Renowned Native American Indian playwright William S. Yellow Robe Jr. has a new production about to go on tour, but Grandchildren of the Buffalo Soldiers will almost certainly be seen by more non-Native than Native Americans. So why is it so important for indigenous culture?
Grandchildren tells the story of a mixed-race family, descended from a Native-American grandmother and African-American grandfather, that has been kept on the fringes of Native society because they are ” ‘too Black’ to be Native”. The opening scene is a silhouette of a cowboy and a Native Indian woman, which then moves to the same view a hundred years later, with a contemporary couple replacing the originals.
