#1. Black Robe (1991)

Storyline: Set in 1634, this film follows the travels of Father LaForgue (Lothaire Bluteau), a Jesuit priest called upon to search for a remote Canadian mission surrounded by Huron settlements. LaForgue, guided by a group of distrustful yet kind Algonquin natives, embarks on a trek across unfamiliar and treacherous terrain. The young priest's small party fends off the vicious attacks of the Iroquois tribe before finally reaching their destination. There, LaForgue finds the mission in a tragic state.

Plot Keywords: priest, guide, native american, companion, somber, emotional, mission ...

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#2. The Exiles (1961)

Storyline: In a Native American neighborhood in Los Angeles, Homer (Homer Nish) lives with his pregnant wife, Yvonne (Yvonne Williams), in a crowded apartment. While Homer goes drinking with his friend Tommy (Tom Reynolds), Yvonne is left at a movie by herself. As the men get progressively drunker, Yvonne realizes her husband is not coming home. Meanwhile, Homer and Tommy wander through the nighttime city, looking for fights, playing poker and discussing their problems as Native Americans.

Plot Keywords: native american, wife, friend, husband, tense, fascinating, los angeles ...

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#3. Spirit Game: Pride of a Nation (2017)

Storyline: The documentary follows The Iroquois Nationals Lacrosse Team on the road as they compete in the 2015 World Box Lacrosse Championships. For the first time ever, the Championship Games were held on an Indian Reservation, in Onondaga in upstate New York, the Capitol of the Iroquois Confederacy.—Chris Brewster

Plot Keywords: athlete, teammate, native american, inspiring, emotional, spirited, denver ...

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#4. Wind River (2017)

Storyline: East of Boulder Flats, deep into the vast and unforgiving white territory of the Wind River Indian Reservation, the seasoned game tracker, Cory Lambert, discovers the frozen body of the young Native American, Natalie. As this is a federal crime, the F.B.I. dispatches the inexperienced but courageous agent Jane Banner to lead the investigation, however, the unprepared outsider will soon team up with Cory to unravel the mystery of Natalie's murder. Before long, Cory will inevitably have to face his own past, while at the same time, both he and Jane are thirsting to see justice done. In the end, will this be a fruitful alliance?

Plot Keywords: fbi agent, police officer, native american, animal-control officer, victim, hunter, gripping ...

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#5. Incident at Oglala (1992)

Storyline: On June 26, 1975, during a period of high tensions on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota, two FBI agents were killed in a shootout with a group of Indians. Although several men were charged with killing the agents, only one, Leonard Peltier, was found guilty. This film describes the events surrounding the shootout and suggests that Peltier was unjustly convicted.—Eric Sorensen <Eric_Sorensen@fc.mcps.k12.md.us>

Plot Keywords: fbi agent, native american, shocking, disheartening, south dakota, reservation life, protest ...

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#6. Hostiles (2017)

Storyline: In 1892, after nearly two decades of fighting the Cheyenne, the Apache, and the Comanche natives, the United States Cavalry Captain and war hero, Joseph Blocker, is ordered to escort the ailing Cheyenne chief, Yellow Hawk--his most despised enemy--to his ancestral home in Montana's Valley of the Bears. Nauseated with a baleful anger, Joseph's unwelcome final assignment in the feral American landscape is further complicated, when the widowed settler, Rosalie Quaid, is taken in by the band of soldiers, as aggressive packs of marauding Comanches who are still on the warpath, are thirsty for blood. In a territory crawling with hostiles, can the seasoned Captain do his duty one last time?

Plot Keywords: native american chief, soldier, commanding officer, widow, native american, traveler, brutal ...

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#8. Ulzana's Raid (1972)

Storyline: Report reaches the US cavalry that the Apache leader Ulzana has left his reservation with a band of followers. A compassionate young officer, Lieutenant DeBuin, is given a small company to find him and bring him back; accompanying the troop is McIntosh, an experienced scout, and Ke-Ni-Tay, an Apache guide. Ulzana massacres, rapes and loots across the countryside; and as DeBuin encounters the remains of his victims, he is compelled to learn from McIntosh and to confront his own naiveté and hidden prejudice.—David Levene <D.S.Levene@durham.ac.uk>

Plot Keywords: tracker, scout, apache, lieutenant, farmer, brooding, emotional ...

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#9. Skins (2002)

Storyline: Rudy Yellow Lodge is an investigator with the police department and witnesses firsthand the painful legacy of Indian existence. Although rampant unemployment, alcoholism and domestic violence are the norm for many reservation inhabitants, Rudy has largely escaped this cycle of despair. His brother Mogie, however, has not. Now faced with the discovery of a bloodied body, a flaming liquor store just off native land that sells millions of cans of beer a year to the native population, and his brother's ongoing self-destruction, Rudy goes on a quest to avenge himself, his family, and his culture and to seek justice.—Sujit R. Varma

Plot Keywords: vigilante, cop, brother, criminal, aunt, son, dark ...

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#10. Union Pacific (1939)

Storyline: One of the last bills signed by President Lincoln authorizes pushing the Union Pacific Railroad across the wilderness to California. But financial opportunist Asa Barrows hopes to profit from obstructing it. Chief troubleshooter Jeff Butler has his hands full fighting Barrows' agent, gambler Sid Campeau; Campeau's partner Dick Allen is Jeff's war buddy and rival suitor for engineer's daughter Molly Monahan. Who will survive the effort to push the railroad through at any cost?—Rod Crawford <puffinus@u.washington.edu>

Plot Keywords: daughter, railroad worker, postal worker, gambler, banker, spectacular, patriotic ...

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#11. Comanche Station (1960)

Storyline: Loner Cody trades with the Comanches to get a white girl released. He is joined on his way back to the girl's husband by an outlaw and his sidekicks. It turns out there is a large reward for the return of the girl, and with the Indians on the warpath and the outlaw being an old enemy of Cody's, things are set for several showdowns.—Jeremy Perkins {J-26}

Plot Keywords: cowboy, love interest, bounty hunter, outlaw, apache, thrilling, inspiring ...

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#12. A Man Called Horse (1970)

Storyline: During the early 1800s, English Lord John Morgan (Richard Harris) is hunting in the Dakotas, but he is captured by a group of Sioux warriors. Morgan's guides are killed, but he is spared by Sioux Chief Yellow Hand (Manu Tupou), who marvels at Morgan's blond hair. Brought to Yellow Hand's tribal village, Morgan has to endure physical abuse and mockery at the hands of women and children who consider him to be a wild horse. Restrained by a rope around his neck, Morgan is given as a gift to an old squaw, Buffalo Cow Head (Dame Judith Anderson), to be her slave and help her with daily chores. In the village, Morgan meets Running Deer (Corinna Tsopei), the beautiful young sister of Chief Yellow Hand. Morgan witnesses the traditional courtship process when Running Deer is asked in marriage by a tribe member who presents Yellow Hand with gifts in return for his sister's hand in marriage. Morgan starts to fall in love with her. Also in the village is half-breed, Batise (Jean Gascon), whose mother was Sioux and father was French. Batise becomes Morgan's friend and interpreter. Batise advises Morgan against escaping citing his own escape attempt when he was re-captured and hamstrung by the savage Sioux. Despite these warnings, Morgan tries to escape several times, but he is re-captured. He decides to bide his time for another escape opportunity. When a rival Shoshone war party approaches the Sioux village, Morgan kills two of the Shoshone scouts, winning the respect of his Sioux captors. Instead of escaping, Morgan plans to learn the ways of the Sioux, become a warrior, and gain his place amongst them. But this would require much more than killing a few Shoshone scouts. Lord John Morgan's true ordeal is just beginning.—nufs68

Plot Keywords: hunter, native american, matriarch, leader, slave, wife, dark ...

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#13. Canyon Passage (1946)

Storyline: In 1856, backwoods businessman Logan Stuart escorts Lucy Overmire, his friend's fiancée, back home to remote Jacksonville, Oregon; in the course of the hard journey, Lucy is attracted to Logan, whose heart seems to belong to another. Once arrived in Jacksonville, a welter of subplots involve villains, fair ladies, romantic triangles, gambling fever, murder, a cabin-raising, and vigilantism...culminating with an Indian uprising that threatens all the settlers. No canyon in sight.—Rod Crawford <puffinus@u.washington.edu>

Plot Keywords: shop owner, fiancée, banker, gambler, best friend, love interest, spirited ...

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#14. The Last Hunt (1956)

Storyline: Set in the early 1880s, this is the story of one of the last buffalo hunts in the Northwest. Sandy McKinzie is tired of hunting buffalo, and tired of killing-Charley on the other hand relishes the hunt and enjoys killing buffalo and Indians. When Charley kills an Indian raiding party, and takes their squaw as his own, tension develops between the two hunters, and matters will only be settled in a showdown.—Buxx Banner <buxx572@aol.com>

Plot Keywords: hunter, tracker, drunk, indian, bad guy, cowboy, bleak ...

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#15. The Vanishing American (1925)

Storyline: History, as portrayed in this film, has been a succession of conquests of stronger races over weaker ones. As played out on the stage of Monument Valley, long ago, tribes of Indians defeated the ancient cliff dwellers; then came the Europeans to conquer the Indians. Now, in the early 20th Century, a tribe of Navajo live on a reservation overseen by an Indian-hating agent, Booker. He and his men steal the best Indian horses for their own profit. Nophaie, a tribal leader, complains to Booker's higher-ups, but he is unable to gain fair treatment from the whites. When World War I breaks out, an Army captain comes west in search of the horses that Booker was supposed to have bought from the Indians for a fair price. Marian Warner, the teacher at the Indian School, has befriended Nophaie, teaching him to read; she convinces him that the Great War is a fight for a more just world, and that, when that world comes, the Indian will be better treated. Nophaie not only brings horses for the Army, he and many other Indians enlist, and distinguish themselves in battle. But when they come back after the war is over, they find life for Indians even worse than when they left. Surely, they feel, it is time to fight back. But Nophaie is not so sure.—George S. Davis <mgeorges@prodigy.net>

Plot Keywords: tribal leader, government official, schoolteacher, agent, soldier, officer, melodramatic ...

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