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American Indian Voices presents Johnny Moses. 1992, 72 minutes, grades 4-up (younger for some stories).

An incredibly talented storyteller, Johnny Moses (Tulalip) accompanies himself with a hand drum, and his interpretations of the ways the animal people communicate with each other—including Octopus Lady, Crow, Bear Man, Ant Woman, Mosquito Man and even Slug Man—are hilarious. Whether it’s Bear Man and Ant Woman competing over the length of the day and night, how know-it-all Crow realizes—too late—that he should have listened to his friends, how a traditional elder outwits a proselytizing missionary, or how children suffer the consequences of not heeding the advice of their grandparents, the stories will appeal to listeners of all ages. Teachers might want to preview and select stories for content.
DVD 20.00

Blossoms of Fire. 2000, 74 minutes, color, high school-up.

“In Juchitan,” says Martha Toledo, “you never feel alone. You are always surrounded by others and life isn’t taken for granted, I love that especially. Life is a constant giving and receiving and feeling identified with the Mother, with the Earth, with what you have grown.” Blossoms of Fire, in Zapotec and Spanish with English subtitles, shows the exuberant Zapotec women of Juchitan in all their passionate and opinionated glory, as they work in the marketplace, prepare enormous amounts of food, embroider their bouquets of fiery flowers, and bust stereotypes from the foreign press describing them as a promiscuous matriarchy. Here is a midwife laughing over a husband’s queasiness at a birth, a gay man cheerfully asserting that the “mothers are in charge,” and a woman taking the lead in a political protest. “I think that Juchitecan society will continue to exist and thrive,” Toledo says, “because, as our great Juchitecan poet, Gabriel Lopez Chinas said, ‘The Zapotec wll only die the day the sun dies.’”
DVD educational/institutional use 200.00, home use 30.00. (Educational/institutional price includes public performance rights.)

Buffalo War. 2001, 57 minutes, color, close captioned, grades 7-up.

In the late 1800s, hunters working for the U.S. government decimated the huge buffalo herds, leaving millions of carcasses to rot in the sun. This was the government’s way of bringing the Plains peoples to their knees, and it worked. In a few years, the spiritual center of their existence was gone. The human people and the buffalo people, according to Lakota elder and activist Rosalie Little Thunder, “have very common histories and our prophesies talk about a very inseparable destiny.” Buffalo War brings this history into the present, as the Lakota people continue to fight to save the Yellowstone National Park buffalo herd. Shown here are the multiple perspectives of the Lakota people, non-Native environmental activists, ranchers and government officials.
DVD educational/institutional use 59.00, home use 30.00. (Educational/institutional price includes public performance rights.)

Columbus Didn’t Discover Us. 1992, 24 minutes, color, grades 5-up.

In July 1990, in preparation for the 500th anniversary of the Columbus “encounter,” some 300 Native people participated in the First Continental Conference of Indigenous Peoples in the highlands of Ecuador. Filmed at this historic gathering, Columbus Didn’t Discover Us is testimony to the legacy of Columbus on the lives of the indigenous peoples of this hemisphere. Here, Native people from North, Central and South America speak about cultural, spiritual and environmental devastation, and continuing struggles for tierra, paz, y libertad—land, peace, and liberty.
DVD educational/institutional use 89.00, home use 25.00. (Educational/institutional price includes public performance rights.)

Coming to Light: Edward S. Curtis and the North American Indians. 2000, 85 minutes, color, grades 7-up.

Directed by Anne Makepeace and narrated by Sheila Tousey (Conchalla), this retrospective of the life and work of the most famous photographer of this time explores the ironies in his story and the controversies in his romantic images of the Indian people he photographed. A personal favorite is the footage of Curtis shooting a movie with Kwakiutl people pretending to hunt a whale (using a dead whale that Curtis had rented to lend excitement to his movie), even though the Kwakiutl are not, and never have been, whale hunters.
DVD educational/institutional use 59.00, home use 30.00. (Educational/institutional price includes public performance rights.)

Crossing the Rainbow Bridge: Our Story. 2001, 29 minutes, grades 5-up.

“Gedin ch-lum-nu” (Let it be this way) was what Cocoonman (one of the earthmakers) said when he created the Rainbow Bridge that connected the land of the Kashaya Pomo to Hawai’i. In 1971, Acho’mawi elder Craven Gibson told this story to Darryl “Babe” Wilson (Atsugewe/Acho’mawi) who narrates it in this film. The telling of this story led to reconnections of Native California families with their relatives in Hawai’i. With artwork by the students of Sherman Indian High School and Anuenue Hawai’ian Language Immersion School and traditional California Indian and Hawai’ian music, Crossing the Rainbow Bridge emphasizes the importance of our traditional stories to our identity as indigenous peoples.
DVD 25.00

Disc One: Fire on the Land. 2005, color, grades 5-up
Disc Two: Beaver Steals Fire. 2005, color, grades 2-up

Focusing on the traditional uses of fire by Indian peoples and the profound effects that traditional burning had on plant and animal communities, this excellent two-disc interactive educational DVD set, produced by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, is part of a larger fire-education project, entitled “Native People and Fire in the Northern Rockies.” In Fire on the Land, students can listen to and watch interviews with elders, explore a gallery of fire photos, learn about fire ecology and Indian peoples’ millennia-old use of fire, and learn about today’s efforts to reintroduce fire to restore the ecological balance of the land. In Beaver Steals Fire, younger students will watch and listen to Salish elder Johnny Arlee tell a group of children a traditional story that teaches respect for fire and awareness of its significance.
DVD set, 20.00. Also available: Beaver Steals Fire, pb 13.00.

From the Roots: California Indian Basketweavers. 1996, 28 minutes, color, grades 4-up.

In their own words, basketweavers speak of the baskets, the plants and the importance of basketweaving, as well as the challenges they face in carrying on the tradition for future generations. Topics include basketweaver gatherings, work with agencies and museums, and issues of access and pesticides. Produced by the California Indian Basketweavers Association, From the Roots belies the textbook assumption that California Indian peoples have “disappeared.”
DVD 24.00

Gold, Greed & Genocide: The Untold Tragedy of the California Gold Rush. 2003, 24 minutes, color, grades 6-up.

In the mid-1800s, hundreds of thousands of settlers—would-be millionaires—invaded the territory that is now called California. No one was safe from the onslaught. These miners, working for large corporations, blasted away mountains, polluted lakes and streams, massacred, raped, and enslaved the people who lived there. Gold, Greed & Genocide is told mostly from the perspective of California Indian people whose lives have been and continue to be impacted by the California Gold Rush. The subtitle of the film is “the untold tragedy of the California Gold Rush” because Indian perspectives are rarely if ever found in textbooks, movies or television shows. Gold, Greed & Genocide is probably different from anything viewers have ever seen. We hope it gives students—and their teachers—something to think about. This film comes with a 16-page classroom activities and discussion guide designed to encourage critical thinking and research skills.
DVD 20.00. Classroom activities and discussion guide, 10.00

Great Wolf and Little Mouse Sister. 2006, 25 minutes, color, grades 1-up.

In this semi-animated story from Walking with Grandfather, Martha and Philip go for a walk in the woods with their grandfather and visit another elder, who tells them this traditional story of generosity, compassion and courage. After Little Mouse Sister gives the best of herself so that the Great Wolf can survive, the Creator acknowledges her for her great gift. The youngest viewers will take away valuable life lessons imparted gently and with great good humor.
DVD 25.00

Harold of Orange. 1984, 33 minutes, color, grades 7-up.

Somewhere on a reservation Northern Minnesota, there’s a place called the “Harold of Orange Coffeehouse,” which is also the HQ of the Warriors of Orange, tribal tricksters trained in the art of “social acupuncture,” where “a little pressure fills the pocketbook.” This intrepid little group, led by Harold Sinseer (pronounced “sincere”), is determined to reclaim their land from the white man by “challenging his very foundation.” Literally. Having had “miraculous” success in cultivating miniature oranges in a secret reservation locale in the brisk Minnesota climate, the warriors don neckties over whatever else they happen to be wearing and head out to the nearest charitable foundation to obtain additional corporate funding. This time, it’s for a chain of “pinch-bean” coffeehouses on reservations around the world, that will, of course, lead to a “sober revolution.” Fortunately (for the warriors), the white foundation directors are enamored of Indians, and one of them happens to be an ex-girlfriend of Harold’s from their college days. What follows includes a frybread giveaway, an urban tribal naming ceremony, a tour of the local university’s anthropology museum, and a softball game that defies description.  With a screenplay by Anishinabe writer Gerald Vizenor, original music by Buffy Sainte-Marie (Cree) and Floyd Westerman (Lakota), and starring Charlie Hill (Oneida) as Harold, Harold of Orange is an issue-a-minute wild ride across Indian Country.
Home use 20.00, educational/institutional use 99.00. (Educational/institutional price includes public performance rights.)

For a full review click HERE.

Healing the Hurts. 2004, 59 minutes, high school-up.

In 1989, a group of Indian people—suffering from the post-traumatic stress disorder brought on by their experiences at Indian residential schools in Canada and the U.S.—came together in a four-day, culturally-based recovery process. In helping to put their lives together, the group, led by Phil Lane (Yankton/Chickasaw), worked through their issues, including pain, guilt, anger, confusion, and suffocation from every aspect of their lives being impacted. This DVD, from Four Worlds International Institute for Human and Community Development, was made as part of a healing program for Indian people to find their way back to sobriety and wholeness. It may be painful to watch, and should be used with caution and followed by time for debriefing and discussion.
DVD 40.00

The Honour of All: The Story of Alkali Lake. 2006, 40 minutes, grades 7-up.

By 1940, several generations of Shuswap people had been forced to live in the spirit-breaking Indian residential school system, while existing in an artificial town created around a church building. That alcoholism grabbed hold of an entire band of people was inevitable. The Honour of All is the story of the ravages of alcoholism, but ultimately, it is the story of the strength of a small group of people that leads to their healing. The “actors” are the real people portraying themselves and their recovery; the dramatization is followed by a “wrap-up party” completed by a closing ceremony and celebration. This DVD, from Four Worlds International Institute for Human and Community Development, was made as part of a healing program for Indian people to find their way back to sobriety and wholeness. It may be painful to watch, and should be followed by time for discussion. 
DVD 40.00

I’m Not the Indian You Had in Mind. 2007, 5 minutes, color, grades 7-up.

“I’m not the Indian you had in mind. I’ve seen him, I’ve seen him ride, a rush of wind, a darkening tide, with wolf and eagle by his side…” In this brilliant, fast-paced visual and spoken-word performance, Tom King and actors Tara Beagan and Lorne Cardinal juxtapose themselves and other contemporary Indians with cringe-inducing media images of Indians—“the clichés that we can’t rewind.” But there is more than stock footage of tomahawk-wielding Indians, a cigar-store Indian and a haute cuisine Indian-themed restaurant whose waiter wears war paint. I’m Not the Indian You Had in Mind is razor-sharp social commentary with visuals of pollution-spewing smokestacks and gas pumps and freeways and drained lakes and war rooms and a world gone “Monsanto-mad,” and this, muses King: “Sometimes late at night when all the world is warm and dead, wonder how things might have been had you followed and we led.”
DVD 15.00

Images of Indians. 1985, five 30-minute episodes, color, grades 7-up.

Well researched and beautifully filmed, this fast-moving documentary series critically examines the Hollywood movie industry’s depiction and misrepresentation of Indian lives, languages, cultures, and histories. Narrated and hosted by Will Sampson (Muscogee), the five 30-minute episodes cover everything from Edison’s earliest movies to “Indian massacres” to children’s cartoons to contemporary Indian filmmakers. The first episode, “The Great Movie Massacre,” examines Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show and the west as envisioned by directors such as John Ford. The second part, “How Hollywood Wins the West” explores the Hollywood depiction of how Manifest Destiny was played out in the early 19th Century. “Warpaint and Wigs” focuses on the exploitation of Indian film actors. “Heathen Injuns & the Hollywood Gospel” deals with the misrepresentation of Indian belief systems and the stereotypical depictions of women in Indian societies. The final installment, “Movie Reel Indians,” features guests Dennis Banks and Vine Deloria, Jr., reviewing Hollywood’s history of stereotyping of Indians.
DVD 40.00

In the Heart of Big Mountain. 1995, 28 minutes, color, grades 5-up.

Directed and produced by Sandra Sunrising Osawa (Makah), In the Heart of Big Mountain tells the story of the members of one Diné family— through the eyes and words of matriarch Katherine Smith—who are involved in a bitter dispute with the federal government over the issue of forced relocation of Diné families from their homeland in Big Mountain. The strength of Osawa’s intimate portrait is that it unflinchingly deals with the traumatic consequences of forced relocation—the emotional trauma that often results in physical illness, alcoholism, and even suicide.
DVD educational/institutional use 100.00, home use 30.00. (Educational/institutional price includes public performance rights.)

In the Light of Reverence. 2001, 73 minutes, color, grades 7-up.

What is the spiritual meaning of place? What does it mean to live well on the land? What does it mean to “use” the land? Every year, sacred sites are destroyed by stripmining and development—and also by rock climbers, tourists, and New Age “practitioners.” In this film, elders from three Indian communities—the Lakota of the Great Plains, the Hopi of the Four Corners area, and the Wintu of northern California—tell the stories of the land and the struggle to protect the land. It contains an extended interview with Vine DeLoria, Jr., updates on the struggles at Zuni Salt Lake and Quechan Indian Pass, and a feature called “What you can do to protect sacred lands.” A 48-page teacher guide that encourages students to reflect on complex questions can be downloaded as a pdf file at http://www.sacredland.org/resources/teach.html.
DVD educational/institutional use 79.00, home use 30.00. (Educational/institutional price includes public performance rights.

In Whose Honor? American Indian Mascots in Sports. 1997, 46 minutes, color, grades 5-up.

In Whose Honor? is an examination of the ingrained practice of using racist logos, nicknames, and caricatures of Indian peoples as school “mascots” in college and professional sports—and of the impact of this practice on Indian families and communities. Following both the political development of parent, graduate student and activist Charlene Teeters (Spokane) and the intransigence of the University of Illinois community in defending and justifying its revered “Chief Illiniwek,” In Whose Honor? critically looks at the issues of race, minority representation and white privilege, and the powerful effects of mass-media imagery. Together with the Images of Indians series, In Whose Honor addresses the stereotypic images of Indians in pop culture, and can be used to engage middle school students in a wide variety of critical thinking discussions. 
DVD 240.00, VHS 105.00

Jim Northrup: With Reservations. 1996, 28 minutes, color, grades 7-up.

OK, everyone, pop quiz: What’s the Ojibwe word for “moose”? Answer: “Moos.” Jim Northrup is Bear Clan Ojibwe, a father and grampa, award-winning poet and author, veteran and activist, wild ricer and hunter, and residential school surviver. Anyone who reads “Fond du Lac Follies” knows he can be very, very funny, and we’re told he plays a mean game of Ojibwe Scrabble. In this wild ride of a documentary, viewers accompany Northrup from his home on the Fond du Lac Reservation in northern Minnesota as he travels across Indian Country. There is spear fishing and sugar-bushing in the spring, powwows and birchbark basket making in the summer, wild ricing and moose hunting in the fall, and storytelling in the winter. There is also a visit to the Vietnam Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C. Students will appreciate Northrup’s mastery of barbed humor.
DVD 20.00.

Lighting the 7th Fire. 1995, 48 minutes, color, grades 5-up.

According to the Ojibwe prophesy of the Seven Fires, the first Six Fires tell of the creation of the Anishinaabe peoples, the journey to the Great Lakes area, the arrival of a fair-skinned people, a period of intense struggle, and a period of great loss. The Seventh Fire tells of the revival of lost traditions, and, when the Ojibwe people won a 1983 court decision recognizing their century-old treaty rights to hunt and fish on ceded territory off the reservations, the belief was that the time of the Seventh Fire had begun. But when Ojibwe people set out to engage in their traditional ways of harvesting walleye, the racist backlash was swift and furious as thousands of white protesters harassed them with signs reading, “Spear a Pregnant Indian Squaw and Save Two Walleye.” Directed and produced by Sandra Sunrising Osawa (Makah), Lighting the 7th Fire skillfully weaves together the prophecy of the Seventh Fire with the issue of treaty rights in Northern Wisconsin, profiles some of the people trying to bring back the tradition of spearfishing, and vividly documents contemporary racism against Native peoples in the U.S.
DVD educational/institutional use 150.00, home use 30.00. (Educational/institutional price includes public performance rights.)

Moccasin Flats. 2003, 27 minutes, color, grades 4-up.

“Moccasin Flats” is the name Joe has been given by his non-Indian “friends,” who mock him unmercifully, leading him to be less than thrilled about being Indian. When his cousin Rena—who speaks Cree, wears dresses, has no problem eating moose meat and bannock on a regular basis, and is totally comfortable in her Indian identity—comes to live with Joe and his mother, the fact that she is a girl threatens Joe’s tenuous relationship with his girl-hating friends. After being ousted from his boys-only club and losing his stake in the bicycle fund, Joe—with unasked-for assistance from Rena and also from the great Wisahkecahk—finds himself making important choices.
DVD 20.00

On & Off the Res’ with Charlie Hill. 2000, 58 minutes, color, grades 5-up.

“An Indian comedian? Isn’t that an oxymoron?” This is the kind of ridicule that Oneida performance artist Charlie Hill had to deal with when he began to live his dream, and anyone who knows his sharp comedy will appreciate this brilliant retrospective of his life and work. From early clips of performances on the “Steve Allen Show” to work with comedian Max Gail on “Indian Time” to a duet with Floyd Westerman, this is, as Vine Deloria says, “one of the best videos on an Indian subject I’ve ever seen. Not because I was in it...” Another excellent film from Sandra Sunrising Osawa (Makah) and Upstream Productions.
DVD educational/institutional use 200.00, home use 30.00. (Educational/institutional price includes public performance rights.)

Overweight with Crooked Teeth. 1998, 4 minutes, high school-up.

Produced and directed by Shelley Niro (Mohawk) and Dan Bigbee (Comanche) and based on a poem by Niro’s brother, Michael Doxtater (Mohawk) who also “stars” in this film, Overweight with Crooked Teeth explores and questions non-Native perceptions of Indians by asking pointedly: “What were you expecting, anyway? Sitting Bull? Chief Joseph...saying ‘the earth and I are one’?” Using humor, irony, parody, and wordplay, combined with special effects and Native images to puncture the sterotypes, this short film is guaranteed to generate a lot of discussion between teachers and students.
DVD 20.00

Pepper’s Pow Wow. 1995, 57 minutes, color, grades 5-up.

Pepper’s Pow Wow opens with scenes of a Kaw powwow, overlaid with Pepper’s composition, “Caddo Revival.” Over footage of Gourd Dancers, he says: “The music Native Americans have been singing for centuries comes directly from the ground, from the earth, from the four directions. And that music is a healing force.” Produced and directed by Sandra Sunrising Osawa (Makah), Pepper’s Pow Wow documents the enduring musical and cultural legacy of saxophonist Jim Pepper (Creek/Kaw), who was an innovator in jazz-rock fusion as well as world music. Pepper learned peyote chants at his grandfather’s knee and successfully fused Native music with jazz. Musical highlights include “Witchi Tai To,” “Comin’ and Goin,’” and “Caddo Revival.”
DVD educational/institutional use 150.00, home use 30.00. (Educational/institutional price includes public performance rights.)

Pomo Basketweavers. 1995, 59 minutes, color, grades 4-up.

Anyone who has ever had the opportunity of holding a Pomo basket will know why these amazing baskets are known worldwide for their exquisite appearance, fineness of weave, dazzling range of technique and diversity of form and use. Pomo Basketweavers is an in-depth introduction to the history, culture and basketweaving traditions of Pomo women, in whose hands and hearts these traditions reside. Showing all aspects of Pomo basketry—including the cultivation, harvesting, and preparation of basketry materials, as well as the actual weaving—this film is an honoring of Laura Somersal, Elsie Allen, and Mabel McKay, three Pomo elders whose lives, work, and legacies it chronicles.
DVD 50.00

Pow Wow Highway. 1988, 87 minutes, color, high school-up.

In acclaimed comedy/dram and rez classic Pow Wow Highway, Philbert Bono (Gary Farmer) is a blissed-out vision seeker and Buddy Red Bow (A. Martinez) is an AIM activist battling a land-grab attempt. Using tribal funds for gas money, the unlikely duo set out from the Northern Cheyenne town of Lame Deer, Montana, in a next-door-to-dead ’64 Buick Wildcat (named Protector, the war pony) to rescue Buddy’s estranged sister, Bonnie (Joanelle Nadine Romero) from a frame-up involving the FBI in New Mexico. On the journey, the film tackles issues including stereotyping, poverty, land theft, stripmining, and political prisoners. With music by Robbie Robertson, Pow Wow Highway is rated “R” for strong language and a very funny shot of Gary Farmer’s behind.
DVD 15.00

Qallunaat! Why White People Are Funny. 2006, 99 minutes, color, close captioned, grades 7-up. English and Inuktitut; bonus material in Inuktitut with English subtitles.

The word “qallunaat” is used universally by Inuit to describe white people. Now “qallunaat,” as Inuit anthropologist Zebedee Nungak patiently explains, doesn’t refer as much to skin color as to state of mind. Recognizing how the Inuit have long been the subject of study by people who don’t have a clue, Nungak and his intrepid team of qallunologists embarked on a new, scientific, in-depth look at a peculiar culture of people who demonstrate odd dating habits, repression of bodily functions, incomprehensible naming patterns, inane salutations, strange music, overbearing bureaucrats, and whose unquenchable desire for land ownership dominates every facet of their being. And they get lost a lot and tend to complain about the cold. Interspersed in the first part of Qallunaat! are personal narratives by Inuit people about the devastating effects of forced assimilation, along with black-and-white footage of Qallunaat anthros’ derogatory comments about the Inuit. In the second part of Qallunaat!,  Nungak and his team at the Qallunaat Studies Institute somewhere north of the Arctic Circle present their findings at the first annual QSI Conference. In Qallunaat!, students and their teachers will get an on-target, laugh-out-loud mockumentary—and a sobering look at the theory and practice of hegemony and colonialism as well.
DVD educational/institutional use 250.00, home use 20.00. (Educational/institutional price includes public performance rights.)

Rabbit Proof Fence. 2002, 93 minutes, color, grades 4-up.

This is a dramatization of the true story of three little girls, called “half-caste” by the Australian government, part of the “stolen generation” kidnapped from their families and communities and brought to Aboriginal residential schools whose mission was to train them as domestic workers and assimilate them into Australian society. Young Molly Craig, leading her little sister and cousin in a daring escape, must elude the authorities and walk the dangerous 1,500 miles along the rabbit-proof fence that will lead them home. This awesome film, with spectacular cinematography and music, is based on the book set down by Molly’s daughter, Doris Pilkington Garimara. It’s an affirmation of strength and determination in the face of racism. The last scene is a gift.
DVD 20.00

Redskins, Tricksters and Puppy Stew. 2000, 55 minutes, high school-up.

Directed by Drew Hayden Taylor (Ojibwe), this very funny look at the world of Native humor deals with the complex issues of Native identity, politics and racism. Produced by the National Film Board of Canada, Redskins features stand-up comics Don Kelly and Don Burnstick, novelist and creator of “The Dead Dog Café Comedy Hour” Tom King, actor and comedy troupe founder Herbie Barnes, and Sharon Shorty and Jackie Bear, who portray Indian elders “Sarah and Susie.”
DVD 25.00

Sacred Buffalo People. 1992, 57 minutes, color, grades 5-up.

“The buffalo people have always stood among our Indian people, from the beginning of time,” Georgia Fox says in the opening of this film. “They clothed us, they fed us. And they gave us inner strength.  They've supported us in many ways.  And the people have always respected the sacred buffalo people.”
By the late 19th century, the U.S. government’s plans to decimate the Indians by exterminating the buffalo were all but successful. But, “like the buffalo,” Dean Fox says, “we, as Indian people, now have found ourselves again. We're starting to understand now what we're really about, why we're here, why we're supposed to exist. When I look at the buffalo, I can't help but think of all those things.” With traditional stories, song, dance, animation, archival photographs, paintings, and the words of the elders, Sacred Buffalo People chronicles the history of the great buffalo herds, the restoration of one herd on the Fort Berthold reservation in North Dakota, and the Mandan-Hidatsa-Arikara people who care for these magnificent animals.
DVD 20.00

For a full review click HERE.

The Salt Song Trail: bringing creation back together. 2005, 20 minutes, color, high school-up.

Along the Salt Song Trail—a path from the high Colorado plateau through the high desert to the California coast and then through the mountans, sandy deserts, palm oases and the Colorado River back to the high plateau—are sacred sites, old villages, hunting grounds, burial grounds and places to gather salt and medicine plants. The Nuwuvi (Southern Paiute) people sing Asi Huviav Puruakain (Salt Songs) in memorial ceremonies, for cultural revitalization, and as a spiritual bond for the 13 bands living in places now known as California, Nevada, Utah and Arizona. Salt Song Trail, a collaboration between the Paiute Nation and the Cultural Conservancy, documents a historic gathering and healing ceremony at the Sherman Indian School, where Salt Song singers returned to sing for the spirits of the Indian children who never came home.
DVD 15.00

Smoke Signals. 1999, 87 minutes, color, grades 7-up.

Adapted from Sherman Alexie’s short story, “This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona,” and directed by Chris Eyre, this story of two very different young men with a lot in common will have viewers laughing through the tears. When Victor Joseph (Adam Beach) is called to pick up his father’s ashes, it’s his dweeby friend Thomas Builds-the-Fire (Evan Adams) who provides the gas money, only if he can come along. Their journey is circular, traveling through time and space, just like a good Indian story. Strong performances by Gary Farmer and Tantoo Cardinal, excellent editing, and spectacular photography of the Coeur D’Alene reservation.
DVD 20.00 Also available: screenplay for Smoke Signals, pb 13.00

Tribal Law. 1995, 15 minutes, color, teacher resource.

In Kaye Melvin’s fourth-grade class at Hoopa Elementary School, there is a dispute resolution system based on the traditional “settle-up” compensation principles of the indigenous peoples of California. This system is the basis for Unit 7 of Indians of Northwest California. Created as a training film for other teachers who wish to try this approach to classroom management, the video shows students resolving a problem using the “settle-up“ system, and gives background information on the underlying cultural values, as well as practical discussion for using this system in the classroom.
VHS educational/institutional use 60.00, home use 25.00. (Educational/institutional price includes public performance rights.)

Up Where We Belong. 1996, 47 minutes, color, all grades.

For those who don’t know her, Buffy Sainte-Marie (Cree) is a parent, artist, educator, activist, poet, songwriter, and philosopher. She is also an accomplished singer and musician. In this concert, Buffy’s first in many years, she performs her own songs and talks about her life and the personal and political aspects of her music. Accompanied by the Red Bull and Stoney Park drums, this is a concert not to be missed.
DVD 25.00

¡Viva la Causa! 500 Years of Chicano History. 1995, 60 minutes, color, grades 5-12.

Based on Elizabeth (“Betita”) Martinez’s book, 500 Años del Pueblo Chicano/ 500 Years of Chicano History in Pictures, ¡Viva la Causa! is a two-part educational video, a compelling introduction to the history of the Mexican-American people, in whom Indian roots run deep. Archival footage, narration, and music ranging from corridos to rap have been added to the photos. Part 1 depicts the peoples’ origins, the resistance to Spanish colonization, the U.S. takeover in 1848, and workers’ strikes up through World War II. Part 2 includes the “Zoot Suit Riots,” the struggle of the United Farm Workers, student protests, the Chicano Moratorium, and new Chicano art.
DVD educational/institutional use 50.00, home use 35.00. (Educational/institutional price includes public performance rights.) Teaching kit (book, DVD, and two guides), 120.50.

Walking with Grandfather. 1988, six 15-minute episodes, color, all grades.

Stories are the way in which our Indian children learn about who they are and what they come from. In the programs in this six-part series based on traditional Native stories designed to promote self- and community-esteem and life-enhancing values—“The Arrival,” “The Woods,” “The Mountain,” “The Valley,” “The Stream,” and “The Gift”—Grandfather teaches his grandchildren about ordinary people meeting extraordinary challenges, magical little people visiting the human beings, people learning how to live in harmony with each other, and people having their dreams come true.
DVD 40.00

When Your Hands Are Tied. 2006, 56 minutes, color, grades 7-up.

“When you’re given all these obstacles and barriers,” says Hataalii (healer) Eric Willie (Diné), “when they tie your hands behind your back and your legs together, and they leave you just crawling, what do you do? You develop new ways to communicate… and that’s what I see with today’s children.” As Indian communities struggle to heal from the generational trauma of the Indian boarding schools, Indian young people struggle to resist the negative pressures of the dominant society. When Your Hands Are Tied explores the realities of Indian young people navigating between the traditional and the contemporary, maintaining strong ties with their communities while expressing themselves in unique ways. With young people narrating, breathtaking views of the land, and amazing music—including Blackfire’s rendition of Woody Guthrie’s “Mean Things Happenin’ in This World”—When Your Hands Are Tied will resonate with Indian teens everywhere. It was co-produced by Mia Boccella Hartle and Marley Shebala (Diné/Zuni) as an educational tool to reach families, communities, schools, libraries, and treatment centers, so that everyone can see a positive reflection of what’s happening with Native young people today. Mia and Marley gave us this excellent film to distribute at no cost to anyone who can benefit from it. Feel free to order it if you can use it well.
DVD, no charge

For a full review click HERE.

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