In the Land of the Ancient Ones

[Kali]

Nearly a century after Morris excavated ancestral Native lands, filmmakers return with an inclusive approach that brings Navajo Nation onto the big screen

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/land-ancient-ones-ann-axtell-morris-cinematic-treatment-180978344/

ever before has the Navajo Nation allowed a film crew into the magnificent red gorge known as Canyon del Muerto. On tribal land in northeast Arizona, it’s part of Canyon de Chelly National Monument—a place of the highest spiritual and historical significance for the Diné, as the Navajo call themselves. Coerte Voorhees, the writer and director of the film being shot on location here, describes the interlinked canyons as “the heart of the Navajo Nation.”

The movie, an archaeological epic titled Canyon Del Muerto with an expected release date later this year, recounts the true story of Ann Axtell Morris, a pioneering archaeologist who worked here during the 1920s and early ’30s. She was married to Earl Morris, sometimes described as the father of Southwest archaeology and often cited as a model for the fictional Indiana Jones, portrayed by Harrison Ford in the blockbuster Steven Spielberg and George Lucas movies. The acclaim that attached itself to Earl Morris, combined with prejudice against women in the discipline, has long obscured her achievements, though she was one of the first female field archaeologists in America.

lots more at the link.