Lacrosse in The Only Good Indian

Movie casts two Oneidas in roles

Opening scene in "The Only Good Indian" likely to have nation lacrosse players.The scene will show a father and son tossing a lacrosse ball back and forth. Although the film was shot in Kansas, the actors are both Oneidas and their lacrosse sticks were made by an Oneida.

The nation's involvement in the film came via executive producer James McDaniel, who played Lt. Arthur Fancy for eight seasons in the television drama "NYPD Blue." During shooting of the film, McDaniel said he noticed the lacrosse scene was all wrong.

"I realized they had written the scene as if they had never heard of lacrosse before," said McDaniel, who played lacrosse in college at the University of Pennsylvania. "They were going to have it as two people playing a lacrosse game, and I said, no, that's not the way it's played."

McDaniel logged on to the Lacrosse Hall of Fame Web site, which linked him to the Oneidas. He called the nation looking for authentic sticks and a couple of Oneidas to play the role of father and son.Comment:  Kudos to McDaniel for making sure the scene was as authentic as possible. But I'm a little confused by the description of this scene. Are the Oneidas playing generic Indians who have nothing to do with the rest of the story? Or is the boy the one who gets shipped to a boarding school in Kansas?

If it's the latter, I wonder how many Indian children from the East Coast were sent to Midwestern boarding schools? Schools such as the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania were much closer.

I hope this isn't a stereotype. E.g., Indians play lacrosse, so let's put in a lacrosse scene, even if the actual Indian in the story wouldn't have played lacrosse.