A time to honor Indigenous peoples, celebrate their cultures and histories, and recognize the knowledge, traditions, and voices that continue to shape our relationship with the Earth.
At SYRCL’s Wild & Scenic Film Festival, we believe films can do more than tell stories. They can open our eyes, challenge our perspectives, build connection, and deepen our understanding of the world around us. This month, we’ve curated a special playlist of past Wild & Scenic Official Selections that highlight Indigenous perspectives, cultural resilience, and the enduring connections between people, land, water, and community.
These films invite us to listen, learn, and recognize the importance of Indigenous voices in conversations about environmental stewardship, cultural preservation, and the future of our planet. They remind us that caring for the Earth begins with understanding our relationships to the places we call home and honoring the generations of knowledge that guide us.
Enjoy the films and join us in honoring Native American Heritage Month.
Avanyu Native Waters – Rio Grande (2017 Official Selection)
The Return of Nóouhàh-Toka’na – Swift Fox (2025 Official Selection)
Honor the Treaties (2014 Official Selection)
Amy Marquis, Dana Romanoff, Sinjin Eberle | 8 min.
The Wild & Scenic Rio Grande River is the lifeblood of New Mexico. But for Tesuque Pueblo member Louie Hena and his family, the river is more than an office, more than a provider, it is home. In celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Wild & Scenic Rivers Act, happening in 2018, Louie urges us all to protect more wild rivers.
Roshan Patel | 16 min.
Nóouhàh-Toka’na, known as swift fox in English, once roamed the North American Great Plains from Canada to Texas. Like bison, pronghorn and other plains animals, Nóouhàh-Toka’na held cultural significance for the Native Americans who lived alongside them. But predator control programs in the mid-1900s reduced the foxes to just 10 percent of their native range.
At the Fort Belknap Indian Community in Montana, members of the Aaniiih and Nakoda tribes are working with conservation partners to restore biodiversity and
return Nóouhàh-Toka’na to the land.
Eric Becker | 14 min.
Honor the Treaties is a short film that examines photographer Aaron Hueyʼs powerful advocacy work for Native American rights on the Pine Ridge Reservation. The film explores the idea that journalists often ʻget the story wrong.ʼ Using Aaronʼs seven-year experience as a photographer on the Pine Ridge Reservation, we examine the idea of growth and change in relationship to telling a story. Aaronʼs advocacy work began with his 2010 TED Talk calling for the return of the Black Hills to the Lakota Sioux. Viewed online over 800,000 times, the talk caught the attention of legendary street artist Shepard Fairey, who, along with artist Ernesto Yerena, teamed up on a nationwide poster campaign based on Aaronʼs images. In November 2011, Shepard and Aaron installed a sixty by eighty foot mural, based on a collage of Aaronʼs images, in Los Angeles. Aaronʼs movement into advocacy is shown in our film through his collaboration with Fairey. Juxtaposing the urban environment of Los Angeles against the stark, rural poverty of Pine Ridge, the film seeks to draw connections between art & advocacy, ultimately making a case for empowering individuals to ʻtell their own stories’.
