maɬni—towards the ocean, towards the shore

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.

2020-01-26 | en

Indian Rights for Indian Women

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

2018-09-25 | en

Anti-Objects, or Space Without Path or Boundary

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.

2017-04-22 | en

As Long as the Rivers Run

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.

1971-01-01 | en

LaDonna Harris: Indian 101

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.

2014-03-29 | en

The Lost Spirits

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.

2009-01-01 | en

Contrary Warriors: A Film of the Crow Tribe

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.

1985-11-01 | en

Mankiller

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.

2017-06-19 | en

Chasing Voices: The Story of John Peabody Harrington

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.

2021-04-30 | en

The Warrior Tradition

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?

2019-11-11 | en

Dolores

1984-01-01 | es

Ways of Knowing: A Navajo Nuclear History

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.

2025-03-08 | en

Mitakuye Oyasin

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

2015-01-22 | en

Sweetheart Dancers

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.

2019-02-23 | en

Essence of Healing: The Journey of American Indian Nurses

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.

2017-10-02 | en

Great Falls

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.

2012-07-15 | en

The Four Corners: A National Sacrifice Area?

Documents the cultural and ecological impacts of coal stripmining, uranium mining, and oil shale development in Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona – homeland of the Hopi and Navajo.

1983-11-15 | en

Different Lenses: The Photography of Edward & Asahel Curtis

Documentary examines the different paths taken by brothers Edward & Asahel Curtis in their photographs of Northwest Indians and Yukon explorers, as well as their influence on Seattle & Washington state

1996-03-18 | en

The Native Americans: The Tribal People of the Northwest

A meeting of the Far West Council elders inspires a discussion of Northwest Native American history and traditions, and the struggle to remember and honor their ancestry

1994-10-10 | en

Those Who Come, Will Hear

The documentary proposes a unique meeting with the speakers of several indigenous and inuit languages of Quebec – all threatened with extinction. The film starts with the discovery of these unsung tongues through listening to the daily life of those who still speak them today. Buttressed by an exploration and creation of archives, the film allows us to better understand the musicality of these languages and reveals the cultural and human importance of these venerable oral traditions by nourishing a collective reflection on the consequences of their disappearance.

2018-06-08 | iu