Lakota Woman: Siege at Wounded Knee starring Irene Bedard, Tantoo Cardinal, Pato Hoffmann, Joseph Runningfox, Lawrence Bayne, and Michael Horse and August Schellenberg.
The film follows a young Mary Crow Dog and her poor Lakota family living on the Rosebud Sioux reservation in South Dakota as she briefly learns the ways of her people and of the 1890 massacre at Wounded Knee told to her by her grandfather Fool Bull (played by Floyd Red Crow Westerman). She is later put into St. Tristan Boarding School along with her sister Barbra. Mary describes her boarding school experience.
"The years passed as they tried to turn us from Lakota to white. They took away our language, the words of our elders about the history of our people and our memories grew dim. They took away our souls every day and they took our pictures once a year." One night, Barbra decides to run away, but it isn't clear where she is going. Mary is left alone without her sister.
The years dragged on as Mary endures hardships of white society, and as a Lakota girl, she wasn't so sure she wanted to learn the ways of her people, until she reads a newspaper given to her by a young white girl named Nadine(Amy Moore Davis). The paper titled "AMERICANS BEFORE COLUMBUS!" described the rape and looting of Indian lands in America. Mary prints out papers that is a sign to all Indian people in boarding schools who should turn down the white man's ways and take back their land, but she is expelled by her teachers.
Having been kicked out of school, Mary finds her way back to the Oglala Tribal Office in Pine Ridge looking for a job and her aunt Elsie Flood (Casey Camp-Horinek), but to no avail. So she goes searching for her mother and finds her living with a white man and living in the white society. She once again goes searching for a job, but the manager doesn't want to hire Native Americans (revealing the racism in South Dakota in the 1970s). With no job, or anyone who will help her, she hitches a ride with two Indian men, but while they are driving to Rosebud, the passenger attempts to rape her and she jumps out of the car. Later that evening, Webster finds her walking on the road
Source: Wikipedia
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watching Mary's life in that time made my heart cry and sing.
beautifully done! just wish it didn't happen
This is one of my all time favorite movies. I had friends who were at the siege at Wounded Knee when it went down. Another at Alcatraz too. This era was an awakening. This should lead people to check into the one who is still held in federal pen, Leonard Peltier.
VERY GOOD MOVIE ON THE TRUTH WISH MORE TRUTH ABOUT THE GOVERNMENT AND THE GOONS WOULD COME OUT SO THE WORLD WOULD KNOW,HOW SELFISH AND GREEDY THE GOVERNMENT REALLY IS AND HAS ALWAYS BEEN.GINNY NELSON CLIFTON
There are some other great films dealing with this issue, one of my favorites that made me cry the first time I watched it, is "the Only Good Indian" with Wes Studi
Incident at Oglala is another film telling the story of Mr. Peltier.
Raventhom
Great movie very informative
Thank you for this lesson today.
Thank you sharing. it's a great movie...
informational, touching and inspirational
My blood may not show Native blood but my heart and spirit are with all that have fought to have the freedoms offered and taken away. Stay strong!
Thank you for sharing! I always loved this film. It is a great reminder for all people on Earth to keep the heart strong and stand for justice. Peace
I read the book... the film is very powerful!! I may be white in this life but my heart & soul is native. AIM all power to you... Peace & Love
This truth must be shared to all.
It is time to forgive and be healed also ......
This movie really needs to be shown in our public schools...how few know of this!
if i could apologise for the wrong doing's of my people over many many years i would, we to are prisoners of governments to who are hell bent on destuction. it is time for all tribes to stand as one.
very moving one nation shall rise one least expected was extremely moved
GitsanLady: watched again, my heart still race's.
I am not of native blood but my heart and soul stand with them. It is time for wrongs to be righted and peace to be made. It is time for world to live in harmony. This movie was heart wrenching and well made,true to life. Thankyou !
I agree with many of the above comments, especially educating children in school. What the government did at Wounded Knee was despicable, as in many other hateful actions towards the Natives of this Country. God have mercy on them all. Watching this only reinforces my choice to support and cherish the Navtive American beliefs and the lives that were shattered, then and now. ~ Aho
Palameya Wa Do ! Hianni Wasté sharing
J'ai lu et relu le livre , parmi tant d'autres. Jamais vu le film , merci... Manque le sous titrage , mais les images parlent, mon coeur comprend. Je ne suis pas Native , mais mon coeur l' est . merci pour tous vos articles qui transmettent beaucoup à ceux qui veulent apprendre, connaître, comprendre et...aimer.
Gracias por este película, he llorado. Sueño con un mundo de tolerancia, respeto y amor por todos los seres.
the Supreme Court should dissolve the American parliament and dismiss the American president, and invite the Red Indians to make their government. That will be a real tribute to the American Constitution, to justice. And as a by-product it will destroy the possibility of a third world war, because Red Indians are not going to make nuclear weapons. They are so happy dancing, singing, gambling, drinking. Who bothers about fighting and a nuclear war?And if Red Indians are in the government, the possibility of a third world war simply disappears, because Red Indians will not be at all interested, or even ready for a third world war. They will not pile up nuclear weapons -- they cannot create them.
And all the foreigners who call themselves Americans have taken it for granted that this is their country. Sheer bullshit! They can ask for refuge, they can ask the Red Indians to be allowed to live here -- but they cannot live here as masters. Enough is enough.
There is an old prophecy of the Red Indians, somebody from the East will come and deliver them from their slavery.' Now is the time... In Germany, the concentration camps were made of barbed wire; you could not escape. The American reservations are open. If you want to go out, nobody is preventing you. They have created some psychological barbed wire -- invisible. The Red Indians are being paid for doing nothing. Naturally, when a man has nothing to do and gets enough money, he gambles, he drinks, and he produces more and more children, because each child brings with him more money from the government.
This is a very psychological slavery; the Red Indians will not want to be freed. If they are free, and the country belongs to them, then what about their gambling, rowdiness, fighting, killing, rape? What about their addiction to drugs? They are not ready to work again; America has crippled them psychologically, spiritually. But the land belongs to them, the country is theirs, everybody else is a foreigner here. Thirdly, the politicians of America would not like the country to become spiritual. They want bigger armies, air forces, navies; they want more nuclear experts. They are not interested in spirituality; spirituality is dangerous to them, because if the American people get involved in meditation, silence, serenity, they will refuse to kill anybody -- war or no war. They will simply be able to see that the third world war is going to be a total war in which nothing of life will remain.
American politicians would not like people to have such clarity of vision.
American religious leaders pretend to provide spirituality to the people, but what they are giving they don't have themselves.
Osho
Heart felt