Because of the film's enormous success and sympathetic treatment of the Native Americans, the Lakota Nation adopted Kevin Costner as an honorary member.
Two Socks was performed by two different wolves originally owned by Michael Kane. One was called Buck and the other was called Teddy, and both were kept on set at all times. After filming this cinematic production, they were permanently kept in Ventura County, California's animal sanctuary "Working Wildlife".
To prevent any possible animal cruelty Kevin Costner's Tig Productions spent $250,000 on animatronic buffalo to be used in the climactic buffalo hunt.
Kevin Costner did most of his own riding, including bareback and shooting his gun without holding the reins, during the buffalo hunt.
Almost none of the indigenous cast spoke Lakota so a language teacher was brought in to teach Lakota to cast members who did not know how to speak it. Because of the difficulty in learning the language, the "gendered speech" aspects of the language were omitted from the lessons. When native speakers of Lakota saw the finished film, they found it amusing to hear Lakota warriors talking like women. The language coach was Doris Leader Charge, who played Pretty Shield, the wife of Ten Bears.
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