Te Ata (2016) on Netflix

Plot summary

In the Chickasaw Nation, in what will become Oklahoma, Mary Frances Thompson hears the stories of her people from her father Thomas. He wants her to finish her education and return to teach Chickasaw children, but at the Oklahoma College for Women Miss Davis is captivated by her performances of those stories and helps her earn money telling them on stage. Mary Frances sets her mind on Broadway. Assimilationist legislators press native peoples toward western ways, and as a Chickasaw woman she meets rejection after rejection. She takes the name Te Ata, a name an elder gave her as a child, Maori for breaking of the dawn.