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Native Women's Group Says Royalties From "Wind River" Nowhere In Sight

Flickr Creative Commons
Credit Flickr Creative Commons

A Native women's advocacy group says they haven't seen any of the royalty money they were promised by the director of the 2017 film, Wind River. The Weinstein Company distributed the film, but since then, that company has been bought out.

The film was about the rape and murder of a Northern Arapaho woman, and came out just before Harvey Weinstein, the film's distributing company owner, was accused of sexual assault by numerous women. That's when the film's director Taylor Sheridan announced he would donate distribution royalties to the nonprofit in Montana.

The Weinstein Company was bought out by Lantern Entertainment and the advocacy group says it's unclear whether that company will honor the promise to donate distribution royalties from the film. The National Indigenous Women's Resource Center is among many entities that are caught up in the financial woes that Lantern inherited, and it's questionable whether they'll ever see any of what they were promised. The Weinstein Company declared bankruptcy, clearing them of any obligation to stand by the promise.

The advocacy group says they continue to remain in good communication with director Taylor Sheridan and his staff.

This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUER in Salt Lake City and KRCC and KUNC in Colorado.

Copyright 2020 Wyoming Public Radio. To see more, visit .

Melodie Edwards graduated with an MFA from the University of Michigan on Colby Fellowship where she received two Hopwood Awards in fiction and nonfiction. Glimmer Trainpublished “Si-Si-Gwa-D” in 2002 where it was one of the winners of their New Writers fiction contest. She has published stories in S outh Dakota Quarterly, North Dakota Review, Michigan Quarterly, Prairie Schooner, Crazyhorseand others. She is the recipient of the Doubleday Wyoming Arts Council Award for Women. “The Bird Lady” aired on NPR's Selected Shorts and Prairie Schoonernominated the story for a Pushcart Prize. She has a story upcoming in an anthology of animal stories, published by Ashland Creek Press. She is the author of "Hikes Around Fort Collins," now in its third printing. She is circulating Outlawry,a novel about archeology theft in the 1930's with publishing houses. She is currently working on a young adult trilogy about a secret society of crows and ravens.
Melodie Edwards
Phone: 307-766-2405