Here are reviews of five home videos from PBS, dealing with Native
Americans:
WINDS OF CHANGE: A MATTER OF PROMISES PBS 262, ISBN 1-56111-522-3
THE SPIRIT OF CRAZY HORSE PBS 275, ISBN 1-56111-527-4
MYTHS AND MOUNDBUILDERS PBS 263, ISBN 1-56111-523-1
SEASONS OF THE NAVAJO PBS 275, ISBN 1-56111-528-2
GERONIMO AND THE APACHE RESISTANCE PBS 273, ISBN 1-56111-526-6
Available individually ($19.95 ea.) or as a set called The American
Indian Collection ($99.95) from Pacific Arts Video, 11858 La Grange
Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90025.
REVIEW
"Winds of Change," presented by N. Scott Momaday, portrays
current issues in the lives of three tribes. Each tribe has had
several treaties broken, and Momaday details each tribe's struggle
to have their needs recognized.
The Onondaga tribe of New York State is a true sovereign
nation. Part of the Iroquois Confederacy, the Onondagas get no
funding from the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) or the U.S.
government. The problems the Onondaga nation faces are the
preservation of the matrilineal clan system, where women are the
landowners. When a marraige takes place, the man moves in with the
woman. Many of the young tribal members have married non-Indians,
and this came to a head in 1974, when all non-Indians were banned
from living on tribal land. The youth also are leaving for jobs in
the city, causing them to lose their ties to ceremonial life.
In Arizona, the Navajo live in houses they do not own, as all
tribal land is held in common with no private ownership. The tribe
has developed a governmental system patterned after that of the
U.S., and the members are patriotic to both nations. Tribal
members who served in Vietnam say they defended the sovereignty of
two nations. There are problems with the preservation of the
Navajo language, as the young frown upon its use. A short segment
tells of the problems with ex-tribal chairman Peter McDonald, and
how the Navajos used their internal system of tribal justice to
solve it.
The Lummi tribe of Washington state seem to have suffered the
most of the three at the hands of the U.S. government. An 1855
treaty gave the tribe rights to fish in all their accustomed
places, but the government still tried to turn them into farmers.
In a court settlement in 1975, the Lummi were given the right to
1/2 of the harvestable fish, but in the 1980s, the Internal Revenue
Service (IRS) tried to tax the tribal member's individual income
from fishing. There were protests and confrontations until
President Reagan signed a bill of exemption in 1988.
We are taken back to the Navajo reservation in "Seasons of the
Navajo," where we meet Chauncey and Dorothy Neboyea and follow them
through a year in their life.
Chauncey raises corn and sheep for a living, and lives in two
different locations, depending on the season. In the winter, the
family lives on the Defiance Plateau. In the Spring, they move
into a wide canyon where they plant corn. Dorothy weaves Navajo
blankets from the wool of the sheep, and dyes them with extracts of
flowers and leaves. A segment details an elaborate fertility
ceremony for one of their grandchildren, who join them in the
summer. Chauncey tells his story in his own words, and especially
moving is his telling of how and why he goes to his sweathouse.
In "Myths and Moundbuilders," the story is told of the
structures erected thousands of years ago in the Ohio and Missis-
sippi floodplains. At first, the speculation was that the mounds
were erected by a race passing through, on their way to Mexico and
South America, to become the Aztecs. Other theories were that they
were Viking, Welsh, or Hindu ruins. This was a convenient story
for the time, as the U.S. government was trying to move Indian
tribes out of the area, and they didn't want any stories circulat-
ing that would tie the tribes to the mounds.
But relentless archeologists debunked these theories, and tied
the mounds directly to the Natchez, Shawnee, and Cherokee. One of
the key finds was that of box graves that are still used by the
Shawnee today.
The latest findings point to the existence of two distinct
groups of moundbuilders. The first lived about two thousand years
ago and used the mounds as burial sites. This culture is called
Hopewell. The other culture (called Mississippian) lived about one
thousand years ago, and used the mounds as the residential sites of
tribal chiefs.
The video focuses on ongoing research at Kampsville, Illinois,
done at a feverish pace as there is an interstate scheduled to run
through one of the richest sites. There is speculation that the
transition to maize-based agriculture brought the culture to an
end.
My only criticism is that it only gives a small mention to the
Native American's protests about the archeologists digging up the
graves of their ancestors.
The video is part of the PBS series "Odyssey," and uses re-
creations of archeological digs of the past, complete with colonial
costumes.
The videos "Geronimo and the Apache Resistance" and "The
Spirit of Crazy Horse" are the most disturbing. They point
directly at the U.S. government as the instigator of dissention
during its period of termination policy.
"The Spirit of Crazy Horse" outlines the confrontation between
the members of the American Indian Movement (AIM) and the mixed-
blood backers of Tribal Chairman Dick Wilson that culminated in the
Wounded Knee skirmish and the later confrontation at Oglalla that
killed two FBI officers. The video traces the confrontation to its
roots in ancient tribal disagreements between progressive and
traditional tribal factions, and details how the BIA and FBI fanned
the ancient flames. Milo Yellow Hair is the narrator, who tells of
the tribe's eviction from the Black Hills, and the eventual cash
settlement, which sits in an account, untouched. The Black Hills,
Yellowhair says, were never for sale. The story ends on a note of
conciliation between AIM and the mixed-bloods, but watching the
video from the beginning is heart-wrenching.
There are at least three other videos detailing the AIM
confrontation, two ("Incident at Oglalla", a documentary, and
"Thunderheart", a fictional portrayal) have been made for the big
screen. "Incident at Oglalla" and "The Spirit of Crazy Horse" are
closely aligned, although the former primarily builds evidence to
exonerate Leonard Peltier from his murder charge. The two are
complements and should be watched together.
"Geronimo and the Apache Resistance" is another story of
heartbreak and dissention caused by the U.S. government. There are
many conflicting tales about Geronimo, and the video works hard to
set the story straight.
In the early 1800s, the Apache were a nomadic tribe living in
what was then northern Mexico. The tribe was never conquored by
Mexico, but when the U.S. won the Mexican-American War, Apache land
was part of the spoils. Settlers found gold on Apache land, and
persuaded the Army to move the tribe, which violated several
treatees. In 1851, Geronimo's wife and children were slaughtered
by Mexican soldiers. Geronimo, a shaman and medicine man, vowed
never to comply with either the Mexican or U.S. government. His
story is narrated by his descendents, as well as noted Chiracahua
Apache sculptor and artist Alan Houser.
In the late 1800s, there were several bands of Apaches. In
1876, the U.S. government tried to move all the Apache bands into
one place - San Carlos, Arizona. Geronimo would flee with his band
to Mexico, as he would do many times. He was chased by several
Army contingents, found and convinced to surrender, only to flee to
Mexico again.
The other Apache tribes were shipped to Florida, and shortly
after, Geronimo again surrendered and became a prisoner of war.
The promises made to gain his surrender were never kept, and he
soon joined the rest of the tribe at Fort Pickins in St. Augustine.
The Apache children were sent to school in Pennsylvania, and the
rest of the tribe had their hair cut and were forced to wear
"white-man clothes."
The tribal population dwindled, and they were finally moved to
Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and taken in by the Kiowa. Geronimo spent his
later years as a healer and religious leader, working an occasional
wild west show and wishing that he had never given up. He died of
pneumonia in 1909. The Apache were released brom being prisoners
of war in 1913. Some remained in Oklahoma (82 of them) and some
relocated to Mescalero, New Mexico (187 of them), taken in by the
Mescalero Tribe.
The video has an emotional end, with the band of Chirachua
Apache traveling from Mescalero to Fort Bowie in 1986 to commemo-
rate the 100th anniversary of their expulsion from Skeleton Canyon,
their old home.
The licence for these videos states that they are not to be
used in the classroom. I thought that these were perfect for
classroom use and called Ed Bell, Publicity Director for Pacific
Arts Video, for clarification. He told me that the licence only
makes it illegal to show the video over a network where several
televisions show the video at the same time. He assured me that is
OK to to show the videos on a television hooked to a VCR in the
classroom, and this is where I recommend schools to procure the set
for classroom use. Not only do they try to be historically
correct, but in most cases they use people close to the event to
tell its story. The videos are also a welcome addition to the
personal video library as well.