Native American Cultures Films

Elizabeth James-Perry's artwork is intimately tied to her Aquinnah Wampanoag tribal heritage. Her wampum belts are made using indigenous materials -- locally harvested, handspun…

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

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…

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…

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…

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

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…

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

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…

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…

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…

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 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…

Using only birchbark, cedar splints, spruce roots and gum, César Newashish, a 67 year old Attikamek of the Manawan Reserve demonstrates how to build a canoe the "old" way.