BRING THEM HOME: Aiskótáhkapiyaaya
A Remarkable New Documentary film from Ivan and Ivy MacDonald
Last night for the MINT (Montana International Film Festival) opening night, they showed the latest film from two filmmakers who are quickly making a name for themselves as world class talents. And the best part is that they are Montana born and raised.
Ivan and Ivy MacDonald are members of the Blackfeet tribe, born and raised on the reservation. They now live in Billings when they’re out interviewing subjects for their next film or hanging out at George Lucas’s Skywalker Ranch, where Ivan got a fellowship to help finish the editing on this film.
BRING THEM HOME tells the complicated and long process that the Blackfeet tribe has gone through to try and bring a herd of buffalo back onto the reservation. Two reservations, actually, as the Blackfoot reservation just across the border in Canada has been working sometimes on their own and sometimes in conjunction with their American relatives to try and bring the buffalo back to the land where they once roamed in massive numbers.
The MacDonalds are master storytellers, and after a short but comprehensive account of how the government made a concerted effort to wipe out most of the buffalo in our region in order to hurry along their agenda of killing off the Native American tribes who were getting in the way of Western progress, they smoothly segue into the movement to bring them back, which started in earnest about forty years ago, and has run into several of the same roadblocks you would expect. Mostly government intervention, but also some resistance within their own tribe, where just like any group of people, change isn’t always readily embraced.
The MacDonalds were able to interview most of the major players as the two tribes made one attempt after another to figure out a way to make space for even a very small herd in a place where much of the income that comes into the tribe comes from leasing the land to cattle ranchers.
This film is so well written and edited, with fantastic images from one of the most magnificent parts of our state. It doesn’t hurt that the film is narrated by recent Academy Award nominee Lily Gladstone, a member of the Blackfeet tribe herself. You can feel how important this story is to the history of her people in her voice. And the music is also fabulous.
When the powers that be finally agreed to give up the lease agreements on a tract of land called Chief Mountain, which is partly reservation land and partly Glacier Park land, the scenes they shoot there are absolutely gorgeous.
And if you are able to watch the scene where they finally released a small herd into that lush countryside without shedding a tear, especially after you’ve watched the years and years of effort it took to accomplish that objective, your heart would have to be, in the words of Dr. Seuss, two sizes too small.
Sadly, this film is not yet available for streaming, but the minute it is, I would strongly encourage you to track it down and soak it up. In the meantime, you can’t go wrong with viewing some of their earlier documentaries, which include Blackfeet Boxing and Murder in the Bighorn.
You can also hear the interview I did with Ivan and Ivy a few months ago here:
Im really looking forward to seeing this doc.
Oh I can't wait to see this. Please let us know as soon as you hear when/where it will be streaming?