Joy Harjo and Native Americans in the Arts: Past & Present

This PBS documentary focuses on the efforts of numerous Native American tribes who banded together to lobby the US government to establish sacred lands in southern Utah as a national monument to protect the land, but they are pitted against non-Native residents who want access to the land for development and recreation.

From Alexander Street Video: "A harrowing deep dive into the racial group most likely to be raped in the U.S. - American Indian and Alaska Native women. A Newsy investigation uncovers how race, politics and the law have prevented these survivors from finding justice".

From Alexander Street Video: "This unique and engaging documentary explores the extraordinary diversity and profound contemporary relevance of Native American storytelling. A feast for the eyes, ears, and mind, the film presents eight varied stories from the four directions and seasons".

From Alexander Street Video: "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".

From Alexander Street Video: "The series reveals some of the most advanced cultures in human history and the Native American people who created it and whose legacy continues, unbroken, to this day. This series explores this extraordinary world through an unprecedented combination of cutting edge science and traditional indigenous knowledge. It is Native America as never seen before -featuring sacred rituals filmed for the first time, history changing scientific discoveries, and rarely heard voices from the living legacy of Native American culture. Native America rediscovers a past whose splendor and sophistication is only now being realized, and whose story has for too long remained untold".

From Alexander Street Video: "Kili Radio, the "Voice of the Lakota Nation," is broadcast out of a small wooden house in the vast countryside of South Dakota. There, people converge to speak to the community about daily concerns and in doing so, strengthen their sense of identity".

From Alexander Street Video: "An unforgettable story about a young Native American woman and her family and their determined pursuit of the American Dream, Off The Rez is an award-winning documentary that follows one of the country's top high school basketball prospects, 16-year-old Shoni Schimmel, who must leave the reservation in order to play in a competitive, nationally-recognized basketball league".

"An entertaining and provocative look at Hollywood's depiction of Native Americans, Reel Injun journeys through a century of cinema to set the record straight. Traveling through the heartland of the U.S., to the Black Hills and Monument Valley, Cree filmmaker Neil Diamond examines how the myth of the movie "Injun" has influenced the world's understanding -- and misunderstanding -- of Natives. With clips from hundreds of classic and recent films document the shift from nuanced silent-era heroes to the Western's "noble savage" stereotype, leading up to the bourgeoning Native independent scene of Smoke Signals and The Fast Runner. Containing candid interviews with celebrated directors, writers, actors and activists, including Clint Eastwood, Robbie Robertson, Sacheen Littlefeather, John Trudell, and Russell Means, Reel Injun is an insightful and essential compendium for understanding the racial politics of Hollywood and the continuing artistic vibrancy of Native peoples." -- Back of container.

From Alexander Street Video: "It’s a family reunion … what could go wrong? Plenty, as we soon learn when Rita Davern exposes an ugly reality at the heart of a family legend. Her family members have always been proud to say that their great grandparents once owned Pike Island, a beautiful piece of land at the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers. But when Rita relates what happened to the people who lived there before, some family members react with understanding, others with arguments and anger. Rita’s attempts to understand what happened and why leads her on a journey that requires facing the complicated legacy of westward expansion in the U.S. Along the way she meets Ramona, a Dakota educator. What Ramona’s ancestors experienced because of U.S. government policies puts faces and names on this story. Rita listens and learns. She wants to find a way to put something right. We learn the value of finding and facing the past by watching her journey."

From Alexander Street Video: "This is an inspiring portrait of Winona La Duke, a unique and dynamic activist and member of the Anishinaabe tribe from the White Earth reservation in Northern Minnesota. Her father was a Native American who worked as a stuntman in Hollywood; her mother was a Jewish artist from New York. After completing her studies in economics at Harvard, Winona settled on the reservation. She traveled widely raising money to buy back land originally owned by Native Americans".