Roscoe Pond responds

A comment from Roscoe Pond on the numbers in his article:A lot of people are discussing my article that appeared on Indian Country Today newspaper. That's great. But....People are arguing about the Percentage of Natives working in Hollywood and whether I'm accurate or not. Well....According to the Screen Actors Guild this year 2006. Natives represented on TV and in FILMS was less than 1%...50 people! And most of that work was GUEST STARRING ROLES. I've counted only 9 on NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX and the CW. There are no reoccurring roles, no supporting roles or GOD forbid, lead roles for Natives in Hollywood!

Last year's SAG report was less than 2% because we had more than 500 Natives working on "Into the West" or "Apocalypto" and most were Background Extras! The Census doesn't matter with 4.0 million Indians in this country. What matters is Natives in Mainstream Hollywood!!! We are invisible!!!! And where are the Native actresses? We only had two LEAD FEMALE ROLES last year on "Into the West" and that was only a mini-series and not on a major Network.

Even if it's 2%. It still means we NATIVES are NO-WHERE on Mainstream TV and in FILMS! That doesn't count Independent films which are never seen by the mass public....

I suggest you call SAG and get the percentages. It won't be pretty. WE are Nowhere and if we are it is only in Westerns or Period Pieces! 100 years of filmmaking and WE are not modern Indians in 2006 on TV or Films!For news on the annual diversity reports issued by minority coalitions, see Diversity Lacking in Television.