From Wounded Knee to Standing Rock

In 1973, rookie NPR reporter Kevin McKiernan became the only journalist to defy a FBI-imposed media blackout and embed himself with the members of the American Indian Movement who had taken over the historic village of Wounded Knee, South Dakota. From Wounded Knee to Standing Rock tells the story of that 71-day armed occupation through the voices of both the AIM members and FBI agents who lived it and shows how this event continues to reverberate through Native American-US government relations, up through the movement at Standing Rock against the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Forty years after Wounded Knee, McKiernan meets a Yurok fisherman in California who he had unwittingly photographed during the 10-week occupation, Willard Carlson. Becoming friends, the two men travel back to the Dakotas and then to the pipeline protests on the Standing Rock reservation where they begin to examine the legacy of 1970s activism by Native Americans. Meanwhile, McKiernan also launches a new investigation into the murder of his former roommate, Annie Mae Aquash, a Mi'kmaq Native from Nova Scotia who took part in the Wounded Knee uprising, and finds himself butting heads with the FBI again over their alleged practice of "snitch-jacketing" the Canadian woman as an informer. The story takes another unsettling turn when McKiernan confronts the founders of the Indian movement with alleged ties to her killing, a decision that threatens to undermine his status as a trusted outsider.

Featuring cinematography from seminal director of photography Haskell Wexler, the film situates the past 50 years of US policy towards tribes within the greater history of broken treaties and the genocide of indigenous people throughout North America. Shining renewed light on such events as the inception of the American Indian Movement, the FBI's COINTELPRO program, and the arrest and continued incarceration of of Leonard Peltier, From Wounded Knee to Standing Rock is a critical document of modern Native American history, told by those who made it happen.

FILMMAKER'S STATEMENT: "At its simplest, reporting struck me as an act of remembering what you saw on the other side of some mountain, then faithfully recounting it for people who couldn't make the trip. If I was going to keep doing this work, I knew I had to find a way to strengthen my purpose, not to flinch when I got close to what was real. To do this kind of thing, I sensed, I would have to find a 'low road' to travel, a path where I might witness things up close, away from official truths.

Most of all, I needed to honor the work I was choosing. The next time, I vowed, I would get the picture. And not put the camera down."

— Kevin McKiernan

Preview link available upon request. Contact [email protected] for more information

Documentary Film - Video Project - From Wounded Knee to Standing Rock

A Film by Kevin McKiernan

88 minutes

Scene Selection • Closed Captioned

Grades 8 - Adult

Item #: FWK-2042

Filmmaker and journalist Kevin McKiernan examines the history of American Indian activism

Starting at $99

Licensing Options

K-12 Classroom, Public Libraries: DVD - $99 K-12 DVD + Digital File - $149 Colleges & Institutions: DVD - $395 Colleges: DVD with Digital Site License - $495 Community Screenings: Please Complete 'Host a Screening' Form found on top menu bar K-12 School District pricing available. Please inquire at [email protected]

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Reviews and Festivals

"Spellbinding for anyone interested in AIM or journalism in the 1970s... Those seeking an excellent breakdown of the 1973 Wounded Knee uprising and the events surrounding it will want to see From Wounded Knee to Standing Rock. Highly Recommended... Anyone studying activism of the 1970s or speaking at length about the American Indian Movement would find this documentary excellent for classroom use."

— J. Zimmerman, Video Librarian

"A must-see documentary film regarding one of the most important events in modern Native American consciousness... A well-done documentary that leaves the viewer with much to think about and broadens the viewer's understanding of America's Native American issues. This film is rated Highly Recommended and should be made widely available. It has potential in high school through graduate school classrooms, discussion groups, and almost any library. College-level courses in journalism, activism, social movements, Native American studies, politics, law enforcement, violence, and peace studies would all benefit from this film."

— Educational Media Reviews Online

"An excellent effort to convey a fraught, bloody story in this documentary of protest and resistance... What emerges is not just an improbably David and Goliath tale but a surprising dimension of duplicity, extortion and betrayal, including Indian-on-Indian treachery and murder. No one comes away with a clean conscience. Strongly recommended."

— T. Keogh, Video Librarian

"Enthralling... A thrilling, intimate window into already dramatic events... The value of the documentary, and the fact that the footage it includes survived in the first place, is that it creates a record of the tactics deployed by the state to destroy the AIM in Wounded Knee — and the resilience of the movement's activists in spite of it."

— Boston Review

"Humane but unflinching look at one of the most famous Indigenous resistance groups in modern history... McKiernan's best work in this documentary comes with the delicate humanization of the AIM rank and file."

— The New Republic

"A casual intimacy permeates his images, some grainy, some out of focus, and many quietly personal. He captures the hum-drum routine of daily living amid the threat of frequent gunfire."

— Santa Barbara Independent

"From Wounded Knee to Standing Rock: A Reporter's Journey is one that can open ears, eyes, and minds to things going on within the world, and that has been going on for years."

— Film Threat

"Journalist and filmmaker Kevin McKiernan explores the complexities of revolution in the meditative From Wounded Knee to Standing Rock: A Reporter's Journey."

— MUBI

"This is not just a story of tragedy and loss, but a more complex story of humor in the face of challenge and pride in the face of systemic disrespect. Deeply moving, informative and at times tragic, this documentary told an important story about the American Indians' struggle for their rights, specifically from the 1970s onwards... Cinema like this is the perfect wake-up call."

— Student Life, Washington University in St. Louis

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