Native Horse Now Airing on PBS
Nupa & Zuya Whiteplume, Pine Ridge SD.
Hau Everyone,
We hope this finds you well.
NATIVE HORSE — BACK STORY ON FILMS CREATION.
Alex White Plume (traditional Lakota, leader of the Sitanka Wokiksuye Tiospaye, and a creator of the Bigfoot Memorial Ride to Wounded Knee) explains how reconnecting with the Horse Nation helped the Lakota people return to their spiritual and cultural ways after the 1973 Goon Wars on Pine Ridge Reservation. “Native Horse” joins the sacred memorial ride to Wounded Knee, where riders travel through blinding snowstorms and harsh conditions to honor their ancestors and way of life, empowering themselves and the Lakota Nation.
Tokala Black Elk (a direct descendent of the Lakota wičháša wakȟáŋ (Holy Man) Black Elk) brings incredible Lakota knowledge, language and history in his deep Oglala voice and storytelling. Having grown up on Pine Ridge, Oglala Nation in South Dakota,
Tokala knows the beauty and tragedy of Rez life. Between Alex White Plume (Sitanka Wokiksuye Tiospaye), Tokala, and Karen Ducheneaux of the Tatanka Wakpala, reflecting on the 1973 Goon Wars and how the Rides to Wounded Knee helped to revive the Nation, this film gives the viewer an immersive sense of being there as we hear from people who actually lived it! These people share from the heart and soul. Producer Kleinert had the honor to work with Alex, Karen & Tokala 20 years earlier on his film “Spirit Riders: Riding to Mend The Sacred Hoop.” To have made sacred horse journeys with these people and documented their stories while riding across Lakota country seems to take us right there beside them.
Jill Momaday, Associate Producer for “Native Horse,” is a Kiowa Producer/Director. Her film “Return to Rainy Mountain” won numerous awards and features her father, Dr. N. Scott Momaday. Jill offered tremendous insight into some of Scott’s greatest writings and poems. Dr. Momaday’s contribution to Horse Nation and our higher consciousness is so eloquently explained by him in his interview in “Native Horse.”
"Native Horse" was inspired and created by the authentic, lived experiences of Lakota Elders, knowledge keepers, and horse people—Alex White Plume, Tokala Black Elk, and Karen Ducheneaux, among others. Producer James Anaquad Kleinert first became close with Alex, Karen, and Tokala in the 1990s and early 2000s, having joined them on the sacred Bigfoot Memorial Ride to Wounded Knee several times. These Lakota people were entirely at ease in their interviews, speaking authentically and powerfully as they shared their perspectives about the issues they see as most important to the story of "Native Horse.”
The narrative of "Native Horse" is told through the lens of traditional Indigenous knowledge of the Tribal people of the Great Plains, as well as through the lens of the Western scientific method. Paleontologists are starting to reach conclusions similar to traditional Lakota knowledge, albeit through their very different Western scientific methods. "Native Horse" shows the differences and overlaps in these two ways of learning, understanding, and passing on valuable information.
Indigenous Elders and horse people have very important roles in the development and production of “Native Horse.” For years, Producer James Anaquad Kleinert joined horseback rides to Wounded Knee and Sacred Sites, where he heard Elders tell stories of how the Horse had always been with the Lakota people. Later, conversing with his Elders, they decided it was time for a film showing how Horses are Native. Talking with Saginaw Grant, Floyd Red Crow Westerman, N. Scott Momaday and Charlotte Black Elk they expressed that “Empowering the O’yate, the Native people, would require returning to Horse Culture and great Native History! It will provide so much good to both people and horses.”
Trailers for Native Horse:
About the Filmmaker:
Native Horse is a stand-alone episode from Producer/Director/Cinematographer/Writer James Anaquad Kleinert's (Onondaga)investigative films on America's Wild Horses. Kleinert's internationally award-winning documentaries explore American Indian culture, Western environmentalism, activism, and spirituality. Kleinert takes a stand for wildlife species and environmental, constitutional, and American Indian rights. His Federal court victory in Kleinert v. Bureau of Land Management showed the vast amount of surveillance he was under as he exposed brutal crimes committed against America's Wild Horses & Burros on public lands. Kleinert v. BLM set important precedent for future cases involving public records. Kleinert's award-winning series Mustangs & Renegades is available https://www.jamesanaquadkleinert.com/films/mustangsandrenegades. This hard-hitting investigative film series features Sheryl Crow, Viggo Mortensen, and Willie Nelson. Kleinert is the author of No Country For Truth Tellers, available on Amazon.
Mitakuye Oyasin,
James.