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60 free Dances with Wolves trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Kevin Costner was told Westerns were dead, that a three-hour film with subtitled Lakota dialogue would never sell, and that his directing debut would be Kevin's Gate. Dances with Wolves grossed $424 million and won seven Academy Awards. This Dances with Wolves trivia quiz covers the story of Lieutenant Dunbar at Fort Sedgwick, the wolf he names Two Socks, the horse Cisco, Stands With A Fist, Kicking Bird, Wind In His Hair and Chief Ten Bears, and the buffalo hunt that wins him a place in the tribe. Behind the camera there are questions on Michael Blake's unsold script that became a novel, the studios that passed, the South Dakota ranches where it was shot, the woman who translated the dialogue, the seven Oscars and the record they set for a Western, the four-hour special edition, and the criticism from Lakota activists who called it Lawrence of the Plains. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the film, its novel and its cast, and each question shows its source once you have answered.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which year was Dances with Wolves released?
1990
It premiered in October and opened nationwide on 9 November, going on to become the year's fourth-highest grosser worldwide.
Q 02What is the surname of the Union lieutenant played by Kevin Costner?
Dunbar
He is a first lieutenant who asks to be posted to the frontier so he can see it before it disappears.
Q 03Who wrote both the 1988 novel and the film's Oscar-winning screenplay?
Michael Blake
The story began as an unsold spec script; Costner urged him to turn it into a novel to improve its chances of being made.
Q 04Much of the film's dialogue is spoken, with English subtitles, in which language?
Lakota
Only one of the actors was a native speaker, and critics later noted the cast had been taught the language's feminine forms.
Q 05In the original novel, the lieutenant settles with a tribe of which people, changed for the film?
Comanche
The film moved the story north to the Sioux; a sequel novel published in 2001 picks the tale up eleven years later.
Q 06What is the name of the horse the lieutenant rides in his opening suicide charge and is later awarded?
Cisco
The unarmed ride in front of Confederate lines distracts the enemy long enough for a successful Union attack.
Q 07What does the lieutenant name the wolf that visits his fort?
Two Socks
The name comes from the animal's white forepaws.
Q 08What do the Sioux see that inspires the name Dances With Wolves?
The lieutenant and the wolf chasing each other
The name marks his transformation from outsider to member of the tribe.
Q 09Which actress plays Stands With A Fist and earned an Oscar nomination for it?
Mary McDonnell
It was her film breakthrough after more than 21 years in theatre and television.
Q 10Which Canadian actor plays Kicking Bird?
Graham Greene
The role brought him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor and international fame.
Q 11Who plays the fierce warrior Wind In His Hair?
Rodney A. Grant
The character ends the film shouting his everlasting friendship from a cliff as the lieutenant rides away.
Q 12Which activist and musician plays Chief Ten Bears?
Floyd Westerman
He went on to play the shaman in Oliver Stone's The Doors the following year.
Q 13Wes Studi plays a warrior from which tribe, portrayed as the film's antagonists?
Pawnee
Studi went on to play the Huron Magua in The Last of the Mohicans two years later.
What happens to Major Fambrough, the fort commander who posts the lieutenant to the frontier?
Q 21What is Kicking Bird's role within the tribe?
Medicine man
He adopted Stands With A Fist as a girl after her family was killed, and later approves her marriage to the lieutenant.
Q 22When the lieutenant first finds Stands With A Fist, she is harming herself. Why?
She is mourning her dead husband
He carries her back to the Sioux camp, his first real contact with the tribe.
Q 23How does the lieutenant win the tribe's acceptance?
He helps them find and hunt a buffalo herd
He kills himself
Because he told no one where the lieutenant had gone, no reinforcements ever arrive.
Q 15Which actor plays the unhinged Major Fambrough?
Maury Chaykin
The Canadian character actor's other credits include WarGames, My Cousin Vinny and The Sweet Hereafter.
Q 16What is the name of the deserted frontier outpost the lieutenant rebuilds alone?
Fort Sedgwick
He finds it abandoned and records his daily observations in a diary.
Q 17At which fort does the lieutenant first report before being sent to the farthest outpost?
Hays
The wagon driver who takes him west is killed on the return trip, so nobody knows where he is.
Q 18The film opens with the lieutenant wounded at St. David's Field, a battle in which state?
Tennessee
A surgeon plans to amputate his leg, prompting the suicidal ride that instead makes him a hero.
Q 19In which year does the film's story begin?
1863
The epilogue jumps ahead to 1876, when the last free Sioux surrendered.
Q 20The author said Stands With A Fist was based on which real woman, captured as a girl by a Plains tribe?
Cynthia Ann Parker
Her son was the famous chief Quanah Parker.
He later hands over his stash of firearms in time for them to beat a raiding party.
Q 24What do the soldiers who reoccupy the fort steal, leaving the lieutenant unable to prove his story?
His diary
He had gone back for it precisely because it could have led the army to the tribe's winter camp.
Q 25What happens to the wolf when it tries to follow the army convoy?
Soldiers shoot him for target practice
The scene, along with the shooting of the horse, marks the army's final betrayal of the man they consider a deserter.
Q 26With what offence is the lieutenant charged after refusing to help the army hunt the Sioux?
Desertion
His Sioux friends attack the wagon train carrying him back east and free him.
Q 27The closing text says the last free Sioux surrendered in 1876 at which fort?
Robinson
The fort was in Nebraska; the film's Sioux friends are last seen vanishing into the mountains.
Q 28The film's budget grew from an initial $15M to how much?
$22 million
It went on to gross $424.2 million worldwide.
Q 29Which studio finally made a deal to distribute the film and gave Costner final cut?
Orion Pictures
It became the highest-grossing film in the studio's history.
Q 30Costner dropped out of which submarine thriller to make Dances with Wolves?
The Hunt for Red October
Alec Baldwin took the role of Jack Ryan instead.