I worked with horses for a long time.
I used to work on ranches, I grew up with horses.
I dabbled in rodeo as a kid.
But, my main love is art. That's what I've always done for a living.
And I was renting my art studio from an agent up in Tobanga Canyon.
And they were doing the remake of "The Lone Ranger".
And she says, "Do you want to be Tonto in 'The Lone Ranger'?"
And I said, "No, lady, I'm an activist."
"You know," I said, "That's kind of a stepinfetchit story."
Even though I was a big fan of Jay Silverheels
and thought he was a wonderful actor.
He was actually in the original "Key Largo". Him and his brother.
He taught acting here.
He was trying to get native people to be professional about their work.
That image was the stepinfetchit story.
She said, "Well, you're just what they're looking for."
I went, "No, I'm not interested."
And she said, "They'll give you about $50,000."
So I went down there.
I was talking to Bill Fraker, who I think is a wonderful director.
And I said, "You send Tonto to town one more time,
"and there'll be more Indians on your lawn than Custer saw."
And they hired me.
I said, "This is a much easier way to earn a living than taking care of horses."
It didn't take me long to figure out, I wasn't impressed
with the process of becoming a movie star.
I was watching them make films.
Being a painter and a sculptor, I was very interested in that whole process.
I realised that movies are never going to be any better than they're written.
So I started looking for really good material.
And found out that it was pretty sparse.
That's what's interesting about "Twin Peaks".
I look back at the early projects of television.
They were wonderful. "Playhouse 90" and "Zane Grey Theatre".
Over my career, I realised that
I wasn't going to get that many opportunities to work on projects,
that had any real value to them.
Especially being an indigenous person, the chances were even less
that I was going to get that opportunity.
To do something artistically innovative was going to be absolutely impossible.
And then "Twin Peaks" came.
Both as an artist, and as a tribal person, I'm extremely proud of that character.
I miss The Hawk. I miss him dearly.
He was bright and he was sensitive. And he was spiritual.
One of the best characters, I think, ever written for television.
It opened the doors for a lot of TV that you see now.
There wouldn't have been "Picket Fences", and there wouldn't have been "X Files".
There wouldn't have been a lot of television
that "Twin Peaks" was the forerunner for.
And I liked it because it scared everybody.
I have very little respect for the television business.
I would see executives come in and go, "What is that midget doing over there?"
But that's how I got into the business.
Then a string of projects that I'm not that proud of.
Sometimes I just do it to pay my insurance.
I'm always looking for those projects that have artistic integrity,
and dignity to them.
- Pretty hard to find. - What are the other ones?
For example, this series where you played the romantic lead.
I did a wonderful series in Canada.
It had been on for seven years and I did two years of it.
It's called "North of 60" for the CBC. You only see it up there.
It's a prime time Indian drama.
It's about what it's really like to be an indigenous person on a reservation.
Not just what happens on the reservations in Canada
but what happens on any reservation in the United States.
Some of it was written by Indian people. Some of it was directed by Indian people.
It was sponsored by the government and incredibly written.
Nobody was a medicine man. It was about people.
People trying to make that connection with their cultural roots, with their families.
Trying to keep their children in the right direction.
I played a therapist.
It also had wonderful native talent.
Gordon Tootoosis who was in "Legends of the Fall".
Tantoo Cardinal, and all these wonderful native actors that came out of Canada,
that came out of theatre up there.
So that was a great experience.