Narrative Summary
More About Indian Country
The arc of our story takes the audience from the nadir of Native nations at the beginning of the reservation period to the resurgence of Native sovereignty in the last thirty years of the 20th century. The principal themes of the series—the image of the American Indian, the pressure for assimilation, the intersection of white and Native America and the meaning of sovereignty—run through each episode.
Episode One - Civilization
Episode One covers the bleak years around the turn of the century when it seems that Native American nations may not survive. The “civilization campaign” is designed to make Indians behave like white Europeans by taking their children away to boarding schools and dividing their reservations into individual land holdings. Against the backdrop of the great waves of immigration and rapid national expansion, American Indian lives are devalued and their traditions suppressed. But by the end of World War I, there are more Native Americans being born than dying – and reservations have become the seedbed for innovation and the growth of sovereignty.
Episode Two - Confidence
Episode Two chronicles the critical period from 1920 to the end of World War II when Native intellectuals participate in creating new ideas about culture. At the beginning of the 1920s, Europeans are still assumed to have the best “civilization.” But anthropologists challenge that idea and replace it with the more egalitarian notion that all peoples have cultures and all those cultures have equal value. By the time the Great Depression comes, Native nations are held in higher esteem and are prepared to take advantage of the new programs of the New Deal: loans, land acquisition, the return of traditional language and culture in schools. In World War II, American Indian soldiers again prove their courage and patriotism in combat. After the war, there is no longer any doubt that Native reservations and culture will survive and even flourish in the 20th century.
Episode Three - Generations
In Episode Three, American Indians create a new era of activism. From the end of World War II to the seizure of Wounded Knee in 1973, three generations of activists draw on the strength of the New Deal years to organize businesses, lobbies and protest demonstrations. The seizure of Alcatraz Island, Mount Rushmore, the Bureau of Indian Affairs building in Washington and Wounded Knee still dominate the memory of that period. But the more prosaic activism may be what lasts: creating jobs and community colleges on reservations, building a legal rights network through Native America, reasserting land claims and religious freedoms.
Episode Four - Who Am I...
In Episode Four, the last thirty years, Native Americans reassert their sovereignty over their own resources and lives. In one example after another, we see the Mohawks defend their right to clean water, the Makah defend their right to subsistence hunting, Pequots create casino gambling and the Maidus assert their right to their own graves. As W. Richard West, director of the National Museum of the American Indian says, “We’re here and we’re not leaving anytime soon.” The episode ends with a look to the future, toward the true meaning of sovereignty for Native nations and where it may take both white and Native America.