Native America

Celebrate the power of Native languages and the inspirational people who are saving them. From secret recordings to "Star Wars" films dubbed in Navajo, follow the revolutionary steps transforming Native America.

May the Fourth is a special night at the West Winds Drive-In in Glendale Arizona where Manny Wheeler is screening Star Wars, dubbed into Navajo. It's one of many innovative ways of preserving Native languages.

Donald Soctomah and Dwayne Tomah are on a mission to keep the Passamaquoddy language alive and get back stolen land. They will be aided by a remarkable discovery - 130-year-old recordings on wax cylinders.

Native women are leading, innovating, and inspiring in the arts, politics, and protecting the planet. Native America explores the diverse ways they carry forward deep traditions to better their communities, their lands, and the world.

By embracing her Native identity, Jamie Okuma is breaking down the barriers between Indigenous and mainstream art. Jamie’s work is both high fashion and fine art. Her boots and clothing can be found in the pages of fashion magazines, in major museums, and on the red carpet.

Across Native America, warrior traditions support incredible athletes and connect people to combat, games, and glory. Celebrate and honor the men and women who live and breathe this legacy today.

18-year-old Mariah Bahe, seven time national amateur boxing champion, taps into warrior spirit to achieve her dream of serving in the military and representing the US and Navajo Nation in the Olympics.

Henry Red Cloud is creating a sustainable solar powered housing for the Lakota Pine Ridge Reservation using modern materials but based on the design of traditional tipi communities.

Native innovators lead a revolution in music, building, and space exploration. From the surface of Mars to the New York City hip hop scene to the Pine Ridge Reservation, Native traditions are transforming life on Earth and other worlds.

In a club in Brooklyn, Bear Witness and Tim 2oolman Hill, the duo behind The Halluci Nation, an electronic music group, are putting a new spin on a traditional beat and taking power over how they represent themselves and Indigenous people.

NASA engineer Aaron Yazzie and Navajo master weaver TahNibaa Naataanii reflect on the role of weaving in the birth of the universe at the place where it all began: Spider Rock, a holy monument at the heart of sacred Canyon de Chelly.

Manny Wheeler fights to preserve his people's language by dubbing popular movies like "Star Wars" into Navajo. In looking for their next project, he and his partners turn to westerns, a genre that has a history of misrepresenting Native peoples as primitive, vicious, and violent. "A Fistful of Dollars," the film that launched the Spaghetti Western is about to become the first Frybread Western.