This story actually begins about 6 months ago. I received a call from a good friend of mine Jon Proudstar (Native American actor, writer, director and creator of the comic Tribal Force). Jon had just finished filming the movie Running Deer (directed by Brent Ryan Green) with whom he co-starred along side Booboo Stewart (The Twilight Saga, Running Deer). If you are caught up with the cast of X-Men: Days of Future Past you will know that Booboo Stewart plays the Apache X-Men character Warpath! Jon knew I am member of the San Carlos Apache tribe and calls me up for help. “Hey, Booboo just asked me if I knew anyone that knows some Apache sayings”. After our call Jon swore me to secrecy and that I could not post or mention this in any shape or form until now.

Although my editor and I attended the same screening of X-Men: Days of Future Past (read his review here), I went for a more specific reason: to see for the first time a Native American Superhero on the big screen. In the world of comics Native Americans represent a very small percentage of the hero populace. In actuality there are more African-American and female heroes than there are Native Americans. Why is that? If you watch the film or read comics you can clearly see that Warpath can hold his own with the other X-Men, taking on Sentinels with his twin vibranium blades!

Yes, it is clear that Warpath did not have as much significant screen time as some of the other characters, but having Warpath in this film clearly follows Stan Lee vision of equality amongst the characters. Since Stan Lee had created the X-Men to mirror the Civil Rights Movement of the 60's. I know a lot you probably hate the movie Twilight but bear with me as I use the film as example for better things to come. In Twilight we see the Wolf Pack. Yes for the most part they are eye candy for the girls, but if you can look past that and see the real significance of what is happening you can see where I am coming from. For the first time Native Americans can be proud! The Wolf Pack represented all the best qualities of our culture. A warrior class, proud with tradition and honor! Protecting what means most to us…our PEOPLE! In fact the word Apache (Ndee) translates into “the People”. They were not as shown as drunks or fools! Instead stepping up in the face adversity to overcome great odds! I for one am proud to see such a thing happening and it is LONG OVERDUE!!

In this film you can see Warpath brings the best of our people and traditions to the big screen! I can not wait to see more Native American representation in comics and film!