Born in 1942 in Phoenix, Arizona, United States to the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, in his early twenties Lucas was a musician in New York but giving up alcohol drove him to leave for Central America where he took up photography and worked for advertising agencies.
In 1979 he helped complete a set of documentaries covering Portrayal of Native Americans in film called "Images of Indians" with Robert Hagoplan.
In particular, Lucas and Hagoplan made the first of the series - "The Great Movie Massacre" - about the myth of the "savage Indian" vs Buffalo Bill and similar stories.
"[7] Lucas played characters and served as a technical advisor on cultural content in popular TV series Northern Exposure (1990–1991) and MacGyver, as well as producing/writing/directing/editing many movies and documentaries.
Also in 1993, Pierce Brosnan starred in The Broken Chain for TV and Lucas played a Mohawk character in a story about Iroquois' in the midst of the Revolutionary War.