“The Last of the Line” (Mutual Film, 1914)
Sioux leader Chief Gray Otter (Joe Goodboy) sends his son Tiah (Sessue Hayakawa) off to a “white man’s school” so that he can become a great leader. But the son returns home as a worthless drunk and soon joins a group of renegades, forcing the father to make a decision. This Thomas Ince produced short drama features Sioux actors in most of the parts.

“Tumbleweeds” (United Artists, 1925) Famed silent Western actor William S. Hart stars as cowboy Don Carver, who decides to get in on the Cherokee Strip Land Run in Oklahoma of 1893 and stake a claim as a homesteader. Directed by King Baggot, and produced by Hart in what was his final starring role, “Tumbleweeds” has been lauded as a seminal film of the silent era, unique in its depiction of Native Americans, not as villains but as Hart’s friends and for including African Americans among the land boomers. Noted film historian William K. Everson praised the land rush scene as “a superbly constructed piece of mass action, with overall excitement brilliantly welded to the individual vignette of sheer poetry — as in the wonderful shot of Hart seeming to fly through the sky as he races his pony over the crest of a hill.”  Live musical accompaniment for the program will be performed by Ben Model. 2 p.m. Free, at the Library of Congress Packard Campus Theater located at 19053 Mt. Pony Rd. in Culpeper, VA. No reservations required. For more information, call 202-707-9994.