Common Read 2022: Braiding Sweetgrass

"In this conversation, David Begay invites us to understand Navajo ways of knowing. David describes a worldview that is place-based, emphasizes kinship and connection, and intimately orients the human within an interrelated and unified cosmos." Directed by Patsy Northcutt. Music Video Distributors, 2013. (Video, ~32 minutes)

Four part video series on Native American history from "before and since contact with Europe. It travels through 15,000-years to showcase massive cities, unique systems of science, art, and writing, and 100 million people connected by social networks and spiritual beliefs spanning two continents." Directed by Scott Tiffany and Gary Glassman. Public Broadcasting Service, 2018. Four part video series:
From Caves to Cosmos (54 minutes), Nature to Nations(54 minutes), Cities of the Sky (54 minutes), New World Rising (54 minutes)

"Buried Stories reveals the life story of a Native American (Ohlone/Esselen) Ella Rodriguez, who, in her seventies, still resents that she was taken from her rural California home at age thirteen and sent to an Indian boarding school. After running away from the school and becoming ensnared in the juvenile justice system, she was forced into marriage by a parole officer at eighteen, then labored as a migrant worker. In the 1970s, when Ella was 44, she protested for weeks to stop the destruction of a Native American cemetery site and dedicated her life to preserving her heritage." Directed by Julie Kirkenslager and Emily Wick. Filmakers Library, 2009. (Video, 34 minutes)

"This unique and engaging documentary explores the extraordinary diversity and profound contemporary relevance of Native American storytelling. A feast for the eyes, ears, and mind, the film presents eight varied stories from the four directions and seasons. The collection includes "How and Why" stories, teachings from Spirit mentors, lessons in traditional ways, and instructions for environmental preservation." Directed by Hank Rogerson and Jilann Spitzmiller. Berkeley Media, 2012. (Video, 1 hour 37 minutes)

"Native Americans from Maine to Washington State convened for a conference at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian. Their goal: to discuss the effects of climate change on tribal communities." NewsHour Productions, 2012. (Video, 8 minutes)

"On the banks of Louisiana, fierce Indigenous women are ready to fight—to stop the corporate blacksnake and preserve their way of life. They are risking everything to protect Mother Earth from the predatory fossil fuel companies that seek to poison it." Directed by Sam Vinal. Mutual Aid Media, 2019. (Video, 24 minutes)

"This presentation highlights the life journey of the author [Carolyn Barkus] from her reservation home to her current position of elder and mentor to ethnic minority graduate students. Carolyn shares her lessons learned in twenty six years of training and mentoring American Indian and other ethnic minority graduate students to become psychologists. Those who return to serve ethnic minority communities are encouraged to focus on 'being' rather than 'doing'." Directed by Carolyn Barkus. Microtraining Associates, 2011. (Video, 48 minutes)

"It’s a family reunion … what could go wrong? Plenty, as we soon learn when Rita Davern exposes an ugly reality at the heart of a family legend. Her family members have always been proud to say that their great grandparents once owned Pike Island, a beautiful piece of land at the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers. But when Rita relates what happened to the people who lived there before, some family members react with understanding, others with arguments and anger. Rita’s attempts to understand what happened and why leads her on a journey that requires facing the complicated legacy of westward expansion in the U.S. Along the way she meets Ramona, a Dakota educator. What Ramona’s ancestors experienced because of U.S. government policies puts faces and names on this story. Rita listens and learns. She wants to find a way to put something right. We learn the value of finding and facing the past by watching her journey." Directed by Rita Davern and Melody Gilbert. Collective Eye Films, 2020. (Video, 58 minutes)