Preserving Native American Cultures: A Documentary Analysis

Native Americans have been fighting to keep their culture since the beginning of their contact with settlers in America. For this assignment, I watched the documentary, "Horse Tribe", and the documentary, "Language Healers". Both documentaries were made in 2014 and they both talked about different tribes trying to regain a sense of their culture. For the purposes of this assignment, I will analyze the different documentaries and assess the struggles that each group faced in their efforts to preserve their cultures.

Alcohol and drug use are the roots of all the problems that most Native Americans are faced with. As we found out in the reading of Lakota Woman, Mary Crow Dog mentions that the reason most Indians drink is that they "want to forget". They want to forget about the atrocities that have befallen them, as a result of white people. In the documentary,

He mentioned numerous times throughout the documentary that he wanted to stop drinking, however, he was never able to. The event that was a major turning point for him was when he got a DUI. As a result of this, he was kicked off the program. As a result of his departure, the Nez Pierce Horse Registry was forced to undergo a major change; they were forced to sell all of their horses to make ends meet. The original goal of the Nez Pierce Horse Registry, as stated by Rudy, was "to teach the Nez Pierce kids about horsemanship; get them back to their roots". There was an even deeper meaning to the program; it saved kids from alcohol and drugs. One volunteer mentioned that he grew up in a very bad area; drug dealers were very prevalent, and alcohol was a constant problem. It was implied in the documentary that the reason kids got into trouble was that