Native American Indian Heritage Month: Streaming Media

Inhabitants follows five Native American communities as they restore their traditional land management practices in the face of a changing climate. © 2022

The Ground Between Us shows that public lands can be a uniting factor in a divided America, as seen through the efforts of Native tribal organizations in three states to preserve the spaces. © 2021

This film traces the fight in Minnesota against the expansion of pipelines carrying highly toxic tar sands oil through Native lands and essential waterways in North America. Frontline communities—Native peoples and communities of color—suffer the most immediate and severe consequences of the climate crisis, including impacts on physical and mental health as well as territorial desecration and displacement. © 2020

The film tells the astonishing, heartbreaking, inspiring, and largely-untold story of Native Americans in the United States military. It chronicles the accounts of Native American warriors from their own points of view. © 2019

This revelatory documentary brings to light the profound and overlooked influence of Indigenous people on popular music in North America. Focusing on music icons like Link Wray, Jimi Hendrix, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Taboo (The Black Eyed Peas), Charley Patton, Mildred Bailey, Jesse Ed Davis, Robbie Robertson, and Randy Castillo, RUMBLE: The Indians Who Rocked the World shows how these pioneering Native American musicians helped shape the soundtracks of our lives. © 2017

With an older brother in jail and living with their single mother on Pine Ridge Reservation, Johnny and his sister Jashuan's lives develop new challenges when their absentee cowboy father suddenly dies. The loss prompts Johnny to strike out for Los Angeles, but it would mean leaving behind his beloved sister. © 2015

The Bakken oil boom is bringing billions of dollars and tens of thousands of jobs to North Dakota. A substantial part of the oil production is concentrated on an Indian reservation. Fort Berthold Reservation’s 1,000-plus oil wells have brought in money and jobs for some, but oil has also brought danger—organized crime, hard drugs, traffic fatalities—and other problems. Tribal members speak about the benefits and consequences of the boom. © 2014

This compelling one hour documentary invites viewers into the lives of contemporary Native Americans. It dispels the myth that American Indians have disappeared from the American horizon, and reveals how they continue to persist, heal from the past, confront the challenges of today, keep their culture alive, and make significant contributions to society. © 2013

A series of five videos addressing the following topics: After the Mayflower; Tecumseh's Vision; Trail of Tears; Geronimo; and Wounded Knee. © 2009

Western spiritualists often seek enlightenment through indigenous religions once practiced in different regions around the world. Native American rituals are especially popular, and Europeans stage ceremonies based on American Indian beliefs for which they charge admission. America’s original people are not pleased with this development, for they regard this practice as the exploitation of their heritage. They see these performances as “pay to pray” ceremonies with imposters playing the roles of American natives. Beautifully crafted and filmed, Spirits for Sale explores both sides of an unlikely dispute between native peoples and present-day interpreters of their rituals.
© 2008

Beginning just after the bloody Sioux victory over General Custer at Little Big Horn, this epic 'HBO Films' adaptation of Dee Alexander Brown's nonfiction masterpiece intertwines the unique perspectives of three characters--Charles Eastman, Sitting Bull and Senator Henry Dawes--while detailing the sprawl into the American West that tragically affected American Indian culture. © 2007

In this program, Dennis Wholey has a conversation about Native American religions with Suzan Shown Harjo, executive director of The Morning Star Institute in Washington, D.C. Topics of discussion include the American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978; some common aspects of the approximately 300 remaining Native American religions being practiced in the U.S. today; the concepts of a supreme being and associated sacred beings as they exist in Native American culture; the prophecies of the Cheyenne prophet Sweet Medicine and the historical impact of North America’s settlers on the land’s indigenous peoples; and the pressing need for all Americans, non-native and native alike, to create a better future together. © 2007

Over 25,000 years ago, the first people began to arrive in what is now known as North America. This program examines the early civilizations of the Inuits, Aztecs, Incas, and Mayans, and the impact of the Europeans beginning with Christopher Columbus’s fateful voyage in 1492. Also covered are the Native American tribes of North America and their cultures; western expansion in the United States; life on the reservations, and much more. © 2005

With a lifetime of experience in the ways of Native spirituality, Mary and Ed Louie are steadfastly committed to the practices that keep them accountable to the spirit world, their people, and mother earth. In Spirit Doctors, filmmaker Marie Burke journeys into their spiritual world of traditional Native medicine. © 2005

Native Americans had established a rich and highly developed tradition of oral literature long before the writings of the European colonists. This program explores that richness by introducing Native American oral traditions through the work of three contemporary authors: Leslie Marmon Silko (Laguna Pueblo), Simon Ortiz (Acoma Pueblo), and Luci Tapahonso (Navajo). © 2003

Once forced to hide their heritage, Native Americans now enjoy both an acceptance and a celebration of their history and culture. By presenting the experiences of Native Americans from a wide array of fields including artisans, performers, and teachers, this program shows how many tribes are returning to the traditions and spirituality of their ancestors. Among those interviewed are Kevin Locke, award-winning Native American vocalist; Wilma Mankiller, the first woman in modern history to lead a tribe; and Richard West, Director of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian. © 2001

The remains of more than 10,000 Native Americans unearthed at archaeological sites across the U.S. are in the possession of museums such as the Smithsonian. Is the analysis of the bones valid scientific research, or is it a desecration of Native American culture? This program focuses on the tensions between scientists, historians, and museum curators and Native American groups, as the bones take on a central role in a war of alternate perspectives. In examining this debate, the program provides an excellent survey of Native American archaeology in the U.S. © 1995

A series of videos with authors N. Scott Momaday (Kiowa), James Welch (Blackfoot & Gros Ventre), Leslie M. Silko (Laguna Pueblo), and Gerald Vizenor (Ojibwa). © 1994

For the nearly two million Native Americans, representing 500 Indian nations, life in the U.S. today is a frustrating struggle to retain their ancient ways while functioning in the modern world, to carve out an identity in an overwhelmingly non-Indian culture. This program examines the needs and problems of today’s Native Americans, both those who live on the reservation and those who have chosen the mainstream. The conclusion focuses on celebration and survival as reflected in the continuing tradition of the Powwow.
© 1989

From is a team of folks who care about representations, and how Native peoples are represented in mainstream media.

A podcast from Cherokee writer and advocate Rebecca Nagle.

Radio about Native American food.

Broadcasting from the island of Guam, Professor Tiara Na'puti shares about her work with indigenous populations in the Pacific Islands and how that translates to better understanding of global indigeneity.

A portal for a variety of podcasts, including Native Voice One and National Native News (daily).