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Four Native American veterans reflect on their experiences in the military during the divisive Vietnam War and how their communities helped them carry their warrior legacy proudly. Even as they struggled with their relationship to the United States government from genocidal policies and government oppression; the Dakota, Lakota, and Ojibwe warriors still felt compelled to honor their duty to their people as Akichita | Ogichidaag | Warriors, as protectors of the people. A lifetime later, these soldiers meet us in the studio as they begin to tell their stories.
Indigenous dancers Sean and Adrian challenge the rulebook of San Manuel's Native American Sweetheart Special as they attempt to compete in the annual couple's competition. Dancing not only against the other dancers, but against the drums of oppression and closed-mindedness, this two-spirit couple is determined to rewrite the rules of "one man, one woman" with their resplendent charisma, character and resilience.
Gather follows the stories of natives on the frontlines of a growing movement to reconnect with spiritual and cultural identities that were devastated by genocide. An indigenous chef embarks on a ambitious project to reclaim ancient food ways on the Apache reservation; in South Dakota a gifted Lakota high school student, raised on a buffalo ranch, is proving her tribes native wisdom through her passion for science; and a group of young men of the Yurok tribe in Northern California are struggling to keep their culture alive and rehabilitate the habitat of their sacred salmon. All these stories combine to show how the reclaiming and recovery of ancient food ways is a way forward for native Americans to bring back health and vitality to their people.
In 1973 a rookie reporter is sent to cover armed members of the American Indian Movement (AIM) who have taken over the historic village of Wounded Knee, South Dakota. En route to Wounded Knee, he is threatened by a paramilitary group whose members oppose the takeover and consider the press the "enemy of the people." To get the inside story, the reporter circumvents government roadblocks surrounding the besieged village and embeds with the militants. When the Indians finally surrender after 10 weeks, two activists are dead and more than a dozen have been wounded in firefights with federal agents. The FBI arrests those who remain, including the reporter.
Forty years later, the reporter meets a Yurok Indian fisherman in California, a man he unwittingly had photographed during the 10-week occupation. The two become friends, traveling back to the Dakotas and later to the pipeline protests on the Standing Rock Reservation, where they examine the legacy of 1970's activism in Indian Country.
The road back to civilian life can be uncertain. For some, there were ticker tape parades; for others, protests, anger and silence. Some veterans recall the confidence they brought home, while others remember thinking, "What am I going to do now?" Narrated by actor Wes Studi, Vietnam War veteran (National Guard) and Native American (Cherokee) activist.
Home From School follows the difficult journey of Soldierwolf and tribal elders as they delve into the controversial history of Indian boarding schools, patch together the historic record and personal stories of the relatives who were shipped away, and, finally, travel to Carlisle to reunite with, and ultimately retrieve, the lost children of their tribe.
Generations after Native American children were sent from their reservation homes across the country to the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania, family members seek to retrieve the stories and the remains of children who were buried far from home on the school grounds. The Carlisle boarding school was the 19th century brainchild of Capt. William Henry Pratt, who theorized that Indians could only be “civilized” if removed from their families and immersed in the culture and manners of the civilization that had conquered their people.
Fighting Over Sioux is a feature-length documentary told through one-on-one interviews with tribal leaders, students, alumni, bloggers, reporters, politicians, and super fans. When the NCAA bans a small hockey town’s Native American name and logo, a battle begins to save a college icon.
When N. Scott Momaday won the 1969 Pulitzer Prize, it marked one of the first major acknowledgments of Native American literature and culture. Now, Momaday’s words come to life in this biography of a celebrated Native American storyteller.
