The story of the Yuma Crossing, the place where centuries of travelers crossed the Colorado River as told in a series of reenacted vignettes by colorful characters from the Quechan tribe, the conquistadores, Father Kino, Olive Oatman and others up until the first bridge was built in the 1920's.
Nóouhàh-Toka’na, known as swift fox in English, once roamed the North American Great Plains from Canada to Texas. Like bison, pronghorn and other plains animals, Nóouhàh-Toka’na held cultural significance for the Native Americans who lived alongside them. But predator control programs in the mid-1900s reduced the foxes to just 10 percent of their native range. At the Fort Belknap Indian Community in Montana, members of the Aaniiih and Nakoda tribes are working with the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute and other conservation partners to restore biodiversity and return Nóouhàh-Toka’na to the land.
A young Native American man on his way to visit his uncle learns about his Navajo heritage by attending tribal gatherings, traditional ceremonies and listening to old folktales.
For more than 120 years, Mohawk ironworkers have raised America’s modern cityscapes. They are called 'sky walkers' because they walk fearlessly atop steel beams just a foot wide, high above the city. In this nuanced portrait of modern Native Americans' double lives, Jerry McDonald Thundercloud and his colleague Sky shuttle between the hard-drinking Brooklyn lodging houses they call home during the week and their rural reservation, a grueling drive six hours north, where a family weekend awaits. While the men are away working, their wives often struggle to keep their children away from the illegal temptations of an economically deprived area.
Shows representative samples of Northwest Indian art collected from six different museums, featuring the double-faced mechanical masks which were part of this culture.
In 1763, Britain defeated France in the worldwide Seven Years War - referred to in the American Colonies as The French and Indian War. As a result, the French abandoned America, leaving the Native population who had sided with the French to fear the British would seek revenge. Ottawa Chief Pontiac convinced many tribes they needed to strike first. Some did so willingly, others were forced to fight. Their ultimate target was Fort Pitt. The combatants on both sides deployed unconventional and often brutal strategies and tactics. Colonel Henry Bouquet, with a ragtag group of British soldiers, Scottish Highlanders and American volunteers, was tasked with trying to save the hundreds of men, women and children facing certain death - or worse - in Fort Pitt. The little-known Battle of Bushy Run changed the course of world history... This is that story.
In 1867, when the United States purchased the Alaska territory, the promise of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights didn't apply to Alaska Natives. Their struggle to win justice is one of the great, untold chapters of the American civil rights movement, culminating at the violent peak of World War II with the passage of one of the nation's first equal rights laws.
A lost film based on the 'Reign of Terror', a real-life series of several dozen murders committed against the Osage people. 'Tragedies of the Osage Hills' was directed by James Young Deer, the first known Native American film director, and boasted a cast of “hundreds of real Indians.” Described as a dramatic thriller interwoven with a “tender love story”, the film’s premiere in Cushing, Oklahoma occurred just months after the arrest of Ernest Burkhart, the subject of Martin Scorsese’s similarly themed 2023 film 'Killers of the Flower Moon'. The 'Cushing Daily Citizen' described 'Tragedies of the Osage Hills' as having a fictitious ending of the Osage and white men united under an American flag.
Story of Joseph Brant, chief of the Mohawks, and the events that led to the birth of Canada as a nation. During the time of the American Revolution, while Britain faces full scale insurrection in its American colonies, the great Indian empire of the Six Nations must choose between longtime British allies and the American Patriots, whose democratic ideals they share.
Yellowtail is the story of a young Native American cowboy searching for meaning as his chaotic lifestyle begins to wear on him both physically and mentally. To find his purpose the young man has to reflect on his upbringing as a native to become the spiritually connect man he was meant to be.
A young half-breed boy, the son of a hockey player and an Indian woman, is adopted by a Jewish shopkeeper, but finds himself torn between the different cultures with which he comes into contact.
A documentary that tells the story of five American Indian artists, the Urban Indian 5 (UI5), and their unique partnership.
During a winter storm, a man staggers home after a long night of drinking. Some time later, there is a ruckus that echoes through-out the house. The man is awoken to hear that something is on the roof.
Two best friends, Clint and Lenny, set out to pan for gold during the California Gold Rush. They have a stroke of luck and find a significant amount of gold in their pans. As they continue to pan, Clint becomes increasingly fixated on finding more and more gold, to the point where he becomes ruthless and starts to turn on Lenny. Lenny tries to remind Clint of the importance of their friendship and the values they once held, but Clint's greed continues to consume him. Eventually, their friendship is put to the test as Clint's behavior becomes increasingly dangerous and erratic. Will the gold be the end of their friendship, or will Lenny be able to save his friend from the destructive power of greed?
A pregnant pioneer woman and her family meet a supernatural fate after breaking from their wagon train to California and ignoring a series of ominous dreams.
This documentary offers a deep, candid, and historical look at the Christian experience of America's largest and best-known tribes: the Dakota and Lakota. Its exploration into Native American history also takes a hard and detailed look at President Ulysses S. Grant's Peace Policy of 1873, which was, in effect, a "convert to Episcopalianism or starve" edict put forth by the American government in direct violation of its Constitution. The devastation it had on the values of the people affected were dramatic and extremely long-lasting. Grant's policy was finally ended over 100 years later by the Freedom of American Indian Religions Act in 1978. Interlaced with extraordinarily candid interviews, this documentary presents an insider's perspective of how the Dakota and Lakota were estranged from their religious beliefs and their long-standing traditions.
An intimate and thrilling portrait of a young Siksika woman and the deep bonds between her father and family in the golden plains of Blackfoot Territory as she prepares for one of the most dangerous horse races in the world… bareback.
Three Kiowa boys attempt to escape a government boarding school in 1891, Oklahoma.
Native Americans, ranchers, government officials, and environmental activists battle over the yearly slaughter of America's last wild bison, based on fear that migrating animals will transmit the disease brucellosis to cattle. Join a 500-mile spiritual march across Montana led by Lakota elder Rosalie Little Thunder expressing her people's cultural connection to bison, an environmental group engaging in civil disobedience and video activism, and a ranching family caught in the crossfire.