White Fawn's Devotion: A Play Acted by a Tribe of Red Indians in America
About White Fawn's Devotion: A Play Acted by a Tribe of Red Indians in America
A settler named Combs is told he has inherited a fortune and must go east. His Native American wife, afraid she will lose him, stabs herself. He pulls the knife out. Their daughter sees the knife and her mother on the ground and tells the village he killed her. The chief’s men chase him, catch him, and are about to kill him when White Fawn revives and tells them the truth. James Young Deer wrote it. Pathé released it. A letter in the film is dated from Fine Ridge, Dakota, and from London solicitors J. H. Bolivar and Co.
Cast & crew
More about White Fawn's Devotion: A Play Acted by a Tribe of Red Indians in America
Pathé distributed the short on 18 June 1910. Wikipedia times it at 11 minutes and says it was shot in New Jersey. Young Deer is uncredited as director on the Wikipedia table and credited as writer. Lucille Young is the lead IMDb now names. Some writers have said Lillian St. Cyr, Princess Red Wing, played White Fawn. Wikipedia says the woman on screen does not match St. Cyr. The New York Dramatic Mirror wrote that the film is interesting if the viewer can forget the New Jersey scenery, and that it is not clear where the devotion comes in. The Library of Congress named it to the National Film Registry in 2008.
Themes
Making
Pathé had hired Young Deer as a director and scenario writer in America. He staged the chase on New Jersey ground and let the intertitles call it Dakota.
Reviews
The New York Dramatic Mirror said the picture is interesting if one can forget the New Jersey scenery, and that the devotion of the title is hard to locate.
Preservation
The short survives and was added to the National Film Registry in 2008.
Notes
- Fewer than ten of Young Deer’s more than 100 films survive. This is one of them.
- Selig is not the company. Pathé is.
- An Internet Archive identifier is white_fawn_1910.
- A Commons file uses the short title.
Awards
- National Film Registry (2008)
Scenes
- White Fawn stabs herself when she hears he must go east.
- The daughter sees the knife and raises the village.
- She reaches the captors alive and stops the killing.
Also available
- Internet Archive (white_fawn_1910)
- Wikimedia Commons (White Fawn's Devotion (1910).webm)