The Mystic Warrior

The five-hour miniseries The Mystic Warrior began life in 1979 when producer David L. Wolper announced plans for a ten-hour adaptation of Hanta Yo, an epic historical novel by Ruth Beebe Hill. Using as her main source a full-blooded Sioux named Chunksa Yuha, Hill fashioned what amounted to a Native American version of Roots, chronicling the history of the fictional Matho (lakota: 'Bear') tribe of the Oglala Lakota Sioux. Although Hill's book was a bestseller and received rave reviews in the first year of its publication, it was attacked and discredited by numerous Indian historians, teachers, and activists, who accused Hill of distorting and falsifying truths in order to promote her and Yuha's own sociopolitical agendas (Hill was particularly influenced by the works of Ayn Rand, to which critics such as author and Native American activist Vine Deloria, Jr. and anthropologist of Northern Plains peoples Raymond J. DeMallie compared Hanta Yo, and critics also called Yuha's background into question). Suddenly, all of the Native American support that had been promised to the miniseries version of Hanta Yo evaporated. When the project finally aired on May 20 through 21, 1984, its running time (and budget) had been cut in half, and the producer was obliged to qualify the credits by noting that the teleplay was based partially on Hill's book, but mostly on "other sources". The filming location had to be changed from New Mexico to Thousand Oaks, California, so as not to offend the Indian tribes in the former state.