Wes Studi Arrested For Drunken Driving In New Mexico

Actor Wes Studi was arrested in New Mexico this week for aggravated drunken driving.

Studi, an iconic Native American actor who starred in The Last of the Mohicans and Dances With Wolves, was busted around 1am on Friday while he was sitting at a stop sign. The car he was driving had both front tires blown out.

Arresting officers said that the 65-year-old actor refused breath, field and blood tests. He was booked on an aggravated driving while intoxicated charge. Whether he had an attorney is unknown.

Studi is a member of the Cherokee Nation, and Cherokee is his first language. He has worked in film for over 20 years.

Notable roles include the lead in 1993’s Geronimo: An American Legend, the 1999 superhero spoof film Mystery Men, Terrence Malick’s 2005 film The New World, and James Cameron’s 3-D sci-fi epic Avatar.

Though he is sort of regarded as the go-to Native American guy in Hollywood, Studi seemed to suggest in a 2010 interview with The Huffington Post that he cares less about representing his Native American roots, and more about contributing to showing diversity of any kind in film.

“It’s [important] to me to be able to play those other characters, because even then I’ve continued to carry the banner. And that’s not just with American Indians. Actually, what it comes down to is that it’s brown people; it’s the fact that we see some brown people on screen. It’s a matter of people of color is what it really comes down to, and anytime a guy like me winds up in a film like this, it’s very good for people of color.”

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