Native left out of Platoon

No One Ever Sees Indians:  “The Turn”The image of the beads and feathers continue to endure during the new enlightened period of the 1970s and still a Native Voice continued to be missing. The 80s showed few choices in regards to Native American films. More often than not, non-Natives were portraying Native roles, irregardless of Chief Dan George’s portrayals. The first time I realized that Native American actors were being ruled out was with the success of Oliver Stone’s Platoon, about his own experiences during the Vietnam War.

Later, I picked up an issue of Rolling Stone Magazine with an interview with Oliver Stone and he talked about casting Platoon. In the interview he revealed that he actually cast a Native American actor for the role of Sergeant Elias, my favorite character. This took me aback. Why was a Native actor not good enough for the role? I mean, he could have recast the role with another Native actor but chose Dafoe instead after seeing his work in To Live and Die in L.A.