Question: Which Spokane actor writes about his Indigenous American ancestry and wrote the screenplay for a 1998 film direct by Chris Eyre?
Context: La Malinche (] ; c. 1496 or c. 1501 – c. 1529), known also as Malinalli ] , Malintzin ] or Doña Marina ] , was a Nahua woman from the Mexican Gulf Coast, who played a role in the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, acting as an interpreter, advisor, mistress, and intermediary for the Spanish conquistador, Hernán Cortés.  She was one of 20 women slaves given to the Spaniards by the natives of Tabasco in 1519.  Later, she became a mistress to Cortés and gave birth to his first son, Martín, who is considered one of the first Mestizos (people of mixed European and indigenous American ancestry). We Shall Remain is a five-part, 7.5-hour documentary series about the history of Native Americans spanning the 17th century to the 20th century.  It was a collaborative effort with several different directors, writers and producers working on each episode, including directors Chris Eyre, Ric Burns and Stanley Nelson Jr. Actor Benjamin Bratt narrated the entire series.  It is part of the American Experience series and premiered April 13, 2009. Chris Eyre (born 1968), an enrolled member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes, is an American film director and producer who as of 2012 is chairman of the film department at the Santa Fe University of Art and Design. The Native American Film and Video Festival is a noncompetitive showcase of film, video and audio productions held biennially in New York City.  Each festival screens between 50 and 80 documentaries, short features and animations, introduced by their producers and members of the native communities represented.  Works to be featured in a given festival are chosen by a team of selectors made up of media makers and cultural activists from among indigenous peoples of the Americas and the program staff of the Film and Video Center of the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of the American Indian.  Selectors have included indigenous film makers such as Chris Eyre, Randy Redroad, and Nora Naranjo-Morse, and Native American cultural experts and academics such as G. Peter Jemison, Beverly Singer, and Paul Apodaca. Hide Away (aka A Year in Mooring) is a 2011 drama film directed by Chris Eyre.  The film stars actors Josh Lucas, Ayelet Zurer, and James Cromwell.  It was released on 30 October 2011. This is a list of notable Native Americans from peoples indigenous to the contemporary United States, including Native Alaskans, Native Hawaiians, and Native Americans in the United States.  Native American identity is a complex and contested issue.  The Bureau of Indian Affairs defines Native American as having American Indian or Alaska Native ancestry.  Legally, being Native American is defined as being enrolled in a federally recognized tribe or Alaskan village.  Ethnologically, factors such as culture, history, language, religion, and familial kinships can influence Native American identity.  All individuals on this list should have Native American ancestry.  Historical figures might predate tribal enrollment practices and would be included based on ethnological tribal membership, Skins is a 2002 American feature film by Chris Eyre and based upon the novel of the same name by Adrian C. Louis.  The film is set on the fictional Beaver Creek Indian Reservation in South Dakota near the Nebraska border, a place very much like the actual Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, the setting in the book and the place where the film was actually shot.  Lakota Sioux tribal police officer Rudy Yellow Lodge (Eric Schweig) struggles to rescue his older, alcoholic brother, Mogie (Graham Greene), a former football star who was wounded in combat three times in Vietnam.  Winona LaDuke makes a cameo appearance as Rose Two Buffalo. Sherman Joseph Alexie, Jr. (born October 7, 1966) is a Spokane-Coeur d'Alene-American novelist, short story writer, poet, and filmmaker.  Much of his writing draws on his experiences as an Indigenous American with ancestry from several tribes.  He grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation and now lives in Seattle, Washington. Smoke Signals is a Canadian-American independent film released in 1998, directed and co-produced by Chris Eyre and with a screenplay by Sherman Alexie, based on the short story "This is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona" from his book "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven" (1993).  The film won several awards and accolades, and was well received at numerous film festivals. Bari Behen is a 1949 Hindi Bollywood film direct, screenplay and producer by D. D. Kashyap, starring Suraiya, Rehman, Ullhas and Pran.  The film was remade in Sinhalese as "Sujatha" (1953).
Answer: Sherman Joseph Alexie, Jr.