November is Native American Heritage Month — a time to celebrate rich and diverse cultures, traditions, and histories and to honor the important contributions of Native people. It’s also a time to acknowledge the unique challenges Native people have faced both historically and in the present, and the ways in which tribal citizens have worked to conquer these challenges. NEPM is committed to inclusion and representation in media. For Native American Heritage Month, we offer a diverse collection of programs on TV, radio and online. Enjoy!
WATCH
Local, USA
Scha'nexw Elhtal'nexw Salmon People: Preserving a Way of Life
Watch Monday, Nov. 4 at 8 p.m. on NEPM WORLD
Despite wildfire smoke and a depleting fishery, Lummi families fish for sockeye salmon. The film, which explores the deep spiritual and cultural connection between the Lummi and salmon, lifts values of respect, gratitude and sharing as they are passed onto the next generation. Through the Scha'nexw Elhtal'nexw, the Salmon People, we learn that protecting salmon and this lifeway is a full-time job.
Local, USA
Firelighters: Fire Is Medicine
Watch Monday, Nov. 18 at 8 p.m. on NEPM WORLD
For centuries, most landscapes in North America were shaped by fire between lightning strikes and Indigenous burns. Indigenous people had deep knowledge of the art of using fire, and still do today. Firelighters follows the work of women leaders from the Yurok and Karuk Tribes who are building resources to share indigenous practices and create policies to take back indigenous burning rights.
Battle Over Bears Ears
Watch Thursday, Nov. 21 at 10 p.m. on NEPM TV
Bears Ears National Monument, a remote section of land lined with red cliffs and filled with juniper and sage, is at the center of a fight over who has a say in how Western landscapes are protected and managed.
Awakening in Taos: The Mabel Dodge Luhan Story
Watch Thursday, Nov. 28 at 10 p.m. on NEPM TV
Mabel Dodge was an independently wealthy writer, early feminist, social activist, and champion for women and native America rights. In 1917 she moved from Greenwich Village to Taos, New Mexico where she met and eventually married Tony Lujan a full blooded Tiwa Indian from Taos Pueblo. She was responsible for bringing major modern artists to New Mexico including Georgia O'Keeffe, Ansel Adams, and D.H. Lawrence.
STREAM
POV: Twice Colonized
Aaju Peter is a renowned Inuit lawyer and activist who defends the human rights of Indigenous peoples. She's a fierce protector of her ancestral lands in the Arctic and works to bring her colonizers to justice. As Aaju launches an inspiring effort to establish an Indigenous forum, she also embarks upon a deeply personal journey to mend her own wounds, including the unexpected passing of her son.
Native America
Screen with NEPM Passport
Season 1 of Native America explores the world created by America’s First Peoples. It reached back 15,000 years to reveal massive cities aligned to the stars, unique systems of science and spirituality, and 100 million people connected by social networks spanning two continents. Season 2 reveals the beauty and power of today’s Indigenous world. Smashing stereotypes, it follows the brilliant engineers, bold politicians, and cutting-edge artists who draw upon Native tradition to build a better 21st century.
Little Bird
Stream with NEPM Passport
The award-winning Canadian drama Little Bird tells the story of Bezhig Little Bird, who was adopted into a Jewish family at the age of five, being stripped of her identity and becoming Esther Rosenblum. Now in her 20s and longing for the family she lost, she sets out to fill in the missing pieces. Her quest lands her in the Canadian prairies where she discovers that she was one of the generation of children forcibly apprehended by the Canadian government.
The American Buffalo
From Ken Burns, the biography of an improbable, shaggy beast that has found itself at the center of many of the country’s most mythic and heartbreaking tales. The series takes viewers on a journey through more than 10,000 years of North American history and across some of the continent’s most iconic landscapes, tracing the mammal’s evolution, its significance to the Great Plains and, most importantly, its relationship to the Indigenous People of North America.
American Masters: Buffy Sainte-Marie
Experience the story of the Oscar-winning Indigenous artist from her rise to prominence in New York’s Greenwich Village folk music scene through her six-decade groundbreaking career as a singer-songwriter, social activist, educator and artist.
Independent Lens: Attla
The gripping story of George Attla, a charismatic Alaska Native dogsled racer who, with one good leg and fierce determination, became a legendary sports hero in Northern communities around the world.
The Warrior Tradition
The largely-untold story of Native Americans in the United States military. Why would Indian men and women put their lives on the line for the very government that took their homelands? The film relates the stories of Native American warriors from their own points of view – stories of service and pain, of courage and fear.
POV: Standing Above the Clouds
Standing Above the Clouds follows Native Hawaiian mother-daughter activists as they stand to protect their sacred mountain Mauna Kea from the building of the world’s largest telescope.
PBS KIDS & PBS LEARNING MEDIA
Molly of Denali
Weekdays at 1 p.m. on NEPM TV
Molly of Denali is a PBS Kids action-adventure comedy that follows the adventures of feisty and resourceful 10-year-old Molly Mabray, an Alaska Native girl. It is the first nationally distributed children’s series in the U.S. to feature an Alaska Native lead character.
Crane Song: Molly of Denali Read Along from PBS KIDS
Molly of Denali's Berry Itchy Day Read Along with Yatibaey Evans from PBS KIDS
12 Books to Celebrate Native American and Alaska Native Heritage from PBS Parents
Native American Heritage Collection from PBS Learning Media
Find videos, lessons, and interactive activities for Native American Month from PBS Learning Media. Students grades 3–12 can learn about Native American art, history, and culture presented by historians, artists, students, and scientists.
American Experience: The Pilgrims
Alliance with Massasoit’s People and the First Thanksgiving
Native America: Nature to Nations
Early Democratic Principles
Native American Culture:
The Dreamcatcher