Native American Cultures Films

The cowboy's job has always been dangerous, lonely, dusty, gory and low-paying. So why do cowboys make music, and why do they need to tell their story? Why the Cowboy Sings is a…

This 1986 film examines the traditional Native American craft of split ash basketmaking as a means of economic and cultural survival for Aroostook Micmac Indians of northern…

An Onondaga father and son make lacrosse sticks in the traditional way.

Film student Arlene Bowman (Navajo) travels to the Reservation to document the traditional ways of her grandmother.

This classic, entertaining documentary on American traditional music features varied individuals and groups who have not become part of the “melting pot” of American society.

The powwow has become one of the most recognizable forms of Native American celebration today, and occurs in virtually every state in the U.S. But despite the many similarities…

Fiddlers and dancers from Native and Metis families of the northern United States and Canada carry on the musical traditions passed down from early settlers. The film weaves…

This documentary shows the inspiration behind Inuit sculpture. The Inuit approach to the work is to release the image the artist sees imprisoned in the rough stone. The film…

Jim Northrup: With Reservations is a half-hour portrait of the Anishinaabe / Ojibwe / Chippewa writer/activist from Naagajiwanaang (Fond du Lac) in northern Minnesota. A lively…

From The National Film Board of Canada. This classic short film shows how to make an igloo using only snow and a knife. Two Inuit men in Canada’s Far North choose the site, cut…

This short documentary offers a dizzying view of the Mohawk Indians of Kahnawake who work in Manhattan erecting the steel frames of skyscrapers.

Mino-bimadiziwin: The Good Life is an engaging portrait of a community on the White Earth reservation in Minnesota where the peoples' lives revolve around the annual harvest of…

The three day pageant celebrates the reconquest of New Mexico in 1692 by the Spanish over the Pueblo Indians. Interviews and scenes of Fiesta preparation, ultimately, raised…

This National Film Board of Canada documentary traces the history of the fiddle’s arrival in Canada 300 years ago via Scottish traders from Orkney Island.

This documentary shows how an Inuit artist's drawings are transferred to stone, printed and sold. Kenojuak Ashevak became the first woman involved with the printmaking…