‘Ghosts’: Oklahoma Short Film Tells The Story Of 3 Boy’s Attempted Boarding School Escape

A new short film in the works in Oklahoma tells the story of a devastating chapter in the state’s history.  

The movie is called ‘Ghosts,’ and is directed by Jeffrey Palmer, an indigenous filmmaker from Oklahoma.  

The movie is based on a true story about three Kiowa boys who died after trying to escape a boarding school near Anadarko.  

James Mooney, an author who documented Kiowa practices, cited one of their calendars saying:  

“The Anko calendar records the death of three schoolboys, indicated by the picture of a boy in civilized dress holding a book.” 

“We’re just really hoping that this brings more awareness and for people to pay attention to stories like these, that were not popular and were not told for the longest time,” said film producer Adam Ropp.  

Indigenous actor from Yukon, Lane Factor, wants to change the narrative around native peoples in media.  

“Whenever you see a Native American person in any sort of media, it's, maybe like a western where they’re just being shot off a horse or something,” he said.  

He plays a character named Charles in ‘Ghosts.’ 

“It’s really important for this story because this was actually our history, these are the ways they try to kill off Native American people. I think it's really, really important that stories like these are told, and also that Native stories can be told,” Factor said.  

“It wasn’t very difficult for us to go and find locations that already had these stories that we’re telling already in their history. In fact, we’re at one of those places today, we’re shooting at a building that was a former boys boarding school from the early 1900’s,” Ropp said.  

The film could be produced into a feature-length version of the same story.