The Twelve Days of Native christmas

Animation Short | Gary Robinson (Choctaw/Cherokee)

The Twelve Days of Native Christmas is an animated short film written and directed by Gary Robinson with illustrations by Jesse T. Hummingbird. The whole family will enjoy this whimsical adaptation of the timeless classic yuletide song The Twelve Days of Christmas adapted to a Native American perspective and illustrated by one of America’s great Indian artists. Twelve different Native American groups are represented in the lyrics and images of this fanciful animated short film.

5 minutes

Release: November 2009

Gary Robinson

Author/Director

Born in Dallas, Texas, GARY ROBINSON is a writer, filmmaker, artist and lecturer of Choctaw and Cherokee Indian descent. For the past 25 years, he has participated in the production of more than 100 educational, informational, training and documentary television projects, primarily on Native American topics.

Jesse T. Hummingbird

Illustrator

JESSE T. HUMMINGBIRD, CherokeeJesse, ¾ Cherokee and a tribal member of the Cherokee Nation, was born in 1952 in Tahlequah, OK, capital of the Cherokee Nation. He spent his childhood mostly in the deep South with frequent trips back to Oklahoma. He attended junior and senior high schools in Nashville, TN, and went on to study art at Watkins Institute, Middle Tennessee State University, the University of Tennessee, taking all the art classes he could but never earning a degree. As an adult he earned a graphics arts certificate at Nashville Tech and took classes at The American Academy of Art in Chicago. He now often takes classes at Cochise Community College.