Reading and Language Arts

Urban Rez

Urban Rez explores the controversial legacy and modern-day repercussions of the Urban Relocation Program (1952-1973), the greatest voluntary upheaval of Native Americans during the 20th century. During the documentary, dozens of American Indians representing tribal groups from across the West recall their first-hand experiences with relocation, including the early hardships, struggles with isolation and racism.

The Oneida Speak

The instructional television program, The Oneida Speak, is based in part on oral interviews of Oneida Indian elders in Wisconsin conducted between 1939-1941, as a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project sponsored by the federal government. Several stories from these interviews are reenacted in this program, which also includes interviews of contemporary Oneida historians, cultural preservationists, and elders by program producers.

Indian Country Diaries

Indian Country Diaries goes inside modern Native American communities to reveal a diverse people working to revitalize their culture while improving the social, physical, and spiritual health of their people.

Good Meat

Once a star athlete in his community, Beau LeBeau (Oglala Lakota) now weighs 333 pounds--an unhealthy weight which has triggered the onset of Type II Diabetes. His mother's untimely death from complications due to cancer and diabetes motivates him to drop the excessive pounds. Enlisting the help of physician Dr. Kevin Weiland and nutritionist Kibbe Conti (Oglala Lakota), Beau starts exercising and takes up a traditional Lakota diet of buffalo meat and other Native foods.

Games of the North

Four Inuit athletes travel throughout Alaska competing in the ancestral games of strength. Acrobatic and explosive, these sports are vital for survival in the frigid, hostile Arctic. As waves of change sweep across their traditional lands, their role is stronger than ever.

For the Rights of All: Ending Jim Crow in Alaska

In the Alaska Purchase of 1867 the United States took on more than just the land. There were indigenous people living everywhere in Alaska. Like Native Americans in the lower 48, Alaska Natives struggled to keep their basic human rights as well as protect their ancient ties to the land. The Bill of Rights did not apply to them. Through extensive reenactments and rarely seen historic footage and photographs, 'For the Rights of All' reveals these remarkable people and their non-violent struggle for civil rights.

Choctaw Code Talkers

In 1918, not yet citizens of the United States, Choctaw Tribal members of the American Expeditionary Forces were asked to use their Native language as a powerful tool against the German Forces in World War I setting a precedent for code talking as an effective military tool and establishing them as America’s original code talkers.

Apache 8

Apache 8 tells the story of an all-women wildland firefighter crew from the White Mountain Apache Tribe, who have been fighting fires in Arizona and throughout the U.S., for over 30 years. The film delves into the challenging lives of these Native firefighters.

Video Letters from Prison

Video Letters from Prison follows the lives of three Oglala Lakota sisters as they reconnect with their incarcerated father via a series of video letters. The Poor Bear girls are not sure they even want to connect--but their mother, Cindy, helps them overcome reluctance and hurt to participate in the letters. The change in her girls is immediate and beautiful. Connecting life's paths, Video Letters from Prison is a road flooded with emotions and spiritual growth.

The Thick Dark Fog

Walter Littlemoon is a 69-year-old Lakota man born and raised in Wounded Knee, South Dakota. At the age of five, he was removed from his family to attend a Federal government boarding school where his culture, language and spirituality were suppressed.

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