When Homo sapiens arrived in Australia, they were, for the first time, truly alone, surrounded by wildly different flora and fauna. How did they survive and populate a continent? There is a close cultural and genetic link between the First Australians and modern-day Aborigines. The ancient and modern story intersect here as nowhere else in the world. The secret to this continuity is diversity. Intuitively, they found the right balance between being...

"Since her mother's death, Kit Crockett has lived alone with her grief-stricken father, spending lonely days far out in the country tending the garden, fishing in a local stream, and reading Nancy Drew mysteries from the library bookmobile. One day when Kit discovers a mysterious and beautiful woman has moved in just down the road, she is intrigued. Kit and her new neighbor Bella become fast friends. Both outsiders, they take comfort in each other's...

"Told in a series of voices, Calling for a Blanket Dance takes us into the life of Ever Geimausaddle through the multigenerational perspectives of his family as they face myriad obstacles. His father's injury at the hands of corrupt police, his mother's struggle to hold on to her job and care for her husband, the constant resettlement of the family, and the legacy of centuries of injustice all intensify Ever's bottled-up rage. Meanwhile, all of Ever's...

"Our Spirits Don't Speak English - Indian Boarding School" is a documentary film that examines he educational system that was designed to destroy Indian culture and tribal unity." Introduced by August Schellenberg, the film provides a candid look at the Indian Boarding School system starting in 1879 through the 1960s combining personal interviews with historical background. The philosophy of the Indian boarding school system was based on the concept...

"HONOR THY MOTHER” is the untold story of 36 Aboriginal women from Canada and Native women from tribes in Washington and Alaska who migrated in the 1940s to Bainbridge Island, the traditional territory of the Suquamish people.  As survivors of Indian residential schools, they came, some still in their teens, to pick berries for Japanese American farmers, fell in love and married Filipino immigrants. They settled on the Island to raise their mixed-heritage,...

Every weekend, a small group of French citizens dress up in Native regalia and make appearances at various village fairs alongside their countrymen in France. However, in order to fulfill their dream, they must travel to the United States and meet "real Indians." Together, they finally manage a two-week drive across the Midwest and discover that the reality of contemporary Native Americans is quite different from their portrayed envisioning. Filled...

In 1973 a rookie reporter is sent to cover armed members of the American Indian Movement (AIM) who have taken over the historic village of Wounded Knee, South Dakota. En route to Wounded Knee, he is threatened by a paramilitary group whose members oppose the takeover and consider the press the "enemy of the people." To get the inside story, the reporter circumvents government roadblocks surrounding the besieged village and embeds with the militants....

Delve deeper into the struggle for lands in the Plains between the 1850s and the 1870s. You'll meet the fighters you've heard of, such as Sitting Bull, as well as those you may not have heard about, such as the Hunkpapa Gall. You'll also see the negative repercussions of the 1869 completion of the Transcontinental Railroad.

Uncover some of the hidden histories of the period between the late 1920s and early 1940s as you learn how Native Americans set about making a New Deal for themselves and their communities during an era of uncertainty and convulsive change for the nation at large. You'll also get an introduction to the Indian New Deal.

Professor Cobb explores how many Native people took matters into their own hands and gained a renewed sense of place, harmony, and balance through two religious movements: The Ghost Dance (often misperceived as the last gasp of resistance before the Indians' final vanishing act) and the Peyote Road (a critically important pathway to peace, reconciliation, and belonging).