Besides the vast poetry, prose, and drama of 'The Herodeia Decalogue', David Seals is best known for his 1979 comic allegory about the contemporary Cheyenne Indians, 'The Powwow Highway', which George Harrison of The Beatles produced as a feature film in 1989 of the same title. He had to self-publish it himself when numerous publishers rejected it; but after the popular feature film came out, publishers and agents made many {"rather modest" the Author has commented} offers, and it has since gone into 12 printings from New American Library/Plume. The sequel novel 'Sweet Medicine' was published by Crown/Random House in 1992, and it received rave reviews from the New York Times, Library Journal, and many others, comparing Seals to Mark Twain for "The comic masterpiece', said Booklist. Only a few essays have been published since, for he has been compared to Herman Melville (Los Angeles Times), for his "uncompromising Paganism, and anti-Americanism", such as seen in his essay 'The New Custerism' {The Nation, May 1992} anthologized as one of the best essays on film in the 20th century, in 'Cinema Nation' [Nation Books, 2000, NY]; 'Buffalo Medicine' in 'Genocide of the Mind' [Thunder's Mouth Press, 2003, NY]; and 'Nicaragua: what's Ward Churchill got against you?' ['Eating Fire, Tasting Blood: An Anthology of the American Indian Holocaust', Thunder's Mouth Press, 2006, NY, Marijo Moore and Vine Deloria jr. editors]. {ch. of 'Arizona Savagery'} He has also worked many years as an actor and playwright, but only 3 or 4 of his plays have been produced - 'Give Them Liberty' in 1976 at the semi-professional Shuler Theatre in Raton, New Mexico, which the local paper called "profoundly moving" [Raton Range, July 4, 1976]; 'King David' in 1978 in Santa Fe, produced by the New Mexico Arts Council at the NM Museum {"a noble effort" Albuquerque Journal}; 'Two-Men' in 1981 at the professional Steamboat Rep in Colorado about Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull {"Americans don't give a rat's ass about Sitting Bull" a visiting Lakota Sioux elder said ... }; 'Free Peltier', on Ciniweb in Ventura California 1999, Oyate Community Center in Rapid City, South Dakota, 1997; 'The Roswell Mysteries' in various Readings, 'Lobotomy' (later re-written and re-titled as 'Abduction at Flagstaff'), 2008, staged reading Theatrikos in Flagstaff. Currently working on a musical theatre version of 'The Powwow Highway', perhaps for the New York or London stages, if producers/funding can be found . . .
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