Documentary
For 50 years, controversial ethnographer John Peabody Harrington crisscrossed the United States, frantically searching and documenting dying Native American languages. Harrington amassed over a million pages of notes on over 150 different tribal languages. Some of these languages were considered dead until his notes were discovered. Today tribes are accessing the notes, reviving their once dormant languages, and bringing together a new generation of language learners in the hope of saving Native languages.
MOVIE COMMENTS
SIMILAR MOVIES
Anti-Objects, or Space Without Path or Boundary
Contrary Warriors: A Film of the Crow Tribe
Indian Rights for Indian Women
Skydancer
Sweetheart Dancers
LaDonna Harris: Indian 101
The Lost Spirits
Mankiller
The Nightingale Sings
The Brave Class
As Long as the Rivers Run
Ways of Knowing: A Navajo Nuclear History
Mitakuye Oyasin
Dolores
The Warrior Tradition
Language Matters with Bob Holman
Dislocation Blues
Taking Alcatraz
maɬni—towards the ocean, towards the shore
Mom n' Me
SIMILAR MOVIES
Anti-Objects, or Space Without Path or Boundary
IMDB 7 | Apr , 2017
The title of this video, taken from the texts of the architect Kengo Kuma, suggests a way of looking at everything as “interconnected and intertwined” - such as the historical and the present and the tool and the artifact. Images and representations of two structures in the Portland Metropolitan Area that have direct and complicated connections to the Chinookan people who inhabit(ed) the land are woven with audio tapes of one of the last speakers of chinuk wawa, the Chinookan creole. These localities of matter resist their reduction into objects, and call anew for space and time given to wandering as a deliberate act, and the empowerment of shared utility.Contrary Warriors: A Film of the Crow Tribe
IMDB 0 | Nov , 1985
Examines the impact a century of struggling for survival has on a native people. It weaves the Crow tribe's turbulent past with modern-day accounts from Robert Yellow-tail, a 97-year-old Crow leader and a major reason for the tribe's survival. Poverty and isolation combine with outside pressures to undermine the tribe, but they resist defeat as "Contrary Warriors," defying the odds.Indian Rights for Indian Women
IMDB 0 | Sep , 2018
Three intrepid women battle for Indigenous women's treaty rights.Skydancer
IMDB 0 | Nov , 2011
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.Sweetheart Dancers
IMDB 9 | Feb , 2019
Sean and Adrian, a Two-Spirit couple, are determined to rewrite the rules of Native American culture through their participation in the “Sweetheart Dance.” This celebratory contest is held at powwows across the country, primarily for heterosexual couples … until now.LaDonna Harris: Indian 101
IMDB 1 | Mar , 2014
A documentary film about Comanche activist LaDonna Harris, who led an extensive life of Native political and social activism, and is now passing on her traditional cultural and leadership values to a new generation of emerging Indigenous leaders.The Lost Spirits
IMDB 0 | Jan , 2009
The last surviving Native Americans on Long Island are the focus of The Lost Spirits. The film chronicles their struggles as an indigenous people to maintain their identity amidst relentless modernization and a heartless bureaucracy.Mankiller
IMDB 6 | Jun , 2017
The story of an American hero and the Cherokee Nation's first woman Principal Chief who humbly defied all odds to give a voice to the voiceless.The Nightingale Sings
IMDB 8.5 | Nov , 2019
The movie explores the origin of the Ukrainian language and persecution of those who defended its authenticity. Using examples of other countries, creators of the film prove that a nation cannot exist without a language.The Brave Class
IMDB 6.7 | Jun , 2017
Three college students start a social experiment to prove that reality changes according to the words we use to describe it. Through research, activist actions, and artistic interventions, they analyze the importance of language in the way we understand the world. The documentary includes analysis from more than 20 international experts and leaders in the fields of political communication and information.As Long as the Rivers Run
IMDB 0 | Jan , 1971
Examines the violence and civil disobedience leading up to the hallmark decision in U.S. v. Washington, with particular reference to the Nisqually Indians of Frank's Landing in Washington.Ways of Knowing: A Navajo Nuclear History
IMDB 0 | Mar , 2025
The American Southwest holds a dark legacy as the place where nuclear weapons were invented and built. Navajo people have long held this place sacred, and continue to fight for a future that transcends historical trauma. This is their story.Mitakuye Oyasin
IMDB 0 | Jan , 2015
Lakota people from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota describe the ongoing struggle of their people.Dolores
IMDB 0 | Jan , 1984
The Warrior Tradition
IMDB 0 | Nov , 2019
The astonishing, heartbreaking, inspiring, and largely-untold story of Native Americans in the United States military. Why do they do it? Why would Indian men and women put their lives on the line for the very government that took their homelands?Language Matters with Bob Holman
IMDB 10 | Jan , 2015
There are over 6,000 languages in the world. We lose one every two weeks. Hundreds will be lost within the next generation. By the end of this century, half of the world's languages will have vanished. Language Matters with Bob Holman is a two hour documentary that asks: What do we lose when a language dies? What does it take to save a language?Dislocation Blues
IMDB 5.8 | Sep , 2017
Filmed during the 2016 Standing Rock protests in South Dakota, Sky Hopinka's Dislocation Blues offers a portrait of the movement and its water protectors, refuting grand narratives and myth-making in favour of individual testimonials.Taking Alcatraz
IMDB 0 | Nov , 2015
A documentary account by award-winning filmmaker John Ferry of the events that led up to the 1969 Native American occupation of Alcatraz Island as told by principal organizer, Adam Fortunate Eagle. The story unfolds through Fortunate Eagle's remembrances, archival newsreel footage and photographs.maɬni—towards the ocean, towards the shore
IMDB 5 | Jan , 2020
An experimental look at the origin of the death myth of the Chinookan people in the Pacific Northwest, following two people as they navigate their own relationships to the spirit world and a place in between life and death.Mom n' Me
IMDB 0 | Jun , 2010
The filmmaker traces the loss of her ancestral language over three generations of her family, and her own desire to recover it.