"The American Experience" We Shall Remain: Part II - Tecumseh's Vision (2009)

Directors:

Ric Burns
Chris Eyre

Writers:

Ric Burns (writer)
Mark Zwonitzer (writer)

TV Series:

"The American Experience" (1988)

Original Air Date:

January 2009 (Season 21, Episode 6)

Genre:

Documentary | Biography | Crime | History | War

Plot:

Each of the episodes focuses on important historical events and concludes with a short contemporary story that links the past to the present.

Plot Keywords:

Indigenous Past | Tecumseh | Native American | TV Mini-Series | Greenville Ohio

Cast

Alex Meraz	...	Warrior
Benjamin Bratt	...	Narrator
Dwier Brown
Michael Greyeyes	...	Tecumseh
Chevez Ezaneh	...	Young Tecumseh
Thosh Collins	...	Warrior
Lawrence Santiago	...	Warrior
Leland Chapin	...	Warrior
Mariel Belanger	...	Tecumseh's Mother
Andew Lyn Jr.	...	Warrior
Randy Santiago	...	Warrior
William Merasty	...	Warrior
Kieran McArthur	...	Young Tenskwatawa
Delwin Fiddler Jr.	...	Warrior

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Filming Locations:

Georgia, USA

Company:

American Experience

Strong Dramatizations but Heavy Political Agenda Detracts.

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

From the advance publicity all over PBS, I learned that there was much care taken to involve Native Americans in every aspect of the production. The actors white and Indian do a fine job. Particularly laudable is Canadian Michael Greyeys as the legendary Tecumseh. In the first two episodes at least, the sets and costumes seem authentic to the last feather and musket.

It is with the commentary that the problems start. There is not even the pretense of fairness. Every issue is presented as if the guilt of the white man and of Washington (the city not the man) were a foregone fact. Perhaps this is why not one single recognized American historian appears on the program--thus far, at least. The voices are nearly all British or--if I must say it--effeminate. It is one long exercise in political correctness.

It is true that the first two programs deal with events from 200 to 350 years in the past but that is no excuse for the rampant speculation, outright guesswork in many instances, that color the "learned" remarks. This speculation is **all** about the evil white man and the noble Indian. Only the briefest reference in the first episode is made to conflicts between tribes of Native Americans although much is known of them. Instead we get deep "insights" in the psychological suffering of the Shawnees, through much of the second episode.

I look forward to future episodes with trepidation.