American Indian Homelands documentary shown as part of Indigenous Peoples Day events

Last Thursday the documentary “American Indian Homelands: Matters of Truth, Honor and Dignity” was shown in the Ostrander Theater as part of a series of events around Indigenous Peoples Day sponsored by the Indian Affairs and Multicultural Affairs Office.

”We’ve been talking about Columbus history for a long time, but we haven’t really been talking about Indigenous history for a long time. There are a lot of people who don’t know the history of this land, the history of our country and so it’s important for people to know that there’s various perspectives to this world and to be able to learn about those perspectives,” said Megan Heutmaker, Director of Indian Affairs and Multicultural Affairs.

The documentary covers the extensive legal history of Native American land ownership, highlights the various injustices faced by Native Americans when it comes to their ability to own land and the bureaucratic and legal challenges they face when managing the land they do own.

“There are policies that the federal government controls that would be important for people to read and look at and learn about, that talk about Indigenous land ownership and community, indigenous community land ownership,” said Heutmaker.

One of those policies according to “American Indian Homelands” is the policy that the U.S. government can legally seize lands held by Native Americans.

“The law provides that the federal government can absolutely take Indian land at will, without paying any compensation, without due process of law, for any reason whatsoever. Now the federal government can’t do that to anyone else in the United States, only an Indian tribe,” said Robert Coulter, Executive Director of the Indian Law Resource Center in Helena, Montana, in “American Indian Homelands.”

Another issue covered by the film is the various bureaucratic issues surrounding Native American land ownership, such the problems around inheritance and the extensive time the Bureau of Indian Affairs can take when it comes to releasing Native American land held in probate to the rightful heirs. In certain cases covered by “American Indian Homelands,” family members had been waiting decades and the BIA still had not released the property from probate.

Another example of the bureaucratic problems faced by Native Americans regarding land ownership is the issue of parceling where certain tracts of land can wind up having large number of co-owners leading to issues where decisions regarding how that land is to be managed or utilized can become almost impossible.

The film also covered ways that Native Americans are trying to reclaim ownership of their own lives and property such as building and operating casinos as well as filing the class action lawsuit Cobell vs. Norton. In that case the plaintiffs allege the government owes them and their heirs $137 billion.

After the showing of “American Indian Homelands,” Heutmaker asked people to ask questions or share what they found surprising. The fact that a large amount of land on reservations is not directly owned by Native American tribes or individuals is one issue that was cited as being surprising by one student.

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