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Pow Wow Highway is the story of two good Cheyenne friends named Dilbert and Redbull. Redbull is a headstrong kind of guy that gets infuriated easy and likes to live life to the fullest, while Dilbert is shy and a dreamer. In this movie Redbull is fighting off the white mans greed for the natural resources of his reservation. Because of all the attention he draws from the community against the white men, some dirty cops decide to arrange for him to be out of town until after the voting for the natural recourses takes place. As a result Redbull’s sister Bonnie gets arrested on a bogus drug charge. This act starts Redbull and Dilbert out on their journey, originally toward Santa Fe to post bail for Bonnie, but they soon end up off course. While driving Dilbert hears from a trucker about a butte that the great Cheyenne prophet White Cloud got his power from. Next they visited a river that holds sacred honor among the Cheyenne, it was here that Dilbert finds his first totem. To be a fierce warrior he would have to find 3 totems in a special manner. From there they visited Pine Ridge for a Pow Wow. Fort Robinson was then the place where Dilbert found the second totem near the memorial marker. The whole time this is all going on Redbull was angry all the way because he had to get his sister out of jail in Santa Fe and here Dilbert was verging off track and visiting all sorts of off course destinations. When they make it to Santa Fe Bonnie’s friend had already tried paying the bail to get her out of jail but the cops were stalling out until the voting was finished. So Dilbert and Redbull get there to find his sister and children in jail for the Christmas weekend. While Redbull tries to figure out a plan, Dilbert decides to tie a rope to the jail bars and then tear them off the wall. He does so and breaks Bonnie out of jail. The three of them and the kids then make a dashing escape in Dilbert’s “pony” (a piece of junk old car). While escaping the chief of the tribe who had been keeping an eye on them lets out his cattle nearby and blocks the road for them, however Dilbert’s “pony” unfortunately loses it’s breaks, everybody jumps out except for Dilbert. The car starts on fire and just as everybody starts to think that Dilbert is dead he comes waltzing up the hillside, with his third totem in hand. All that he has to say is “my pony threw me”.
This movie was great hilarious and for the most part practical. I enjoyed watching it quite a bit and thought that it showed well how the native Americans thought about the white man during that time period and how they were also treated by the white man.

By Justin Nygaard