Came across a documentary on cable that told the story of the making of the movie, Dances With Wolves. It was pretty interesting to find out that none of the big movie companies would agree to make that movie. The only way the movie got funded was from Kevin Costner’s own money and then a few other Hollywood individuals who believed in Costner. It was a huge risk for everyone – Costner was young and just getting established as star, with no reputation for being a director yet. And he decided to both star in the movie and direct it.
Another thing that interested me is that they strove hard to be as historically accurate as possible, taking great care in the selection of shooting locations, costumes, etc.They used real buffalo, and during the filming of the stampede, Kevin Costner had fallen off his horse and been trampled slightly. Luckily he was not badly hurt.
They even cast real Native American Indians as the Indians, however the tribe that was called for in the script did not have enough Indians to fill all the parts. So instead they went to the Lakota Sioux and used the Lakota for all the Indian parts in the movie.