Animated Native American Project:
Native American Students Express Their Culture

Produced by Camille Steed

[Steed] This is just one of several animation's produced by the Animated Native American Project. This program it sponsored by the University of Nebraska at Kearney and the Macey Indian Reservation. It offers a unique opportunity for students to express their culture through cartoons.
[Morris] "Our elders think that we have to respect our ways because like they say our ways are fading away."
[Steed] Latonda Morris created this cartoon. She has the destination of being the first Native American women to make an animated film. An honor she feels that comes with some responsibility.
[Morris] "I try to learn as much as I can. I can speak my language and understand it because my grandma she speaks to me in the Indian language all the time.
[Ganzel] "It's a good way to tell the outside world about themselves. What's in their heart, how they view their world, how they view their culture, how they view society and their history and their past from a youth viewpoint, from a child's viewpoint. And I think that's very unique. That's a unique opportunity for them to do that and I think they've succeeded pretty well, very well in that project."
[Steed] Linda Ganzel, the art instructor here at Macy says that this unique project has given her students much to be proud of.
[Ganzel] "Art is a technical project. You have to think about the mechanics of how does this animation actually fit together. What do I have to do to make this duck look like it is flying down here. How do I make this feather blow in the wind. How do I make the water look like it's flowing down the river. So it's just that process of having to think through the technical part of animation has been good for them. And also the fact that it is a self esteem building to see, I can do this, I can make a cartoon. And not only can I make this but people appreciate this.

Captioning by Nebraska Captioning Center, Lincoln, Nebraska .