Review of DVD “Homeland: Four Portraits of Native Action”
By Faye Hadley, Native American Resources/Reference Law Librarian
“Homeland: Four Portraits of Native Action” takes an in-depth look at an often overlooked area of environmental issues that threaten Indian nations, and focuses on a handful of activists who are leading the fight to protect their homelands. This story hasn’t gotten a lot of attention, except for ANWR (Arctic National Wildlife Refuge), but the threats to the environment among those who have been living in this country since time immemorial are immense. Nearly all 317 reservations in the U.S. sit on land that has been denigrated by everything from toxic waste and nuclear contamination to strip mining and oil drilling. This environmental devastation threatens to worsen with the heightened efforts of multi-national energy companies, and with current government efforts to dismantle thirty years of environmental laws.
This compelling documentary is filmed in some of the most beautiful parts of this country: Montana, Alaska, New Mexico, and Maine. It tells the stories of four Native activists who are fighting corporate interests to protect their homelands from environmental degradation. The first story focuses on Gail Small, an attorney and a member of the Northern Cheyenne Nation and a resident of Montana. Ms. Small is leading the campaign against 75,000 proposed methane gas wells that threaten to make much of the reservation unsuitable for farming or ranching.
The second story features Evon Peters, the Chief of Arctic Village, a remote community located 75 miles north of the Arctic Circle. Mr. Peters is a member of the Gwich’in Nation and is leading the fight against drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). ANWR is home to the Porcupine Caribou herd that provides Mr. Peters’ people with their sustenance, and the impact of drilling would severely disturb the calving grounds of the herd. Never mind the fact that the oil that could be gained from drilling in ANWR could be saved if all cars would just drive on properly inflated tires.
The third part of this film tells the story of a Navajo family who reluctantly got involved in fighting uranium mining companies that are threatening to spoil the groundwater under their community in this very arid part of the southwestern United States. Mitchell and Rita Capitan live in Crownpoint, NM and have witnessed the toll that uranium mining has taken on members of their community. Statistics such as Navajos who live near mines have a 28 times greater chance of developing lung cancer than the general population are part of the reason this Navajo family has taken up this fight.
The final portion of this documentary tells about Barry Dana, the former chief of the Penobscot Nation in Maine, who is battling state government and the paper companies that have left his people unable to fish or swim in or harvest medicinal plants from the river on which they¹ve depended for over 10,000 years.
These stories are important to all Americans who care about the state of the land, water, and air that we all depend on for survival. This film was directed by Roberta Grossman and produced by Katahdin Foundation, whose motto is ''changing the world one frame at a time,'' This excellent documentary also enlisted the aid of several leading American Indian environmental activists. Winona LaDuke, Anishinaabeg of the Honor the Earth Foundation and Tom Goldtooth, Dine/Dakota from the Indigenous Environmental Network, assisted with planning and production. This DVD is available from the Circulation Desk at call number E 98 .W3 G76 2005. Just ask for the video on Native activists or by name, “Homeland.” Watch, learn, and enjoy!