Lost Silent film discovered: Daughter of The Dawn

Still from Daughter of the DawnStill from Daughter of the Dawn

 

The Daughter of the Dawn (1920) is one  of the earliest motion pictures filmed within Oklahoma. It's also one of the few surviving films we have that features an entire cast of Native American actors and actresses, including a son and daughter of Quanah Parker. (Alice Guy made a couple of one-reelers with Native American actors, but they don't survive.)

 

It was filmed near Lawton in the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge among the Comanche and Kiowa nations. The Oklahoma Historical Society acquired and restored the film, virtually unseen for decades, with funds from the National Film Preservation Foundation. The Oklahoma Historical Society commissioned a new musical score composed by Comanche David A. Yeagley and recorded by the Oklahoma City University Philharmonic.

Read more about this long-lost film here.