NAPT is proud to support ITVS' national Community Cinema screenings of the acclaimed documentary Reel Injun, coming to over 75 cities across the U.S. in October 2010.

About Reel Injun: On the Trail of the Hollywood Indian by Neil Diamond:

Kemosabe? Loincloths, fringed pants, and feather headdresses? Heap big stereotypes. Reel Injun is an entertaining trip through the evolution of North American Native people ("The Indians") as portrayed in famous Hollywood movies, from the silent era to today. Jim Jarmusch, Clint Eastwood, Graham Greene, John Trudell and others provide insights into the often demeaning and occasionally hilariously absurd stereotypes perpetuated on the big screen through Hollywood's history.

Community Cinema is a groundbreaking public education and civic engagement initiative featuring free monthly screenings of films from the Emmy Award-winning PBS series Independent Lens. Presented by ITVS in partnership with leading community organizations and public television stations across the country, Community Cinema brings community members together to learn, discuss and get involved in a range of timely and compelling issues.

To find a Community Cinema event near you and to learn more about the film and the issues, visit http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/reel-injun/getinvolved.html.

Reel Injun will have its broadcast premiere in November 2010 (check local listings) on the PBS series Independent Lens.

"Crazy Horse" (Bone Days)

"Other Close Times" (Bone Days)

"Baby Boom Che" (AKA Grafitti Man)

For years, missionaries and the following tidal wave of white settlers attempted to prevent Native Tribes of the Northwest from playing their "hand game." The game, also called "stick game" or "bone game," is a game of chance played for generations by many Tribes.

In his film Hand Game: The Native North American Game of Power and Chance, filmmaker Lawrence Johnson documents the game on a number of Indian Reservations across the Northwest--both as it is played currently and as the mythic and historic roots of contemporary gambling in Indian Country. By foregoing traditional narration and allowing the colorful, engaging players of the game to share their stories instead, viewers experience how hand game is woven into the larger cultural tapestry. It is a tapestry that binds not only a Tribe's people together, but Tribes to one another to create a greater sense of Indian identity.

In an alternate world, where Native traditions were shared more easily in the dominant culture, one could easily imagine hand game being broadcast on ESPN, similar to the World Series of Poker Tour. Players wearing blank expressions and sunglasses indoors would be replaced with the great energy of Native music, song and dance; the bright and busy backdrops of casinos would be replaced with the beauty and life of a different Indian Reservation for each match.

However, that remains a fantasy--for now. But that only makes hand game all the more relevant. For generations, hand game served to bring people together in peace while reminding them of the lesson implicit in the game--while you are sometimes granted temporary mastery over the game, like life, hand game remains mostly chance.

Hand game continues to instruct and bind, but now it provides something extra--it provides a way for Indians to shrug off the forces of assimilation, preserve their culture and ways of thinking, and re-assert their "Indianness." And this makes hand game all the richer.

Save 20% on Hand Game, this month only!

Home Version | Educational Version

AIROS Audio's NS-NV will be hosting a Hand Game audio segment on September 30. Be sure to catch us on airos.org from 8-10 a.m. CT or local in Lincoln, Nebraska, on 89.3 FM KZUM!