Growing up in Eden Valley, travelling annually to be a part of the Calgary Stampede, and having family members talk about having worked on film sets always seemed normal for Stoney Nakoda filmmaker Cody Lefthand.

Lefthand said his family has been a part of the Stampede since 1912, and growing up his neighbour was John Scott, who has been a part of seven Oscar winning films.

But outside of Eden Valley and Mînî Thnî (formerly Morley), many of those stories of Stoney Nakoda’s involvement in the film and entertainment industries are not well known outside of more niche filmmaking circles.

“Everything from starting back in the silent era all the way up to yet this month, projects have been shot,” said Lefthand.

Stories We Have Earned tells those stories in the Stoney language, directly from Elders themselves, about their experiences on film sets, at the Calgary Stampede, and at the Banff Indian Days.

Those stories, collected from Stoney Nakoda elders, were turned into a feature-length documentary directed by Lefthand and produced by award-winning Calgary producer and director Gary Burns (waydowntown).

“The whole project itself, I know it could have been three separate documentaries because there’s just so much footage, and so many stories, that we tried to cram into two hours, and then had to cut another half hour,” said Lefthand.

Burns said the film began as an exploration into the involvement of Stoney Nakoda members in film projects—of which there were many—but evolved into telling a far deeper and complex story about their involvement in the wider entertainment industry.

“I think you’d be surprised at the films that were made out here. So, in some ways, it’s really entertaining. Marilyn Monroe is in it, and Dustin Hoffman and Paul Newman, and so it’s really kind of star-studded. But then I think it’s also sobering, as you see how there’s a lot of exploitation in the films,” he said.

“The other thing that we pull out in the film is the connection between [Banff] Indian Days and the Calgary Stampede, and how they were used for tourism, and for those events and how I think—that’s just my theory—that that sort of led to the Hollywood connection.”

It also tells a far more complex history of Indigenous involvement in a period where being off-reserve meant imprisonment.

A true history of the Stoney Nakoda involvement in the entertainment industry

Lefthand said that entertaining the public, either through Banff Indian Days or the Calgary Stampede, or by acting on film sets meant that families were able to reunite outside of the laws then imposed by the Government of Canada.

“Being able to go back to our traditional territory, the Elders jumped at the opportunity to meet with family and friends from our neighbours, the other Stoney tribes up north who they never get to see. It just became a yearly tradition that everyone looked forward to to share stories,” he said.

“It’s just something that we’ll never see it the way that they got to see it, the way my grandpa used to participate in it. I don’t want to say dark history, but they took the opportunity to go back and sing our songs and just being able to go back to the mountains.”

That pride though of being able to practice Stoney culture openly, also came with the understanding that it was being done for entertainment instead of cultural understanding.

“Cody Lefthand’s father, their family’s been part of the Stampede since Cody’s dad was a little kid, and even before—for over 60 years. He talks about it quite frankly and about being expected to perform as a young kid. It was kind of part of the deal,” Burns said.

“You’re going to be here and you’re going to perform for tourists, and then you got paid in food rations. You know, it’s insane. Like, I don’t think people fully grasp sort of how badly they were exploited – and not just the Stoney.

“In some ways, they’re happy to be in the Stampede. It’s a place to gather, and it’s kind of fun. But they’ve still got to be in the parade and pose for photographs.”

What once was has now changed, said Lefthand. Visitors to the Elbow River Camp at the Calgary Stampede–no longer called Indian Village— expect to be entertained, but rather to be culturally educated in Stoney Nakoda traditions and the traditions of other Treaty 7 peoples.

“They’re actually interested in what you have to say and what your story is about. If somebody leaves with a little bit of knowledge about the land that they’re currently on… that’s a win,” he said.

Those interviews with Elders, many of them far longer than were able to make the film, would also go into a permanent Stoney Nakoda archive for future generations, said Lefthand.

“In December, I got the opportunity to cover the Stoney Nakoda, Lakota, Dakota language conference at the Banff Springs… and my crew and I as much, as we could, there was like 16 sessions over the three days, and we could only get to nine with three cameras going—so everything’s in Stoney, and that’s all going into archives,” he said.

Although Stories We Have Earned has played at both the Banff Centre Mountain Film Festival, and at the Calgary International Film Festival, it was an upcoming limited-release showing at the Globe Theatre in Calgary that excited Lefthand the most.

“With the film festivals, it was the first screening and a lot of residents from Mînî Thnî and crew, and family of crew, and then my [Calgary Society of Independent Filmmakers] familym and just the local film nerd community, who already know all these stories and know the people and work with the people,” he said.

The wider showing would give Calgarians an opportunity to see the kind of film making experience that was coming from Stoney Nakoda, Lefthand said.

“Now that people know that it will be in the theater for a week, I got a phone call yesterday from the Cochrane Movie House wants to play it, and I would really love to get it into the Wales Theater in High River, for all the people that I grew up with and all of our rancher friends from Longview and High River,” he said.

Stories We Have Earned plays at the Globe Theatre with a VIP screening on Feb. 27, along with public screenings on Feb. 28, March 1, and March 2. Tickets at the door.