LOS ANGELES — He wasn't nominated for an Oscar for his role as a Canadian Indian Marine in "Flags of Our Fathers," but Adam Beach still feels like a winner.

"Just to hear that people were upset that I didn't get nominated really means a lot," he says of critics enthralled by his haunting portrayal of Ira Hayes, one of the Marines seen raising the flag on Iwo Jima in the prize-winning Associated Press photo snapped during the World War II battle.

"I've never had to wait for an award to look at my accomplishments," he says. "I've always had the hearts and smiles of Native American people to tell me, 'You've won us.' That's my award."

A Salteaux Indian from Manitoba, Beach, 34, has earned worldwide recognition for his strong work in dozens of films, including the critically acclaimed "Smoke Signals" and John Woo's "Windtalkers."

In HBO's historical epic, "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee," airing tonight, the actor again delivers a stirring performance. He plays Charles Eastman, a college-educated Sioux physician who struggles with his assimilation as the U.S. government continues a bloody campaign to settle Indian lands.

Adapted from Dee Brown's nonfiction best-seller, the film begins in 1876 with the Sioux victory over Gen. George Custer at Little Big Horn and the events leading up to the assassination of Sitting Bull and the massacre of Sioux at Wounded Knee Creek in 1890.

"A lot of people now say, 'Hey, you guys, get over it,' " Beach says, on the phone from New York. "It's not about getting over it. It's about understanding.

"There are still generations who are trying to recover from this assimilation that (the government) tried on our people."

Although a historical character, Eastman was not the centerpiece of the book as he is in the film.

"It was a dramatic necessity," says executive producer Dick Wolf, "to have somebody who was a synthesis of many different paths and characters. Once we found the character, it was finding an actor."

And what Beach brought to the role went beyond the script.

"There is something in his expressions that there is more going on than meets the surface," says Wolf, who's hired the actor as a regular on his NBC procedural "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit."

Beach also will star in CBS' upcoming "Comanche Moon," the latest miniseries in the "Lonesome Dove" franchise.

"Adam has had a uniquely successful career. But I think he recognizes that there are other people, if they'd had the same breaks, who could do the same thing," Wolf adds. "In that way, I think the (journey of the) character of Charles Eastman is remarkably similar to the journey that Adam is on himself."

Raised on a reservation, Beach was orphaned at age 8 after losing his parents in separate accidents only months apart. He and his two brothers went to live with relatives in Winnipeg, where, as a teenager, he got caught up in gangs.

He found his saving grace in a high school theater class — although initially, he and his pals "were just beating up each other and doing crazy stunts. They left the next year, but I stayed in it. I really liked it. It allowed me to hide from who I was. I didn't feel I had to carry the burdens of my life in the class."

After performing in local theater productions, Beach dropped out of school to join the Manitoba Theatre for Young People. At 18, he landed a small part in the miniseries "Lost in the Barrens."

Various TV roles came next, but he wasn't expecting the reception that followed.

"Once I started acting, people were asking, 'When are you going to quit?' 'Why is he doing that?' This was from my family and friends," he said. "I just took it as, 'I'll show you.' "

Wolf expects there will be more in store for Beach after "Wounded Knee" airs.

"I will be stunned, baffled and upset," he says, "if he isn't nominated (for), and wins, an Emmy."