Garry McGee, Tammy Rundle and Kelly Rundle (outside photo) interviewing Meskwaki tribal council member Don Wanatee for Jean Seberg: Actress, Activist, Icon.
Meskwaki Elder Donald Wanatee, 88, has walked on.
As a child growing up in Marshalltown, Iowa, Jean Seberg was well aware of the Meskwaki Nation (Sac & Fox Tribe of the Mississippi--Red Earth People) settlement in nearby Tama.
In September 1970, while visiting her parents following the burial of her daughter, Nina Hart Gary, actress Jean Seberg visited the Meskwaki Settlement and met Donald Wanatee for the first time. She saw the challenges the Tribe was facing, and asked what she could do to help.
"There were no jobs. No housing. No running water. It was extreme poverty," said Wanatee, who befriended Jean.
In 1972, a donation was made by Seberg for athletic equipment for the Meskwaki boys' basketball team.
Actress Jean Seberg.
Don talked about his friendship with Jean and her interest in the civil rights movement during an interview for the documentary Jean Seberg: Actress Activist Icon.
"I think she was a real educated person. She was worried about what was happening in the state and in the world, especially concerning minorities. She was welcome to come here anytime."
Wanatee died in his home on the Meskwaki Settlement on April 21.
Dr. David Gradwohl, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at Iowa State University, posted a tribute on Facebook: "...Don was a student of mine at Iowa State University in the early 1970s. Along with his wife, Priscilla Lasley Wanatee, they co-founded the United Native American Student Association (UNASA) with two other students; I was privileged to serve as UNASA's first faculty advisor. He was seminal in the establishment of the American Indian Studies Program at ISU. Donald went on to obtain his Masters of Social Work degree at the University of Iowa. Donald helped establish the national Coalition of Indian Controlled School Boards which eventually led to the Meskwaki creating their own schools at the Settlement without the interference of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Donald served several terms on the Meskwaki Tribal Council and mentored many young Native American men and women. His legacy will live on."
Des Moines Register, March 1968.
Jean Seberg did not live to witness the transformative conditions on the Settlement over the decades that followed her first meeting with friend and activist Donald Wanatee--the Meskwaki Nation's several successful enterprises, and work to provide health services, senior services, family services, youth services, higher education and housing to its people; its efforts for historic preservation, language preservation, and cultural celebration; the establishment of Meskwaki, Inc., a family of companies dedicated to the Meskwaki mission of developing and operating successful tribally-owned business enterprises; providing meaningful jobs and opportunities for its Tribal members; and providing its Tribe with an adequate income stream from its business operations so the Tribe may reach total economic self-sufficiency.
In 2013, nearly 70 years after eight Meskwaki men were trained to use their native language to provide secure battlefield communication, Donald Wanatee was among representatives of the Meskwaki Settlement to accept the Congressional Gold Medal on behalf of their ancestors who served as World War II “code talkers.”
"It was an honor to see the Meskwaki veterans recognized for their “historic role in World War II, using their native language as the basis for creating unbreakable codes for communicating messages in combat,” Sen. Tom Harkin said. In their efforts, they “exemplified the traditional Meskwaki values of bravery, honor and justice.”"
Donald Wanatee, a member of the Meskwaki tribal council at the time simply said, “At last.”
It was truly an honor for us to meet and talk with Don. Our deepest sympathy goes out to his family, his friends, and all who knew and loved him.
Documentary filmmakers Garry McGee and Kelly Rundle with Donald Wanatee (center).
Garry McGee is the co-producer-director-writer of Jean Seberg: Actress, Activist, Icon (now in the distribution phase). He is the Emmy® nominated filmmaker behind the documentary The Last Wright (co-produced with Lucille Carra) and the author of Jean Seberg--Breathless, Neutralized: the FBI vs. Jean Seberg (with Jean Russell Larson) and The Films of Jean Seberg (with Michael Coates-Smith).
The award-winning documentary Jean Seberg: Actress, Activist, Icon tells the true story of Hollywood and heartbreak, beginning when an unknown 17-year-old Iowa girl who beat out 18,000 actresses to play Saint Joan in Otto Preminger's 1957 film. The documentary goes behind the scenes of her rocky life in the international film spotlight, her civil rights activism that drew FBI attention, and her mysterious death in Paris in 1979 - deemed a "probable suicide." Produced by Emmy-nominated and award-winning filmmakers Garry McGee (McMarr Ltd.), and Kelly Rundle and Tammy Rundle (Fourth Wall Films).
Visit JeanSebergMovie for updates on the documentary, glimpses behind-the-scenes, all things Jean Seberg, and upcoming news on the film's release.
