Warrior Klee Benally Never Surrendered: A Life of Revolutionary Love, Resounding 'Regain Your Power'

Rally for Palestine, Flagstaff, Arizona. Nov. 2023. Photo courtesy Klee Benally

Warrior Klee Benally Never Surrendered: A Life of Revolutionary Love, Resounding 'Regain Your Power'

The celebration of Klee's life will be on January 6, at 2 p.m., at the Orpheum Theatre in Flagstaff, Arizona.

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, January 2, 2023

Translation into French by Christine Prat

Our hearts are broken by the sudden passing of our friend Klee Benally. Reflecting on Klee's life, we remember the words of Che Guevara that the true revolutionary is guided by great feelings of love.

Klee never surrendered, he never surrendered to capitalism, the media, or the forces of conformity that sought to change who he was.

Legacies in Film: Zapatistas and Dineh Bennie Klain Inspiring Generations

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Marcos in Comandantes

Legacies in Film: Zapatistas and Dineh Bennie Klain Inspiring Generations

By Brenda Norrell

Censored News

Subcomandante Marcos tells the story of "why we walk, and "why we die to live." Dineh filmmaker Bennie Klain's films exposed racism and gave voice to the survivors of both uranium mining and John Wayne at Monument Valley.

“We have nothing and that is what causes the movement of our resistance,” says Subcomandante Marcos, in “Caminantes." The documentary tells the story of Indigenous people walking to their homes, villages, and fields.

The Art of Survival: Photos by Andy Dann -- Survival School at Wood Springs

The Art of Survival: Photos by Andy Dann Survival School at Wood Springs

Big Mountain's John Benally Passes to Spirit World

John Benally at home in Big Mountain. Photo by Brenda Norrell.

Big Mountain's John Benally Passes to Spirit World

In memory of John Benally, Dineh, life long resister of relocation on Big Mountain, we share John's words during an interview after the Sundance was bulldozed in 2001. Our sincere condolences to John's family, may his life and perseverance as a resister  be an inspiration to all who struggle. -- Brenda, Censored News.

“We have suffered enough. “The only way to resolve this is to give Navajo back their original land.” -- John Benally

By Brenda Norrell

Censored News

BIG MOUNTAIN (2001) -- John Benally sits without food for himself or his dogs near the bulldozed Sundance grounds.

“The only way to resolve this is to give Navajo back their original land.”

John said, too, it is time for Navajos to return to farming. “If we are farmers, we can help people. Opening a mine, you think that is the answer? Forget it, only a few people will work. I know people who have died of black lung.”

Mining on Black Mesa is destroying the air for the plants, animals and people. “This whole relocation should be investigated,” he said of Peabody Coal's mine on Black Mesa.

“We have suffered enough,” said John Benally. “The only way to resolve this is to give Navajo back their original land.”

John said, too, it is time for Navajos to return to farming. “If we are farmers, we can help people. Opening a mine, you think that is the answer? Forget it, only a few people will work. I know people who have died of black lung.”

Mining on Black Mesa is destroying the air for the plants, animals and people. “This whole relocation should be investigated,” he said.

“We are being neglected by the Navajo government and the Hopi government. I really support the idea of the study. Our kids do not like education because of the relocation effect.

“I do not get food stamps or anything. Its too much harassment to fill out the forms and get food stamps. The interviewer can interrogate you. They should make it easier.”

John said he worked for Peabody Coal Company, just down the dirt road on Black Mesa, for seven years. Now he receives nothing back from the taxes he paid.

“Throughout the year we are harassed, our livestock is impounded and we are intimidated by the Hopi Rangers. The police are monitoring us and we are slandered many times when they say we are trespassers. The Hopi Rangers and Hopi monitors are the trespassers.

“They desecrated our ceremonial Sundance grounds where all people come and pray from the Four Directions.”

Read the full interviews with John and his brother Leonard Benally at Censored News. Big Mountain relocation resister Leonard Benally passed to the Spirit World in 2013. https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2013/10/big-mountain-warrior-leonard-benally.html

Earl Tulley of Blue Gap said, "John Benally, Nakai Dine'e of Big Mountain journeyed on. He was one of many icons of the Big Mountain resistance to forced relocation by the U.S. government and Peabody Coal Company.

"My clan daddy and comrade. He threw his body under BIA police tire during one of many impoundments.

Condolences to his family and the Big Mountain People. He will be remembered. The work will continue."

Copyright Brenda Norrell, Censored News

Sacred Water: Nikki Tulley journeys home to Blue Gap

Take a beautiful water journey with Nikki Tulley, back home to Blue Gap, on the Navajo Nation. Nikki, a PhD student in hydrology, shares her thoughts on sacred water, believing in one's self, and the power of the land, water, home and family.

Nikki with her father, Earl Tulley, cofounder of Dine' Citizens Against Ruining our Environment,
and longtime human rights champion. Nikki visits with nieces and nephews as she reflects on her journey from her home in Blue Gap to the University of Arizona.

https://research.arizona.edu/stories/navajo-hydrologist-aims-safeguard-resources-her-people

Dineh Philmer Bluehouse 'The pandemic is a time of paradigm shift, signals need for peace and balance'

Phil Bluehouse passed to the Spirit World

We are very sorry to share with our friends the news that our longtime friend Phil Bluehouse passed to the Spirit World on August 22. During his struggle with COVID in recent weeks, he posted on social media about his stays in the hospital, and his recent return home. Phil said he was vaccinated, and looked forward to getting ready for winter, just days before he passed. Our condolences to his family and friends, and all who learned from him. Phil, who created the Peacemaker Court on the Navajo Nation, and was a Dine' traditional healer, shared his thoughts here on Censored News about the virus and was a guest on Tiokasin Ghosthorse's First Voices Radio during the summer of 2020. We share with you this recent video of the building of a sweatlodge for women, Water Protectors, and universal healing.

-- Brenda, Censored News

Photo: Louise Benally of Big Mountain with Phil Bluehouse. Watch video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4k3GQsc-cMw

May 2021: Sweet Medicine Ta'Chéé Sweat Lodge. "Thank You! Roberto Nutlouis and Dzil Yijiin Crew, Philmer Bluehouse, and Louise Benally. Built for women and Water Protectors to heal. Dedicated to the late Dineh forensic psychiatrist, Dr. Amanda Cook Zivic who spent her life understanding and healing the intergenerational wounds of the mind, body, and spirit." -- Divest, Invest, Protect.

Dineh Philmer Bluehouse 'The pandemic is a time of paradigm shift, signals need for peace and balance'

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News

Dine' Phil Bluehouse says this pandemic is a time of a paradigm shift for society and Dine' have the narratives to bring about peace and balance.

Bluehouse, who developed the Peacemaker Court, speaks of the need for peace, unity and healing. Serving in the healing process, Bluehouse does not refer to himself as a medicine man. He said his role in healing is to lead people to find their own healing and peace.

Speaking of the Hozhooji Nanitiin (Dine’ traditional teachings) Bluehouse said the Dine’ way of good health and well-being is the way of balance and peace.

“We are going through a paradigm shift. Humanity is going to have difficulties from here on out. There is going to be a lot of suffering," Bluehouse said in an interview with Censored News.

Indigenous Women Demand Elbit Border Wall Divestment

 

Indigenous Women Demand Elbit Border Wall Divestment

May 7, 2021 04:00 PM

Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Join us in the first installation of the DIVEST BORDER PANEL SERIES as indigenous peoples and allies discuss the impacts of Integrated Fixed Towers (IFTs) and their impact on Indigenous peoples rights in the United States and globally.

Register:

https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ZXGvybBqRxyvq9Cp1-d7AA

Uranium leave it in the ground! Global online launch of first Uranium Atlas with Western Shoshone, Navajo and more

The first atomic bomb blast in July 16, 1945 in Alamogordo, New Mexico,

The international guests participating in this event are: Makoma Lekalakala (Earthlife Africa, South Africa), Ian Zabarte (Western Shoshone Nation, USA), Sascha Hach (Nuclear Free Future Foundation, Germany) and Anna Rondon (New Mexico Social Justice and Equity Institute, Navajo Nation, USA). There will be additional recorded statements from Tina Cordova (Trinity Downwinders, USA) and Larry King (Navajo Nation, USA).

Leave uranium in the ground!

Global Online Launch of the first Uranium Atlas

Watch online at 1 pm Eastern time, July 16, 2020.

The Uranium Atlas tells the global story of uranium through maps, graphics and narratives covering every phase of the uranium fuel chain. The raw material of the Atomic Age was or is mostly mined in African countries, Australia, Kazakhstan and Canada, and the consequences for the inhabitants of these mining areas have been fatal from the very beginning. The victims of global nuclear colonialism are mostly Indigenous peoples whose voices remain unheard.

July 16 is seared in the memory of New Mexicans: On July 16, 1945, at 5:30 in the morning, scientists from Los Alamos detonated Trinity, the first atomic bomb, in the White Sands desert. On July 16, 1979, at 5:30 in the morning, the tailings dam of the Church Rock uranium mill broke, contaminating the drinking water of the Diné (Navajo) people.

We dedicate the launch of the Uranium Atlas to all the victims of July 16.

Navajo Nation reports two deaths, 92 cases of coronavirus

Navajo coronavirus cases increase to 92, with two confirmed deaths, as the virus spreads

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News

Update: Saturday night: Navajo coronavirus cases jump to 115, curfew established
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2020/03/navajo-nation-coronavirus-cases_29.html


The coronavirus claimed two lives and infected 92 Dine', an increase of 21 people in just 24 hours, Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez said late Friday.

The Navajo Times reports the spread of the coronavirus followed a gathering of the Nazarene Church in Chilchinbeto. Those attending and their families became ill in Cameron, LeChee and nearby chapters.

One family told the Navajo Times how the father was turned away at a local hospital repeatedly after becoming sick with a high fever after the rally.

A second church rally at Pine Hill near Gallup infected more Dine', and the pastor's family was hospitalized, sources said.

Nationwide, at least two other Native Americans have died from the virus in Oklahoma and Washington State.

The Indian Health Service reported 10 cases in both California and Portland IHS agencies. IHS statistics show only about one-half of Native Americans tested had received results of the tests.

The Rosebud Sioux in South Dakota established a curfew, restrictions on visitors and businesses and prohibited unaccompanied minors, in an effort to control the spread of the virus after the first case was reported there.

Already with a stay-at-home order in place, the Navajo Nation cases continued to rise this week.

Navajo President Nez said, “Our condolences and prayers go out to the families of the two individuals who have passed on. We also pray for all of those who are fighting to recover from the virus. We cannot thank our health care workers and first responders enough for everything they are doing to help our people."

“To our Navajo people, let’s help our healthcare workers by staying home and isolating ourselves as much as possible. Our public safety officers are needed in our communities every day, and we don’t want to have to take them away from those duties to force people to stay home – we don’t have to go to that extent if people simply listen to the health care experts."

Navajo area doctors pleaded for face masks at Tuba City Medical Center and elsewhere in Indian country. As the coronavirus spread through Indian country this week, Native American doctors urged people to stay at home and sought out those who could help provide face masks.

Currently, the Navajo cases are in Navajo County, Ariz., 49; Apache County, Ariz., 18; Coconino County, Ariz., 6; McKinley County, N.M., 5; San Juan County, N.M., 11; Cibola County, N. M., 1; San Juan County, Utah, 2.

Navajo Times article on coronavirus and church rally:
https://navajotimes.com/coronavirus-updates/two-deaths-in-western-may-have-been-covid-virus-spread-at-church-rally/

Indian Health Service nationwide today:
(Note: Not all of the cases are shown. Results are not shown for everyone tested.)

Below: New York Times map of coronavirus cases updated throughout the day.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html

Native People urge peace and friendship with Iran, demand U.S. get out of Iraq

Michelle Cook, Dine', who visited Iran on a friendship visit, urged peace and
diplomacy. Photos courtesy Michelle Cook.

Native People urge peace and friendship with Iran, demand U.S. get out of Iraq

By Brenda Norrell

Censored News

French translation by Christine Prat

http://www.chrisp.lautre.net/wpblog/?p=5452

Native Americans rallied for peace today, sending a message of friendship to the people of Iran and demanding that the U.S. get out of Iraq, as they called out Trump for both assassinations and provocations for war. Dineh, Lakota, Pueblo and Tohono O'odham led the urgent call for peace and diplomacy to halt the tragedies of war.

Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to Hear Testimony on Suppression of Indigenous Resistance to Extractive Industries in North America

(Photo above) February 1, 2017, eviction of Last Child Camp at Standing Rock, ND (photo: Ryan Vizzions Standing Rock Rising)

By Water Protector Legal Collective

Censored News

BISMARCK, North Dakota – The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) recently announced that it will conduct a hearing on the Suppression of Indigenous Resistance to Extractive Industries in North America.

Poetry and Literature on Tohono O'odham Nation -- The Power of Words and Presence

Ofelia Rivas, O'odham, Photo by TD Garcia

Photo by TD Garcia

ON THE BORDER 

Native Poetry and Literature 

Resistance and inherent sovereignty in the age of US Border Patrol militarization, the commercialization of DNA, and the historic denial of the US genocide of Native People

By Brenda Norrell

Censored News

TOPAWA, TOHONO O'ODHAM NATION -- Ofelia Rivas, O'odham founder of O'odham Voice Against the Wall, shared her poetry of the smell of rain and memories of corn. Remembering her childhood on the land, she shared one poem from her aunt, and the gift of new black shoes that laced up to the ankles.
Rivas read her poetry during the Survival of Colonial Genocide forum at the Tohono O'odham Cultural Center and Museum on Monday. The event was sponsored by Red Ink.
Rivas, who lives on the Tohono O'odham Nation at the so-called border, exposed the Israeli spy towers, which are now planned for her community. She continues to battle the planned desecration of burial and sacred places planned for the construction of the towers by way of US Homeland Security on sovereign Tohono O'odham Nation sacred land. She battles the US Border Patrol on O'odham land as agents continue to abuse O'odham and migrants here.
As Native speakers and guests were driving across the Tohono O'odham Nation to the event, they were closely followed by tribal police and U.S. Border Patrol.
During the reading of poetry, literature and research, James Riding In, Pawnee from Oklahoma, spoke on inherent sovereignty, which Native people have always had, since time immemorial.
Riding In said sovereignty was not granted by treaties or the U.S. Congress.
"Sovereignty does not come from the US government," Riding In said, adding that it predates the arrival of the colonizers here.
"Sovereignty comes from our people."
Riding In, professor of American Indian Studies at Arizona State University in Tempe, is an author who has spent his life in the struggle for Indigenous rights.
Riding In has served as an expert witness on Native American rights in numerous court cases, including the Snowbowl case, the Cleveland sports team case, and a case involving hair in Texas.
Riding In said the goal of colonizers was to annihilate Native people, with a system of taking Native children from their homes and putting them in boarding schools where they were forbidden to speak their language.
Speaking on repatriation, he spoke of the importance of bringing the ancestors home from museums.
Speaking on the need to rethink tribal governments, he spoke of the need for tribal governments which are based on the cultural ways.
There is also a need to hold tribal governments accountable, he said.
Riding In said he doesn't believe in DNA testing. "We know who we are."
Dine' Poet Bojan Louis told how he came back to Crystal on Navajoland and how he had longed to smell the pinyon trees again. Louis' poetry was filled with scorpions, Sheriffs and the rawness and contrasts of Arizona.
Louis, whose mother is from Coal Mine Mesa, is a professor and published poet.
Krystal Tsosie, Dine' from Shonto, began with a photo of her grandmother's hogan, where she grew up.
Tsosie is a doctoral student at Vanderbilt University.
Tsosie described her research and the importance of Indigenous scientists working in genomics. She pointed out how researchers used O'odham and Havasupai blood samples in research without their knowledge. Havasupai filed a lawsuit over this.
Today the search for ancestry has become commercialized. Companies are seeking out Native peoples' DNA for profit. Those companies are targeting Native people who live in urban areas, to avoid working with, and getting permission, from tribal governments.
Tsosie also pointed out that research has been done using samples taken from Native Americans using permission forms that were never understood by Native people who speak their own language.
During questions from the audience, the speakers were urged to write down the histories for future generations and make sure the facts are included in textbooks.

Speaker Bios

Krystal Tsosie (Diné/Navajo), MPH, MA, is currently completing a PhD in Genomics and Health Disparities at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. She also co-manages the Genetics and Preeclampsia Study within the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indian Nation in Belcourt, North Dakota where she studies the genetics pre-determinants of women's health clinical phenotypes while also contributing to advancing equitable genomics research in indigenous communities.

In 1998 Ophelia Rivas begin working with an indigenous women organization, First Nations North & South to support the Zapatista movement in the Mexico state of Chiapas.
In May 2002-2006, Ophelia attended as a delegate to the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues under the UN Economic and Social Council in New York to present an intervention on protection of our Right to Exist, our Inherent Right to continue our way of life called the Him’dag and Rights of Mobility to continue to cross the United States and Mexico International Border that bisected our original homelands and Human Rights. In 2006, the O’odham VOICE Against the WALL hosted the United Nation Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Issues on O’odham lands.

James Riding In is an activist scholar and a citizen of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma, Dr. Riding In is the editor of Wicazo Sa Review: A Journal of Native American Studies. He writes from the perspective of an American Indian Studies Paradigm that empowers Indian nations, communities, and peoples in their struggles to overcome the harmful consequences of colonialism.

BOJAN LOUIS (Diné) is the author of the poetry collection Currents (BkMk Press 2017), which received a 2018 American Book Award, and the nonfiction chapbook Troubleshooting Silence in Arizona (The Guillotine Series 2012). His fiction has appeared in Ecotone, Numéro Cinq Magazine, Yellow Medicine Review, and Alaska Quarterly Review; nonfiction in MudCity Journal and AS/US. Former poetry editor at RED INK and former poetry editor and co-founder of Waxwing, Louis has been a resident at The MacDowell Colony and is the inaugural Virginia G. Piper Fellow-in-Residence at Arizona State University. He will be joining the University of Arizona MFA and AIS faculty in Fall 2019.
Listen to an interview with Bojan Louis, about his award winning "Currents," winner of the American Book Award.
http://www.newletters.org/on-the-air/bojan-louis


Article copyright Brenda Norrell, may not be used without permission. Photos copyright TD Garcia.

Dineh Farmer Kris Barney 'Growing Food -- Connecting to our Ancestors and Ourselves'

Dineh Farmer Kris Barney 'Growing Food -- Connecting to our Ancestors and Ourselves'

Kris Barney
Tsé Chízhí Farm and Seeds

 Tsé Chízhí Farm and Seeds.

French translation by Christine Prat at

http://www.chrisp.lautre.net/wpblog/?p=4659

Censored News
ROUGH ROCK, Navajo Nation -- A long time ago, our Diné People looked at seeds and growing things as wealth. Livestock was wealth, good health was wealth, healthy children and grandchildren were wealth. The water, the rain, the wild animal meats, the wild plants, the land herself was wealth. We say, Yodí Ataałseí, Chí'yáán Altaałsei, many kinds of material wealth and many kinds of foods. Often, we talk about food sovereignty or hear it mentioned. The ability to feed ourselves, to be food independent. Independent of grocery stores, independent of corporations that ravage the earth with industrial agriculture.

So many terms and resources are applied to this type of critical analysis, but, what yields the most info about food, is the practice of growing food in the ways shown by our ancestors. There is a great disconnect many people have toward food, the alternatives offer little solutions and often lead to health issues. When we disconnect from the land or have been forced to, we sacrifice a great deal of knowledge, plant knowledge, animal knowledge, land knowledge. How we treat our bodies, what we feed our bodies is instrumental in determining how we choose to live and what good examples we leave for our children and grandchildren.

This hubbard squash is going in some mutton soup today.

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Traditional Navajo Farming -- Songs and Stories from Rock Point

Photo Kris Barney 2018 A stocky blue corn with an ear forming — atTsé Chízhí Farm and Seeds.

Traditional Navajo Farming -- Songs and Stories from Rock Point

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
French translation by Christine Prat at:
http://www.chrisp.lautre.net/wpblog/?p=4659

ROCK POINT, Navajo Nation -- Navajo elder Tabaahi Ts'osi, George Blue-eyes shared his knowledge of the magic and mystery of dry farming with a planting stick in the book 'Navajo Farming,' now a classic.

"George Blue-eyes plants by the stars. When the weather starts getting warm, he watches the evening sky to look for six tiny stars which in Navajo are called Dilyehe, and in English are called the Pleiades."

Dineh Wild Foods -- Voices from Tse Ho Tso

Near Tse Ho Tso, Fort Defiance, 1873

Dineh Wild Foods -- Voices from Tse Ho Tso

Censored News series on real life solutions to climate change, living on the land, growing food and walking

By Brenda Norrell

TSE HO TSO -- Navajo elder Howard McKinley, who lived to be nearly 100 years old, recalled how corn pollen was used in ceremonies and corn silk was used for healing teas. Navajo women sang corn grinding songs as they ground corn on grinding stones. Parched corn was ground together with pinons for nut butter similar to peanut butter.

McKinley remembered picking wild yucca bananas and wild potatoes. He remembered how blocks of frozen water from Blue Canyon were stored as chunks of ice for summer months in cut-rock houses near his home in Tse Ho Tso (Meadow between the rocks) known as Fort Defiance, Arizona.

Ward Valley Triumphant -- 20 Years Later in 2018 -- by Ofelia Rivas, O'odham

Ofelia Rivas, O'odham, and Earl Tulley, Dineh, at Ward Valley today.

Photos by Ofelia Rivas, O'odham

20th Ward Valley Spiritual Gathering

'Ground Zero' Victory Celebration

Celebrating the Occupation that halted a nuclear dump here 20 years ago.

Today, Feb. 24, 2018

Radio interview with Earl Tulley by Govinda at Spirit Resistance Radio.

Spirit Resistance Radio -- Govinda Dalton's interview with Earl Tulley, Dineh, as Earl was on his way to the gathering at the Ward Valley Victory Celebration to support the Mojave and their occupation 20 years ago. Earl and Govinda discuss the defense of Ward Valley from the nuclear dump, which was led by the traditional wisdom keepers.

Earl describes the resources coming into the Navajo Nation, and encourages a return to root cellars and dry storage of foods.

Earl said there's a difference between an environmentalist and an activist. Earl said an environmentalist basically writes a proposal, and when it gets funded, those people become employees. On the other hand, the activists "go on their own dime and put their lives on the line."

Sharing the news of Dine' Citizens Against Ruining our Environment, Earl said their youths have grown up in the movement, and are now adults. 

Dine' CARE celebrates its 30 year anniversary on the Navajo Nation in June.

Listen to Earl on Spirit Resistance Radio:

.https://albireo.shoutca.st:2197/ondemand/standingrock1/earltully.mp3

Dineh Marcus Mitchell 'Morton County shot out my eye at Standing Rock'

By Marcus Mitchell, Dineh

Censored News

Published with permission

Good morning everyone, it is a beautiful morning. I had a dream about what is to come last night. The time has come for all of us to go after North Dakota law enforcement.

The events that have affected all of us are for life.

We pray to our ancestors, the mountains, the trees, the birds for guidance.

I ask my relatives for their aid, everyone that was on the Backwater Bridge on Highway 1806 on January 18, 2017, the day I was shot, to help me collect videos and photos of that night.

The time is now, we can no longer wait for something to happen, you can go to the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission and file a complaint with them about your human rights that were violated at Standing Rock.
The damages I received, some can be permanent. The loss of sight in my left eye, loss of feeling on parts of my face, my taste is affected as well, as my hearing.

The photo was taken January 24, 2017 at the United Nations hearing at Prairie Knights Casino.

I put down my corn pollen and my medicines, l, make my offering. Now we must hunt these monsters and bring them to justice.

The time is now. If we are to beat this we must do this together, for our kids and their children.
Mni wiconi and always and forever NODAPL as the drum beats louder, you can see.
#WATERISLIFE
#NODAPL
#JUSTICEFORMARCUS

Eight Indigenous Made Films at Sundance Film Festival 2018

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Akicita: The Battle of Standing Rock

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Smoke Signals anniversary showing

Sundance Institute

Wednesday, January 10th, 2018
Schedule for Park City, and Salt Lake City, Utah showings:
http://www.sundance.org/pdf/film-guide/SFF18_PPG_Grid.pdf

Following President and Founder Robert Redford’s original vision, Sundance Institute has remained committed to supporting Native American artists throughout the Institute’s history. This support has established a rich legacy of work and has supported more than 300 filmmakers through labs, grants, mentorships, public programs, and the platform of the Sundance Film Festival.

The Native American and Indigenous Program has a global focus and through its work strengthens Indigenous cinema. Filmmakers supported over the years include: Sterlin Harjo (Seminole/Muskogee), Taika Waititi (Te Whānau-ā-Apanui), Billy Luther (Diné/Hopi/Laguna Pueblo), Andrew Okpeaha MacLean (Iñupiaq), Aurora Guerrero (Xicana), Sydney Freeland (Diné), Ciara Leina’ala Lacy (Kanaka Maoli), Lyle Mitchell Corbine, Jr. (Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa Indians) and Shaandiin Tome (Diné).

This year, eight Indigenous-made films will be premiering at the Sundance Film Festival, January 18-28, in Park City, Utah. In addition, there will be a special 20th Anniversary Archive Screening of Smoke Signals, directed by Chris Eyre (Cheyenne/Arapaho) with the screenplay by Sherman Alexie (Spokane/Coeur d’Alene). This is also our opportunity to introduce the Native Program’s filmmaker Fellows for the coming year.

Feature Films
World Cinema Documentary Competition

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Genesis 2.0 / Switzerland, Directors: Christian Frei, Maxim Arbugaev (Yakut/Buryat), Producer: Christian Frei — On the remote New Siberian Islands in the Arctic Ocean, hunters search for tusks of extinct mammoths. When they discover a surprisingly well-preserved mammoth carcass, its resurrection will be the first manifestation of the next great technological revolution: genetics. It may well turn our world upside down.

NEXT

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We the Animals / U.S.A., Director: Jeremiah Zagar, Screenwriters: Daniel Kitrosser, Jeremiah Zagar, Producers: Jeremy Yaches, Christina D. King (Creek and Seminole Nations), Andrew Goldman, Paul Mezey — Us three, us brothers, us kings. Manny, Joel and Jonah tear their way through childhood and push against the volatile love of their parents. As Manny and Joel grow into versions of their father and Ma dreams of escape, Jonah, the youngest, embraces an imagined world all his own. Cast: Raul Castillo, Sheila Vand, Evan Rosado, Isaiah Kristian, Josiah Santiago.

Spotlight

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Sweet Country / Australia, Director: Warwick Thornton (Kaytej Nation), Screenwriters: Stephen McGregor, David Tranter (Alyawarra Nation) — Australian western set on the Northern Territory frontier in the 1920s, where justice itself is put on trial when an aged Aboriginal farmhand shoots a white man in self defense and goes on the run as posse gathers to hunt him down.

Short Films

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Mud (Hashtł'ishnii) / U.S.A., Director and screenwriter: Shaandiin Tome (Diné) — On her last day, Ruby faces the inescapable remnants of alcoholism, family and culture.

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The Violence of a Civilization without Secrets / U.S.A., Directors and screenwriters: Adam Khalil, Zack Khalil (Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, Jackson Polys (Tlingit) — An urgent reflection on Indigenous sovereignty, the undead violence of museum archives and post-mortem justice through the case of the "Kennewick Man," a prehistoric Paleoamerican man whose remains were found in Kennewick, Washington State in 1996.


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Nuuca / U.S.A. / Canada, Director: Michelle Latimer (Métis/Algonquin) — The oil boom in North Dakota has brought tens of thousands of new people to the region and with that has come an influx of drugs, crime and sex trafficking.


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I Like Girls / Canada, Director/Screenwriter: Diane Obomsawin (Abenaki) — Charlotte, Mathilde, Marie and Diane reveal the nitty-gritty about their first loves, sharing funny and intimate tales of one-sided infatuation, mutual attraction, erotic moments and fumbling attempts at sexual expression.

Documentary Premieres

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Akicita: The Battle of Standing Rock / U.S.A., Director: Cody Lucich, (Estom Yumeka Maidu Tribe of Enterprise Rancheria), Producers: Heather Rae, Gingger Shankar, Ben-Alex Dupris (Colville) Standing Rock, 2016: the largest Native American occupation since Wounded Knee. Thousands of activists, environmentalists and militarized police descend on the Dakota Access Pipeline in a standoff between oil corporations and a new generation of Native warriors. This chronicle captures the sweeping struggle, spirit and havoc of a people’s uprising.

20th Anniversary Archive Screening
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Smoke Signals / U.S.A., Director: Chris Eyre (Cheyenne /Arapaho); Screenwriter: Sherman Alexie (Spokane/Coeur d'Alene) The chronicle of athletic and charming Victor Joseph from the Salmon Indian Reservation really begins when he learns of his father’s premature and sudden death. With no money, he accepts the offer of his quirky and garrulous childhood buddy, Thomas-Builds-the-Fire, to pay for the trip, but only if he goes along. Their ensuing odyssey becomes an exploration of social and personal being, but this is not a typical account laced with angst and despair. Eyre and Alexie have fused their cultural legacy with a cinematic vision that is fresh, honest, and deeply cynical of the trite images and ideas about what it is to be Indian in America.

Native Filmmaker Lab Fellows
These two Fellows participated in the Native Filmmakers Lab with their projects in May 2017 and will end their year-long Fellowship at the Festival with ongoing support, screenings, guided film discussions, and networking events. At the Lab, these fellows worked with a cast and crew to practice shooting scenes from their short films under the expert creative mentorship of Program alumni, Creative Advisors and Program staff. This Fellowship encourages Native filmmakers to hone their storytelling and technical skills in a hands-on and supportive environment. Following the Lab, Fellows receive a year-round continuum of support.

Shaandiin Tome (Diné), Mud (Hashtł’ishnii)

On her last day, Ruby faces the inescapable remnants of alcoholism, family and culture.

Erin Maile Lau (Kanaka Maoli), Ka Mahina a me Ka Pō (The Moon & the Night)

In rural Hawai‘i, a teenage girl must confront her father after he enters her beloved pet in a dogfight.

Full Circle Fellows
The Full Circle Fellowship Program, which began in 2014 with support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, is a year-long program for 18-24 year-old Native filmmakers from New Mexico and Michigan. The Fellows receive an immersive experience in the world of independent film and attend screenings, participate in guided film discussions, and connect with leaders of the Indigenous film community. The Fellowship—which has its launch at the Festival—focuses on developing these Native youth filmmakers through workshops and training opportunities, and links talented young storytellers to education and career pathways across fields of independent filmmaking, using structural strategies where Native communities heal by telling their own stories.

Mandolin Eisenberg (Taos Pueblo) is a mixed-media artist. Since starting college she has focused her efforts on film. From a young age Mandolin has been inspired by creation, initially taking up drawing and then discovering a love for writing. Her passion for writing and art turned into a deep love for stories and storytelling. As a filmmaker and storyteller, Mandolin hopes to create new realities that will impact the world. Mandolin currently attends the University of New Mexico, where she studies in the Interdisciplinary Film and Digital Media Program with a concentration in Directing and Writing.

Kaitlin Lenhard (Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians) is a recent graduate of Michigan State University with degrees in Media and Information, and Global Studies in the Arts and Humanities. Kaitlin’s film interests are largely centered in film language and how film language can be used as a bridge for Indigenous communities that have been denied their languages through colonization.

Nick Sowmick (Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe), 18, is a student at Beal City High School in Mount Pleasant, Michigan. His interests include listening to music, watching and making films, and helping his local and tribal community.

Joseph Ernest Wemigwans (Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe), 18, has loved films all his life and, especially, paying attention to the details of how they are crafted.

Time Warner Fellows
Jhane Myers (Comanche/Blackfeet), Time Warner Story Fellowship

Jhane Myers (Comanche/Blackfeet) is a Time Warner Native Producing Fellow in the Native American and Indigenous Program at the Sundance Institute. She was selected for the Fellowship with the project Words From A Bear, a documentary currently being directed by Jeffrey Palmer (Kiowa) on the life of Pulitzer prize winning Kiowa author N. Scott Momaday (House Made of Dawn; The Way To Rainy Mountain). The film is slated for broadcast in 2019 on PBS’ American Masters. Myers served as an associate producer on the documentary film, LaDonna Harris Indian 101, about acclaimed Comanche activist LaDonna Harris, which aired on PBS in 2014. And, she served as Associate Producer on Defending the Fire, a documentary about Native American warriors currently playing the film festival circuit. Early in her career, Myers established herself as a great cultural and community resource for Native-content projects being produced by networks and studios including: Monsters of God (Plan B/TNT); Magnificent Seven (MGM/Columbia Pictures); Wind River (Weinstein Co.); The Lone Ranger (Walt Disney/Jerry Bruckheimer Films); And, Apocalypto (Icon Ent/Touchstone). After working with so many non-Native created projects about Native people, Myers began to seek out a producing career to support Native filmmakers and storytellers to help bring their stories to fruition. She is a recipient of the 2018 Time Warner Story Fellowship.

Jennifer Akana Sturla (Kanaka Maoli), Time Warner Producer Fellowship

Filmmaker Jennifer Akana Sturla was Born to a Hawaiian beauty queen and an aerospace engineer from New Jersey. Jennifer’s film work has frequently examined her Native Hawaiian heritage and her USC thesis film Kamea won top prizes including Best Short at the Hawai‘i International Film Festival. Subsequent projects have included shorts, a narrative feature developed by Sony Pictures, and a feature documentary on Native Hawaiian singer-songwriter Israel “IZ” Kamakawiwo‘ole, currently in production. Jennifer has spent over twenty years working in film and television. In addition to filmmaking, she currently teaches production at California State University, Northridge and UCLA Extension. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in literature from the University of California, Santa Cruz and her Master of Fine Arts in film and television production from the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts. She is the recipient of the 2018 Time Warner Native Producer Fellowship with her project The Untitled “IZ” Project.
Lauren Monroe, Jr. (Blackfeet), Time Warner Producer Fellowship

Lauren Monroe Jr. is an accomplished visual artist, filmmaker, and enrolled member of the Blackfeet Tribe. He is currently in development on the six-part docuseries Horse Nations with ZPZ Productions (Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown, Mind of a Chef, MeatEater). He previously worked on the films Walking Out, The Ballad Of Lefty Brown, and 2016 Oscar Nominee Winter Light. He currently serves as the Cultural Coordinator for the Indigenous Masters of Education program at the University of Calgary, and is producing his directorial debut Kills Last – a post-apocalyptic thriller based on traditional tribal coup stories and told primarily in the Blackfeet language. He earned his MFA in Screenwriting through the Institute of American Indian Art in Santa Fe. He is the recipient of the 2018 Time Warner Producer Fellowship with the project Horse Nations.

Merata Mita Fellowship
At the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, Sundance Institute will announce the recipient of our annual Fellowship named in honor of the late Māori filmmaker Merata Mita, New Zealand's first Indigenous female filmmaker. In addition to being a global advocate for Indigenous voices, Merata was a trusted Creative Advisor and Artistic Director at the Native Lab, and a dear friend to the Institute. The Merata Mita Fellowship is supported by the Consulate General of Canada, Indigenous Media Initiatives, Anonymous, Fenton Bailey and Billy Luther, and Sarah Luther. Each year Sundance Institute identifies a Native or Indigenous filmmaker from a global pool of nominees to award a cash grant and provide a year-long continuum of support with activities including a trip to the Sundance Film Festival, access to strategic and creative services offered by Sundance Institute artist programs, and mentorship opportunities.

The Fellowship honoree will be announced Monday, January 22nd.

Additional Fellows
These Fellows are being supported with grants and fellowships from other programs within Sundance Institute and the Native American and Indigenous Program.

Zack Khalil (Ojibway), The Art of Nonfiction Fellowship

Adam Shingwak Khalil (Ojibway), The Art of Nonfiction Fellowship

Razelle Benally (Diné/Lakota), Feature Film Development Fellowship

Philip Sanchez (San Felipe Pueblo), Rauschenberg Fellowship, Sundance Documentary Film Program

Sky Bruno (Kanaka Maoli), Ignite Fellowship

http://www.sundance.org/blogs/program-spotlight/8-indigenous-made-films-premiering-at-the-2018-sundance-film-festival