Chancers

Description

Centered on the volatile issue of the repatriation of Native American skeletal remains| “Chancers” follows a group of student Solar Dancers who set out to resurrect native remains housed in the Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology at the University of California| Berkeley.

Possessed by the demonic wiindigoo| a mythic monster| the Solar Dancers| in a gruesome ritual| sacrifice faculty and administrators associated with the collection and storage of native remains. The Dancers replace stored native skulls with those of the academics| and the resurrected natives become the Chancers.

The Round Dancers| humane and erotic trickster figures| are natural opponents of the morbid Solar Dancers. The war between the two groups comes to a comic conclusion at a graduation ceremony attended by Pocahontas; Phoebe Hearst; Alfred Kroeber| the anthropologist; Ishi| the native who actually lived and worked in the university museum; and many Chancers.