The first time I heard about “Killers of the Flower Moon” (2023) was early last semester, when the Native American Student Assembly was invited to the Los Angeles premiere of the movie. Although I was unable to go, as a member of the organization, I got to hear from my friends about what they thought about the movie. 

The movie revolves around two white men, Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio) and William Hale (Robert De Niro), who try to kill Mollie Burkhart (Lily Gladstone) — an Osage woman — and her family to steal their wealth. From both my friends who watched and the media as a whole, the movie was well received. An engaging plot, authentic representation and a story long-overlooked all made the film enticing for audiences, regardless of whether they were Native or not. 

But, there was one general complaint I heard over and over again about the movie: They wished it was told from Mollie’s perspective, an Indigenous perspective, instead of from the point of view of white murderers.

After the premiere, the next time I heard about “Killers of the Flower Moon” was in January, due to its wide array of nominations from award shows like the Golden Globe Awards and the Critics Choice Awards. I knew the movie was well known in the Indigenous film community, but I didn’t know how popular it was among mainstream audiences, too. 

Whether it was the power of famous names like Leonardo DiCaprio and director Martin Scorsese or the genuine interest in watching Indigenous stories, people from all walks of life watched the film. With that came historic critical acclaim: Lily Gladstone became the first Indigenous woman to be nominated and win Best Actress at the Golden Globes for their role as Mollie Burkhart. In both Blackfoot and English, they delivered their touching acceptance speech celebrating this achievement for the Native community and Native storytelling. 

I am proud of Gladstone and happy to see a Native woman celebrated for portraying a Native woman, but I hope that this win builds the momentum to start awarding Indigenous films that are made by and for Indigenous people. I say this because of the concerns that I heard from not only my peers at NASA regarding the problem of perspective, but also from the Osage people who worked on the film.

Out of all those I have heard, the words that struck me the most were those of Christopher Cote, the Osage language consultant for the film. 

“As an Osage, I really wanted this to be from the perspective of Mollie … but I think it would take an Osage to do that,” Cote said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter at the movie’s L.A. premiere. “I think that’s because this film isn’t made for an Osage audience, it was made for everybody, not Osage.” 

From the graphic depictions of violence against Native people to the romanticization of the abusive relationship between Mollie and Ernest, the reasoning behind Cote’s statement is understandable. The choice to highlight the community’s trauma due to the Osage murders from Ernest’s perspective reflects that it was not made for Native people to learn about their ancestors’ pasts, but for white people to learn about theirs. 

Knowing that “Killers of the Flower Moon” was made with a non-Native audience in mind, the question arises of how progressive this movie and its awards actually are. If Native stories and Native people are only looked at by mainstream American audiences when molded for and by white people, the true Indigenous American experience is still not being communicated. 

I applaud Gladstone’s work for their role and celebrate the long overdue first for Native women, but I want more for my community. I want Native people to be able to say that their stories do not have to be white-washed in order to be recognized by mainstream audiences and critics. I want Native people to be able to know that from the script to the camera to the performers, Indigenous people can create their own works and be celebrated for them. And, most importantly, I want Native people to know that they can and should be accepted for their whole selves and experiences. 

Native creatives have been answering this call for years, from the all-Native cast and crew of the nationally broadcasted television show “Reservation Dogs” to local Native-run film festivals like the LA Skins Fest. There is already media out there that encompasses the genuine Native American experience and imagination of Native storytellers — it’s just that non-Native audiences and film critics are a bit late to the party. 

When I learned about Gladstone’s win, my first thought wasn’t to see this as reaching the finish line, but instead as a milestone on the way to something better. With the popularity and success of “Killers of the Flower Moon” and Native cinema coming into the limelight, I am excited to see what the future holds, and I hope that more and more people will start to see how magical and artistic Native film can be beyond a white lens.