Next week’s 34th American Indian Film Festival in San Francicso will feature a documentary called “Contrary Warrior: The Life and Times of Adam Fortunate Eagle.” (To watch a trailer, click here.)

It’s quite a life. As this story in the San Francisco Chronicle recounts, Nordwall “has had an incident-packed life that included being involved in the 1969 American Indian takeover and occupation of Alcatraz, satirizing the Vatican’s 16th century Doctrine of Discovery by ‘discovering’ Italy in the name of the American Indian people in 1973, and challenging the American government’s refusal to grant Indians full religious freedom, notably by making headdresses out of prohibited eagle feathers, leading to his arrest and a $15,000 fine in 1987.”

Nordwall, 80, now lives on Nevada’s Paiute-Shoshone Reservation.

Three years ago, filmmaker John Ferry released another Native-themed documentary, “Sitting Bull: Stone in My Heart.” He hired Nordwall to do voice work for that film, and in the process, befriended him.

“I respect the man. I love the guy, and I wanted to make a film that is a celebration of his life and achievements,” Ferry says.

The screening Monday coincides with the 40th anniversary of the Alcatraz occupation. If you’re interested in Nordwall’s life, the documentary isn’t the only source of information. The Chronicle says that next year, the University of Oklahoma Press will publish his memoir, “Pipestone: A Boy’s Story of Life in an Indian Boarding School.”

(Be sure and go to the Chronicle’s story to read about the other films, which include “People of the Seal,” “From the Badlands to Alcatraz,” La Mission,” “The Only Good Indian,” and “Jim Thorpe Spotlight.”)

Gwen Florio

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