{"id":4910,"date":"2012-11-21T21:26:30","date_gmt":"2012-11-21T21:26:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/blog\/?p=2411"},"modified":"2019-11-01T08:54:31","modified_gmt":"2019-11-01T16:54:31","slug":"eight-native-american-documentaries","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/blog\/eight-native-american-documentaries\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrate Native American Heritage Month with 8 Documentaries"},"content":{"rendered":"

November is Native American Heritage Month, but that wasn\u2019t always the case. At one point, it was a single day to honor Native American history, and before that, there was no official government recognition at all. The history of the day that became a month is actually quite interesting, first proposed by the Native American director of the <\/span>Museum of Arts and Science <\/span>as a way to recognize the significant contributions the first Americans made to the establishment and growth of the U.S. It was<\/span> adopted on a state by state basis for years, and wasn\u2019t until 1990 that it became a full heritage month. <\/span> Can read more about the history on the National Native American Heritage Month official site<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The following list of documentaries is by no means comprehensive, but it gives you a head start to understanding America\u2019s indigenous heritage as we encourage spending this month to reflect and acknowledge America\u2019s first peoples.<\/span><\/p>\n

[updated 11\/2019]<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

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A young Native American stuntman in training, from Reel Injun<\/p><\/div>\n

1.\u00a0We Shall Remain<\/a><\/em> (2009) directed by Chris Eyre, Ric Burns and Stanley Nelson<\/strong>
\nThis five-part American Experience<\/em> series shows how Native Americans have struggled for land from the 1600s to today. Around the time of the first Thanksgiving Dinner, the Wampanoags agreed to help the starving and sickly pilgrims. Decades later, the colonists battled against the Native Americans in a brutal war, the first of many.<\/p>\n