Movies Similar to American Native

Indian America: A Gift from the Past(1994)

In 1970 a storm uncovers an ancient whaling village called Ozette which had been buried some 500 years ago by a massive mudslide. The resulting excavation brings new knowledge of the past important to both the Makah Indians, living on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington and for the historical record of Native Americans in the Pacific Northwest.

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Homeland(2000)

Following four Lakota families over three years, Homeland explores what it takes for the Lakota community to build a better future in the face of tribal and government corruption, scarce housing, unemployment, and alcoholism. Intimate interviews with a spiritual leader, a grandmother, an artist, and a community activist from South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Indian Reservation reveal how each survives through family ties, cultural tradition, humor, and a palpable yearning for self-reliance and personal freedom.

8.0

Imagining the Indian: The Fight Against Native American Mascoting(2021)

Examining the movement that is ending the use of Native American names, logos, and mascots in the world of sports and beyond.

8.0

Tribal Justice(2017)

Two formidable Native American women, both chief judges in their tribe's courts, strive to reduce incarceration rates and heal their people by restoring rather than punishing offenders, modeling restorative justice in action.

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The Lost Spirits(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.

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Say Her Name(2021)

A short film highlighting the epidemic of missing indigenous men and women who have gone missing in Bighorn County, Montana. It features several victims' stories and interviews with their families and indigenous activists who are pushing for their cases to be re-examined and solved.

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As Long as the Rivers Run(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.

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Trudell(2005)

A chronicle of legendary Native American poet/activist John Trudell's travels, spoken word performances, and politics.

5.4

Anti-Objects, or Space Without Path or Boundary(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.

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Mitakuye Oyasin(2015)

Lakota people from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota describe the ongoing struggle of their people.

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Incident at Oglala(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.

7.0

Sweetheart Dancers(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.

9.0

Mankiller(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.

6.0

Great Falls(2012)

Professional, native and antiquarian researchers combine to investigate the archaeological history and modern legacy of Eastern Native civilization near Turners Falls, Massachusetts. They uncover possible evidence of a vast astronomical construct that covered a large area of what is now the northeastern United States.

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Contrary Warriors: A Film of the Crow Tribe(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.

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Essence of Healing: The Journey of American Indian Nurses(2017)

Essence of Healing is a documentary exploring the life journeys of 14 American Indian nurses - their experiences growing up, their experiences in nursing school, and their experiences on the job. They are part of a larger story - a historical line of care and compassion that has run through hundreds of indigenous tribes for thousands of years.

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Nuuca(2018)

In this evocative meditation, a disturbing link is made between the resource extraction industries’ exploitation of the land and violence inflicted on Indigenous women and girls. Or, as one young woman testifies, “Just as the land is being used, these women are being used.”

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Indian Rights for Indian Women(2018)

Three intrepid women battle for Indigenous women's treaty rights.

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The Warrior Tradition(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?

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maɬni—towards the ocean, towards the shore(2021)

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.

5.0