Dances with Wolves.

Koontz John E John.Koontz at colorado.edu
Fri Nov 28 19:27:50 UTC 2003


Rodney Grant (http://www.rodneygrant.com/home.htm), the actor who plays
"Wind in His Hair," not exactly one of the major roles, but much more than
a bit part, is an Omaha, although, as far as I know, not fluent in
Omaha-Ponca, being from the post-WWII generations.

I could be wrong, but this character's name "Wind in His Hair" sounds like
one of author Michael Blake's Neo-Rousseauian Blakisms, along with "Dances
with Wolves" itself, of course.  A number of names he simply borrowed (in
translation) or maybe analogized from various sources.  Anyway, while I'm
far from a specialist in Plains area personal names, my suspicion is that
a more likely Omaha-Ponca version of the concept might be more aptly
translated "Disheveled."

John E. Koontz
http://spot.colorado.edu/~koontz

> R. Rankin wrote:
>... I'm told that the bit players were mostly Cree, since it was filmed
>in Canada, and they had to learn their Lakota lines like Kevin Costner.



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