Poncan Theater sets November date for long-lost film "Daughter of Dawn"

The Poncan Theater is unearthing a lost film, “The Daughter of Dawn,” to be screened Nov. 6 at 2 p.m. at the theater, 104 E. Grand Ave. in Ponca City.

The screening will be presented by the Oklahoma Historical Society and Ponca’s Pioneer Woman Museum. It will be free to the public.

“Daughter of Dawn” is a 1920 silent film running 83 minutes. It was filmed in the Wichita Mountains of southwestern Oklahoma and was one of the first films in history to feature an entirely Native American cast comprised of more than 300 Comanche and Kiowa tribal men and women.

The film is a love story, following Dawn (Esther LeBarre), a daughter of a Kiowa chief. Dawn wishes to wed a fearsome warrior named White Eagle, played by White Parker, the son of Comanche leader Quanah Parker. But her father wishes her to marry the influential and powerful Black Wolf, played by Jack Sankadota. Black Wolf, in love with Dawn, also has a woman by the name of Red Wing, played by Wanada Parker, another one of Quanah Parker’s children.

The film featured life on the plains as well as a buffalo hunt, dramatic fight scenes and ceremonial dances that were considered illegal by the U.S. government, which only allowed them to be shown because they were part of the film.

“The Daughter of Dawn” was directed by Norbert Myles, whose biggest role was as an uncredited makeup artist on the legendary John Ford film “Stagecoach” and on “The Wizard of Oz,” both in 1939.

“Dawn” was shot from a script penned by Richard E. Banks, who spent 25 years living with various tribes throughout Oklahoma and, it is believed, based the script off Quanah Parker’s life. This, in turn, served as the basis for another iconic John Ford western, “The Searchers.”

The film had only one notable public screening, which took place at the College Theater in Los Angeles, California, on Oct. 17, 1920. A year later, the film had a muted debut in Topeka, Kansas. After that, the film vanished without a trace.

According to Milestone Films, the distribution company for “The Daughter of Dawn,” only 78% of films made before 1929 still exist.

The film itself was found by pure luck in 2005 when a private detective received nitrate film reels in exchange for payment on a job. The detective contacted the Oklahoma City Museum of Art and discovered his “payment” was a film thought only to exist in old still promotional photos and a script preserved by the Library of Congress.

The Oklahoma Historical Society worked with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in the painstaking process of restoring the film.

In 2012, the film’s expensive restoration by the Oklahoma Historical Society was completed, and the movie was re-scored by students at Oklahoma City University.

In 2013, the Library of Congress selected “The Daughter of Dawn” to be inducted into the National Film Registry, a collection of cinema that has been deemed culturally, artistically and historically important.