Trivia

Learned Lakota for the Academy Award-winning film, Dances with Wolves (1990).

She is "métis," the French cognate of Spanish "mestizo," indicating a person of mixed American Aboriginal and European ancestry (usually an Algonquian ethnic group and a Celtic and/or French ethnic group). Cardinal is Cree and French.

Performed in a series of one-hour documentaries called "As Long as the Rivers Flow," about Native Canadians' drive for self-government.

Born in Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada, the first child of of a Metis woman named Julia Cardinal, she was raised by her maternal Cree grandmother in Anzac, Alberta (her step-grandfather was English).

Native activism was reaching its height in the late 60s and early 1970s when she began experimenting with acting. As a young actress, Cardinal began her career with a docudrama for the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. (CBC) and in productions for the Alberta Native Communications Society.

She married Fred Martin following high school graduation. The marriage suffered by her strong social activism which for the most part took her away from her husband and son Cheyenne. The marriage ended in 1976 and Fred went on to raise their son.

Received many awards in recognition of her acting accomplishments and her dedication to the native community, including: the Best Actress Award at the American Indian Film Festival in San Francisco; the Theatrical Sterling Award for Best Actress in "All My Relations" (1990); the Native Indian Film Festival's Eagle Spirit Award for lifetime contribution to the native artistic community; and an Outstanding Achievement award from the Toronto chapter of Women in Film and Television (WIFT). She also accepted the Sun Hill Award for Excellence in Native American Filmmaking.

Lives in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (January 2008)

Daughter with husband John Lawlor, Riel. She was named after Louis Riel, the Métis father of Manitoba (which originated as a quasi-independent Métis nation, of which Riel was the first and only president).

Other children, Cheynne and Clifford.

Lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. (November 2004)

In 1993 she received an honorary degree from the University of Rochester.

Moved to Lyndonville, Vermont, USA in 1994 after shooting the movie Where the Rivers Flow North (1993).

Was member of the dramatic jury at the Sundance Film Festival in 1994.

Invited to join the actor's branch of AMPAS in 2018.

In 2009, she was made a member of the Order of Canada "for her contributions to the growth and development of Aboriginal performing arts in Canada, as a screen and stage actress, and as a founding member of the Saskatchewan Native Theatre Company.".