Documentary filmmaker J. Carlos Peinado embarks on a journey of self-discovery to his ancestral homeland in North Dakota. Living on a sailboat in California, he discovers he has become separated from his family home, his community and his American Indian identity. Having traveled through many worlds, far from the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, the filmmaker realizes he cannot choose the shape of his future until he understands and embraces the shape of his past. Tracing the footsteps of his maternal grandmother Elizabeth back to the reservation he encounters a multi-generational cast of characters. Through interviews with them he begins to understand the proud and resilient nature of his tribe, the Mandan/Hidatsa/Arikara Nation, their contributions to American culture and history, and their deep attachment to the harsh and storied landscape of the northwestern prairie—an attachment that has often come with a heavy price. He encounters the mournful optimism of his grandmother’s generation and learns more about the events of the 1940’s and 1950’s that impacted their lives: the building of the Army Corps of Engineers’ Garrison Dam that inundated a 156,000 fertile farming and ranching acres along the reservation’s Missouri River bottomlands, and the attempt by the federal government to eliminate sovereign Indian nations through a policy of termination and relocation. Ultimately this story is a confrontation with identity, a bi-cultural, hybrid identity of Indian and non-Indian, highlighting the universal struggle we all have in 21st century America to find a sense of place, a community and a home.

Forms: Documentary, Feature
Genres: Family, Educational, Western, Nature, Human Rights, Independent, Wildlife, Rejected, Environmental, Period/Historical, Culture, Spiritual
Niches: Native/Aboriginal Peoples, Native American