Jesse Short Bull and Laura Tomaselli’s documentary “Lakota Nation vs. United States” chronicles the Lakota Indians’ enduring quest to reclaim South Dakota’s Black Hills, sacred land stolen by the American government beginning in 1876.
Divided into three sections: extermination, assimilation and reparations, the two-hour docu is told from the point of the Lakota people and recounts how the Black Hills were taken in violation of various treaty agreements while the Indigenous community who lived there was simultaneously exploited and displaced. In addition to covering the ongoing fight to reclaim control of the Black Hills, the docu investigates the many ways that the U.S. has ignored, overlooked and failed to grapple with the historical wrongs done to Indigenous communities across the country.
“This is a story about enduring Lakota resistance and existence, but it’s also a conversation with the present,” says Tomaselli, who co-wrote “MLK/FBI.” “History repeats itself until we actually learn the history.”
The Lakota history is not taught in classrooms, which makes the beautifully crafted docu essential viewing. The film highlights various atrocities including Pres. Abraham Lincoln’s ordered execution of 38 Indigenous men following the Dakota War of 1862, also known as the Sioux Uprising, a six-week conflict against white settlers after the U.S. broke a promise to deliver food and supplies to local tribes in exchange for the surrender of tribal land. The doc also recounts how Indigenous children were forcibly removed from their homes and communities and sent to government-run boarding schools in an attempt to erase Native American culture.
“As a member of the Oglala Tetonowan Oyate, and employee of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, I bear witness to the efforts of people committed to getting the Black Hills back,” says Short Bull. “From the humblest of dreams, to the dedicated government-to-government conversations, I believe it is time to tell the story of America’s longest running failure to do the right thing.”
After it premiered at Tribeca Festival in 2022, IFC Films acquired North American rights to “Lakota Nation vs. United States.” The film opens in theaters on July 14.
Variety spoke to Short Bull, Tomaselli and “Lakota Nation vs. United States” executive producer Mark Ruffalo about the documentary prior to the SAG-AFTRA strike.
Is it fair to say that this is a call to action film?
Tomaselli: I would say, heck yeah. Absolutely. This film is a call to action because it’s clear that the government only acts to change the status quo or to do anything when its feet are held to the fire a bit. What’s happening with CRT (Critical Race Theory) across the country, I think that it’s time to take a stand and say that this history exists. It is real. Knowing about it matters so that we can shape our future in a less oblivious, less harmful way towards our relationship with the people that were here first.
Short Bull: This film is a very effective tool to educate people. A lot of America doesn’t realize the brutal assimilation that a lot of our generations of Indigenous people here had to endure. So it is a call of action, and that call of action is a better quality of life for our tribal members. We also need to really look at the place that we live, Mother Earth, in a different way. (We need to take) greater responsibility and more great care of it because this is our home, and we are a part of it. We are not above it.
Mark, you have been a long time advocate of the Lakota people. When and how did that relationship start?
Ruffalo: It probably started when we were fighting fracking. That’s when I was introduced to some of the elders. Then, I ended up at Standing Rock and I really learned a lot there. I developed relationships and I really got a deep dive on their history, which we are just not taught. Everyone had a boarding school story. I had no idea that there were these boarding schools, that was just shocking to me. So, I want help in any way that I can.
Laura, in addition to co-directing the film, you also edited it. How did you decide to split it into three sections: extermination, assimilation, reparation?
Tomaselli: I think for both Jesse and myself, those three words arose organically out of the material. There was a certain amount of putting the story together chronologically, and then allowing the themes to dictate where we moved things, where we broke chronology, and where we connected the past and the present. Those words are certainly powerful words, but they’re apt in terms of what happened in those chapters.
Throughout the film the poet, Layli Long Soldier, reads excerpts from her work onscreen and in voiceover. Her words and her voice are so powerful. How did you decide that she should narrate the doc?
Because we were trying to condense this enormous amount of information into two hours, I knew that we were going to have to lean on newscasters because a lot of times as an editor, you can get that exposition in 30 seconds with a newscaster. So we really wanted to show (Long Soldier) as a visual counterpart to all these white guys that would be walking us through this film. We knew that her voice would be able to guide us, but we also wanted to see her framed as our newscaster.
It’s been a tough few years for independent docs, but despite the gloomy distribution landscape, you found a partner in IFC. Mark, as an executive producer did you navigate the sale of the film?
No one is doing anyone any favors these days, especially because the competition is so fierce, and the space allotted for documentaries is so tight. All I can say is we got into Tribeca on the virtue and the strength of the doc and the cultural moment we are in. This is an important moment culturally for America to reckon with this past. The culture is meeting this film with this desire to learn. We are only as good as our understanding of ourselves, and that goes for human beings and that goes for an entire nation. So me being executive producer might shortlist it on who’s going to watch it and how much attention they are going to give it.
But at the end of the day, no one is doing any favors in this business. A film has to be freakin’ good, and this film rises to that level. I didn’t have to push this film. This film is a locomotion unto itself.
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