Native American Heritage Month November 2022: Films

Available via Films on Demand. This episode begins in March 1621, in what is now southeastern Massachusetts, when Massasoit, the leading sachem of the Wampanoag, negotiated with a ragged group of English colonists.

Available via Kanopy. By recounting the life story of Dennis Banks, the Native American who co-founded the American Indian Movement (AIM) in 1968 to advocate and protect the rights of American Indians, the film provides an in-depth look at the history and issues surrounding AIM's formation.

Available via Films on Demand. Proposing to “kill the Indian and save the man,” U.S. Army captain Richard H. Pratt envisioned an educational system that would erase Native American culture and “civilize” the continent’s indigenous people. His chosen method? Removing children from Pennsylvania’s tribal communities and confining them in barracks-style schools—initially the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, which Pratt founded in 1879.

Available via Films on Demand. In what is often considered the very first documentary film, Robert Flaherty recorded the daily life of Nanook the Inuk hunter and his family living in the harsh conditions of Canada's Hudson Bay region.

Available via Hoopla. 24-episode series in which Dr. Daniel Cobb provides a multidisciplinary view of American history, revealing new perspectives on the historical and contemporary experiences of Indigenous peoples, and their significant impact on the history of our country.

Available via Films on Demand. This film traces the fight in Minnesota against the expansion of pipelines carrying highly toxic tar sands oil through Native lands and essential waterways in North America.

Available via Kanopy. This revelatory documentary brings to light the profound and overlooked influence of Indigenous people on popular music in North America.

Available via Films on Demand. This documentary follows a group of renowned rock musicians on a journey through Native American reservations in the southwest and the Great Plains.

Available via Kanopy. The final decades of the twentieth century brought unprecedented changes for American Indians, especially in the areas of human rights and tribal sovereignty. In 1990, after a long struggle between Indian rights groups and the scientific establishment, the Native American Graves Repatriation and Protection Act was passed.

Available via Kanopy. A uniquely delicate and moving road movie, Barking Water uses the ruggedly beautiful backdrop of rural Oklahoma to tell the story of a proud Native American attempting to reconnect with his estranged family.

Available via Hoopla. Twelve-year-old Beans is on the edge: torn between innocent childhood and delinquent adolescence; forced to grow up fast to become the tough Mohawk warrior she needs to be during the Indigenous uprising known as The Oka Crisis, which tore Quebec and Canada apart for 78 tense days in the summer of 1990.

Available via Kanopy. Based on the true story of the Bell Waterline Project, THE CHEROKEE WORD FOR WATER shares the struggle for, opposition to, and ultimate success of a rural Cherokee community to bring running water to their families by using the traditional concept of “gadugi “– working together to solve a problem.

Available via Hoopla. Adaptation of the acclaimed best-seller about an eight-year-old Cherokee boy in Tennessee's Smoky Mountains during the 1930s.

Available via Hoopla. After his father's untimely suicide, disillusioned young Cufe leaves his home on a Native American reservation in search of a more fulfilling life.

Available via Kanopy. With an older brother in jail and living with their single mother on Pine Ridge Reservation, Johnny and his sister Jashuan's lives develop new challenges when their absentee cowboy father suddenly dies. The loss prompts Johnny to strike out for Los Angeles, but it would mean leaving behind his beloved sister.

Available via Kanopy. Based on the inspiring true story of Mary Thompson Fisher, a woman who traversed cultural barriers to become one of the greatest Native American performers of all time.

Available via Kanopy. A hauntingly beautiful film that is true to the lyrical and unflinching spirit of James Welch's classic 1974 novel of Native American life.