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Donna Couteau The founder of Leaf Arrow Storytellers with her husband, actor Joe Cross, Couteau is acting, entertaining, and educating New York area audiences.
I was a shy overweight teen-ager with a dream, cleaning a dance studio in exchange for ballet lessons in south Texas. The fact that I dared to dream came in part from the knowledge that I was Sac and Fox; related to legends like Black Hawk, Jim Thorpe, and Ernest Tubb of Grand Ole Opry fame from my non-Indian side. My family and I moved every two years. We were misfits, outsiders, frequently the only Indians in the schools we attended. I drew pictures and danced and rarely spoke to anyone. I started my career in New York as a ballet dancer, and after dancing professionally for several years had to quit due to an injury. Needing to make a living and having no more than a high school education, I went to AICH to learn typing and got a part time job there. At the Community House I met Hanay Geigomah, the actors Maria A. Rogers, Jane Lind, and Spiderwoman Theater and reinvented myself as an actress! I earned my Equity card in Tulsa, Oklahoma, starring in Chris Sergel’s Footprints in Blood, about the first civil rights case in the country. Given a Pendleton blanket and eagle feathers from the Poncas and the Sac and Fox, I was told to keep doing good things for the people. I met my husband Joe Cross (Caddo) at the Indian Center and together we formed the award winning Leaf Arrow Storytellers about sixteen years ago. We wanted to share our particular cultures, especially the stories, with children and families of New York and the world, and reconnect with our tribal elders. We dance to capture the audiences’ attention and while we hope to be entertaining, we are more concerned with education. While living in New York, it occurred to me that unlike even our recent ancestors I was free to continue my path as a Native person in whatever way I wanted to. All the things the government wanted to deny us in forced assimilation I felt were important to continue; like speaking our languages, being off-reservation, knowing our religions, and I was on the right road remembering and communicating the stories and teachings of our people. As I approach my senior years, I have been called upon to tell the stories of new Native American playwrights with such works as William Yellowrobe’s Grandchildren of the Buffalo Soldiers, an historic Equity co-production and tour between the African American theater Penumbra and the Trinity Rep; as well as Judy Lee Oliva’s world premiere Te Ata. I still hope to see a new Native American Theatre company in New York, the heart of American theatre, with our own building and stage. I see I have come nearly full circle in the dance. - Donna Couteau |
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