Documentary
Walter Littlemoon attended a federal Indian boarding school in South Dakota sixty years ago. The mission of many of these schools in 1950, was still to “kill the Indian and save the man.” The children were beaten, humiliated or abused if they spoke their language or expressed their culture or native identity in any way. The trauma led many to alcoholism and violence in adulthood. At age 58, Walter began writing his memoirs as a way to explain his own abusive behaviors to his estranged children, but he could not complete the project without confronting the “thick dark fog” of his past so he could heal.
MOVIE COMMENTS
SIMILAR MOVIES
Pine Ridge
Rocks at Whiskey Trench
Inhabitants
Ways of Knowing: A Navajo Nuclear History
Warrior Women
A Good Day to Die
Incident at Oglala
Two Spirits
The Warrior Tradition
Imagining the Indian: The Fight Against Native American Mascoting
The Words to Tell You
Obaida
High Steel
This May Be the Last Time
The Great Indian Wars 1840-1890
Girl in the Picture
The State of Texas vs. Melissa
The Shaman's Apprentice
Hail to the Breadsticks!
Trudell
SIMILAR MOVIES
Pine Ridge
IMDB 9 | Sep , 2013
19 year old Bert sits in the shade of a tree in Yo Park. Cassandra Warrior feeds her daughter Diamond Rose. Daniel Runs Close sweats under the sun at Wounded Knee Memorial site. Kassel Sky Little puts his boots on at the Waters Rodeo. Vanessa Piper is alone in the middle of Badlands. Lance Red Cloud hangs out behind the gas station at night. It is summer and they all live here, at the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, USA.Rocks at Whiskey Trench
IMDB 6.3 | Jun , 2000
The fourth film in Alanis Obomsawin's landmark series on the Oka crisis uses a single, shameful incident as a lens through which to examine the region's long history of prejudice and injustice against the Mohawk population.Inhabitants
IMDB 9 | Mar , 2021
For millennia, Native Americans successfully stewarded and shaped their landscapes, but centuries of colonization have disrupted their ability to maintain their traditional land management practices. From deserts, coastlines, forests, mountains, and prairies, Native communities across the US are restoring their ancient relationships with the land. As the climate crisis escalates these time-tested practices of North America's original inhabitants are becoming increasingly essential in a rapidly changing world.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.Warrior Women
IMDB 7.5 | May , 2018
Through the figure of Lakota activist and community organizer Madonna Thunder Hawk, this inspiring film traces the untold story of countless Native American women struggling for their people's civil rights. Spanning several decades, Christina D. King and Elizabeth A. Castle's documentary charts Thunder Hawk's lifelong commitment, from her early involvement in the American Indian Movement (AIM), to her pivotal role in the founding of Women of All Red Nations, to her heartening presence at Standing Rock alongside thousands protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline. She passed her dedication and hunger for change to her daughter Marcy, even if that often meant feeling like comrades-in-arms more than mother and child. Through rare archival material—including amazing footage of AIM's occupation of Wounded Knee—and an Indigenous style of circular storytelling, Warrior Women rekindles the memories and legacy of the Red Power movement's matriarchs.A Good Day to Die
IMDB 6.5 | Nov , 2010
Interviews and archival footage profile the life of Dennis Banks, American Indian Movement leader who looks back at his early life and the rise of the Movement.Incident at Oglala
IMDB 7 | May , 1992
On June 26, 1975, during a period of high tensions on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota, two FBI agents were killed in a shootout with a group of Indians. Although several men were charged with killing the agents, only one, Leonard Peltier, was found guilty. This film describes the events surrounding the shootout and suggests that Peltier was unjustly convicted.Two Spirits
IMDB 4.8 | Jun , 2009
Fred Martinez was a Navajo youth slain at the age of 16 by a man who bragged to his friends that he 'bug-smashed a fag'. But Fred was part of an honored Navajo tradition - the 'nadleeh', or 'two-spirit', who possesses a balance of masculine and feminine traits.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?Imagining the Indian: The Fight Against Native American Mascoting
IMDB 8 | Jan , 2021
Examining the movement that is ending the use of Native American names, logos, and mascots in the world of sports and beyond.The Words to Tell You
IMDB 0 | Mar , 2025
Mariam, Asiya, and Anissa were 11, 7, and 5 years old when they were raped. The attackers were their paternal uncle, a neighborhood youth, and the nanny's son. They have no memory of the event. To protect them, their bodies developed traumatic amnesia. Years later, the memories returned, and they decided to file a complaint.Obaida
IMDB 0 | Apr , 2019
OBAIDA, a short film by Matthew Cassel, explores a Palestinian child’s experience of Israeli military arrest. Each year, some 700 Palestinian children undergo military detention in a system where ill-treatment is widespread and institutionalized. For these young detainees, few rights are guaranteed, even on paper. After release, the experience of detention continues to shape and mark former child prisoners’ path forward.High Steel
IMDB 6.8 | Jan , 1965
A dizzying view of Manhattan in the 1960s, the tallest town in the world, and the men who work cloud-high to keep it growing. They are the Mohawk Indians from Kahnawake, near Montréal, famed for their skill in erecting the steel frames of skyscrapers. The film shows their nimble work, high above the pavement, but there are also glimpses of the quieter community life of the old Kahnawake Reserve.This May Be the Last Time
IMDB 8 | Jan , 2014
Filmmaker Sterlin Harjo's Grandfather disappeared mysteriously in 1962. The community searching for him sang songs of encouragement that were passed down for generations. Harjo explores the origins of these songs as well as the violent history of his people.The Great Indian Wars 1840-1890
IMDB 6 | Mar , 1991
Documentation of the encroachment of European settlers upon Native American lands and the violent reaction of the Indians in their struggle to survive.Girl in the Picture
IMDB 7.2 | Jul , 2022
A young mother’s mysterious death and her son’s subsequent kidnapping blow open a decades-long mystery about the woman’s true identity, and the murderous federal fugitive at the center of it all.The State of Texas vs. Melissa
IMDB 5.4 | Sep , 2021
Melissa Lucio was the first Hispanic woman sentenced to death in Texas. For ten years she has been awaiting her fate, and now faces her last appeal.The Shaman's Apprentice
IMDB 0 | May , 2001
Scientist Mark Plotkin races against time to save the ancient healing knowledge of Indian tribes from extinction.Hail to the Breadsticks!
IMDB 0 | Jun , 2023
Writer producer Donick Cary (The Simpsons, Parks and Recreation, Have a Good Trip, etc.) has been a huge fan of the Washington D.C. pro football team since before he could walk. Passed down from his dad, he was excited to pass the tradition onto his kids. Donick never questioned the team name and or Native American logo until one day, while watching a game, his 9-year-old son, Otis, asked him if it was racist. When Otis suggests they ask Native Americans how they feel, it sends the two on a cross-country journey full of unexpected surprises.Trudell
IMDB 5.4 | Jan , 2005
A chronicle of legendary Native American poet/activist John Trudell's travels, spoken word performances, and politics.