s journey is landing in Oklahoma theaters
Her name and likeness are emblazoned on monuments across Oklahoma, from a portrait at the state Capitol to the sign above the auditorium at her Chickasha alma mater, the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma.
Now, the feature film “Te Ata” is telling the story of the legendary storyteller immortalized with not only with landmark artworks but also was named The Ladies’ Home Journal Woman of the Year in 1976, inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 1957 and designated Oklahoma’s first Official State Treasure in 1987.
“It really will give people some insight into who she was, so they can put a story behind the name on the auditorium and the statues throughout Oklahoma. Just generally, the more people that can hear about this wonderful person, I think the better off people will be,” said Mackenzie Astin (TV’s “The Facts of Life”), who plays Te Ata’s husband, Clyde Fisher, in the biopic.
Produced by the Adabased Chickasaw Nation, the biopic chronicles the childhood and early career of Chickasaw storyteller Te Ata (Q’orianka Kilcher, “The New World”), who was born Mary Frances Thompson in Indian Territory, near Tishomingo, and grew up steeped in the tales of her people. At USAO (then the Oklahoma College for Women), she was encouraged not only to study drama but also to incorporate her American Indian heritage into her performances. Although she had the chance to pursue a Broadway career, Te Ata opted instead to use her gifts to share Native American stories — a path that took her all the way to the White House, where she performed in 1933 at the first state dinner given by President Franklin Roosevelt.
“It was during a time when there was that risk that we were going to lose some of these stories and songs because of assimilation policy ... so I think that’s one of the very most poignant and maybe courageous things that Te Ata did was that she took these stories and told them during a time when it was discouraged,” said Jeannie Barbour, a Chickasaw historian and author who is the film’s content producer.
Trailblazing woman
Barbour said she spent two years researching Te Ata’s life before cowriting the film’s story with Esther Luttrell, who penned the script.
“I’m not sure if a man could have written Te Ata’s story,” Barbour said. “Don’t get me wrong, I love male writers, but most of the time men just don’t have the ability to write women very well. They don’t understand how we see things.”
Since Te Ata died in 1995 just shy of her 100th birthday, Barbour said the filmmakers had to decide what aspects of her life to focus on with the biopic, and actually ended up producing an educational documentary at the same time.
“There’s a lot out there about who she was as a performer, but we really wanted to try and figure out who she was as a person — and we had a lot of help from her family,” Barbour said. “We spent a lot of time interviewing different nieces and nephews and talked to them about who she was, and so we came away with a pretty good idea of who Te Ata was and really what she meant to this family.”
Te Ata was a member of a prominent Chickasaw family: Her uncle Douglas H. Johnston, portrayed in the movie by Oscar nominee Graham Greene (“Dances with Wolves”) was the last governor of the old Chickasaw Nation, while her father, T.B. Thompson (Gil Birmingham, the “Twilight Saga” movies), was its last treasurer. Although the movie depicts her father as telling her many of the stories Te Ata went on to share, it also shows him as reluctant to let her leave home.
“It wasn’t just Te Ata, he was that way with all of his children. But I think it had a little bit to do with the time that they lived in. It was a difficult time for Indian people, and he just wanted her close so that he could protect her,” Barbour said. “She had hopes and dreams that required that she leave and pursue. So he, I think, worried a great deal for her, but he wanted her to be happy, and so he supported her.”
Lasting love
She also found a wellspring of support in her husband, who was the head of the Hayden Planetarium and former curator of the American Museum of Natural History. In his research, Astin said he found Fisher a fascinating character, someone who shared with his wife a passion for learning and teaching.
“The impression I got from talking with relatives of hers and people who knew them when they were both around, they were kind of like partners. They were good buddies, they were friends in real life, and they enjoyed the heck out of each other’s company. And they encouraged each other to do what they were meant to do in life,” Astin said.
Part of a family of actors — his parents are John Astin (TV’s “The Addams Family”) the late Patty Duke (an Oscar winner for “The Miracle Worker”), and his older brother is Sean Astin (“The Lord of the Rings” trilogy) — the Los Angeles native said he didn’t know anything about Te Ata’s story before he was cast.
“Growing up in Los Angeles, my exposure to a lot of Native American history was sort of limited by what I was able to get from the television, which wasn’t always the best representation, and from history books in school, which also is probably not the most thorough telling of Indian stories,” Mackenzie Astin said. “Once we got to the actual set for production, I got so lucky to meet a bunch of people who knew her and who were more than happy to share their stories of her."
“Te Ata” was shot entirely in Oklahoma, with locations in Tishomingo, Sulphur, Guthrie and Oklahoma City. The production used
the Oklahoma Film Enhancement Rebate Program. Mackenzie Astin said it was his first experience filming in the state.
“It was really terrific to get a taste not only of the Oklahoma film community, which is strong and thriving and filled with artists who I believe feel dedicated to the idea of storytelling ... but to work for the Chickasaw Nation in that context was like a double super bonus for me,” said Mackenzie Astin, who was back in Oklahoma earlier this year after he was cast in the Chickasaw Nation’s next period piece, “The Chickasaw Rancher.”
“To have the opportunity to tell the story the way the story was meant to be told, far removed from the old way that Hollywood represented indigenous peoples was incredibly, incredibly fulfilling on a soul level.”