The picture was filmed on location in Canyon de Chelly, on Navajo tribal land in northeast Arizona. It has since become the Canyon de Chelly National Monument. Richard Dix had already portrayed a Navajo in Famous Players-Lasky's popular The Vanishing American (see entry) three years earlier.
       The 7 July 1928 Motion Picture News announced that Redskin had been postponed in Paramount's production schedule and replaced by Moran of the Mounted. (The item meant to say that Moran of the Marines was the replacement.) Meanwhile, Elizabeth Pickett, "who wrote the original story of Redskin, has been engaged to do the continuity." She told the January 1928 Screenland that she had written the story four years earlier, after spending many months among the Navajos "studying their manners and customs and getting an understanding of them."
       The 1 September 1928 Exhibitors Herald and Moving Picture World ran a dateline "Hollywood, August 28" item that "Paramount began production today" on Redskin. Director Victor Schertzinger and the complete cast left the previous day for "the Navajo reservation 90 miles south of Gallup, N.M., where he will remain for five weeks working on exteriors. Two weeks is planned for inside work upon the return of the company to Hollywood. The entire picture is being shot in color. It is also planned as a synchronized film. Talking scenes have not been contemplated. Louise Brooks, who accompanied the troupe on location, is cast in the leading feminine role."
       Louise Brooks was withdrawn at the last moment, which precipitated a scramble to find a replacement. The 23 September issue of Motion Picture News noted that Gladys Belmont (ne Freeman), a 17-year-old from Pueblo, CO, won the role of "Corn Blossom" in Redskin "over 463 other contestants." An article on Belmont in the December 1928 Screenland revealed that her most important attribute was her "straight nose." She was whisked by train to Gallup, NM, the following day, then driven to the location in Arizona. Redskin was Grace Belmont's first film, and her only screen credit, though she did appear in several other movies in uncredited roles under the name Julie Carter.
       The credits include: "Color Sequences Photographed by Technicolor Process." The Technicolor scenes at a Native American village were the earliest to be filmed, but a cut in the picture's budget required a switch to black and white for the rest of the production, especially those scenes at the Indian school and Thorpe University. To blend with the color scenes, the black and white scenes were tinted amber, or sepia-toned. The Technicolor scenes appeared at the beginning and ending of the film.
       Music composer J. S. Zamecnik promised a "new color technique in musical interpretation" to match the Technicolor of Redskin, the December 1928 Talking Machine World reported. "Into his musical synchronization of Redskin, Mr. Zamecnik will bring the ancient plaintive melodies of the Navajo and Pueblo Indians. The composer will not change the richness and close harmony of the Indian songs, but he will modernize them sufficiently so as to make possible their use by an ultra-modern sound-recording orchestra. Old musical instruments used by the Navajo and Pueblo Indians have, by a fortunate circumstance, been unearthed, and Mr. Zamecnik proposes to write special parts into the score for these ancient instruments."
       Redskin was released as a silent film and as a sound-synchronized film for those theaters that had the sound equipment. Apparently the accompanying recording contained only the opening theme song and various sound effects. The theme song, "Redskin," was performed at the beginning of the film by an uncredited band with an unknown female singer. The song was recorded commercially for Columbia Records by Ben Selvin & His Orchestra, with vocalist Mildred Hunt, but apparently they had nothing to do with Paramount.
       According to the 1 March 1929 Paramount Around the World, Redskin "was made originally as an ordinary release, but Paramount thought the finished film good enough for a special. It opened to a standing-room-only crowd as a $2 movie at New York's Criterion Theater at Broadway and 44th Street as a "Paramount Surprise Special," and was still doing well after four weeks. A chart in the 13 July 1929 Motion Picture News showed that Redskin made $14,500 the first week, and was still bringing in over $12,000 during its fourth week. The film was finally pulled from the Criterion during its seventh week.
       The July 1929 Movie Maker praised "the very excellent natural color photography," as well as "the implications of Pueblo and Navajo life....One has the feeling, through much of the footage, of seeing authentic Indian customs."
       According to the Variety review and other contemporary sources, the final six minutes of Redskin were projected in Paramount's widescreen process known as "Magnascope."
       According to the Library of Congress American Silent Feature Film Survival Database, this film is extant.