25 Best Movies About Native Americans
If you are looking for the best movies about Native Americans then you are in the right place. We have made a list of movies that bring you the lives and history of Indians.
Some of the movies on our list are fantasy movies, some even sci-fi, but most of those movies are some kind of historical story tellings about Native American people.
So, without further ado, we will let you choose your next watch about Indians.
Geronimo: An American Legend (1993)
The Apache Indians reluctantly agreed to move to a reservation approved by the US government. However, not all Apaches can accept the life of a corn farmer… Especially one of them, Geronimo, disappointed by the broken promises of the American government, gathers about 30 warriors and creates total chaos in order to recover what is rightfully his…
The Last of the Mohicans (1992)
In 1757, the third year of the war between England and France for supremacy on the North American continent was underway. The fight was also fought on the edges of the wilderness, and both sides engaged the services of Indians and civilians. Although against their will, three men will be dragged into the conflict, the last members of the Mohicans, who are at the border of the wilderness by the Hudson River.
One of them, Hawkeye (D. Day-Lewis) is actually white, but was adopted by Chingachgook (R. Means) and feels like a Mohican himself. Despite the fighting drawing closer, and some of their friends joining the civilian-military forces on England’s side, they do not want to engage. However, when they witness an attack by Indians in French service on a group of Englishmen, including two women, they come to their aid and take the survivors to the English fort.
Along the way, Hawkeye gets close to Cora Monroe (M. Stowe), and because of her, he stays in the fortress. At the same time, his brother gains the affection of young Alice (J. May). Soon the French troops surround the fort and begin the attack…
Dances with Wolves (1990)
In remote outposts in the Dakota wilderness during the American Civil War, Lieutenant John Dunbar (Kevin Costner) encounters a Sioux tribe. He soon falls in love with a beautiful Indian woman and begins to live together with the tribe. He will learn all about the Sioux culture, live with them, even experience the unique thrill of hunting bison…
When the army begins to close in, John must decide what is best for him and the Indians he has become close to. In the end, the tribe will be betrayed and everything that Dunbar has seen and experienced begins to torment and haunt him. Finally, he must make the biggest decision of his life – he must search his heart and his soul and take the step that will determine his destiny.
Powwow Highway (1989)
Inside the Lame Deer Tribe of Montana, the mystical Philbert Bono and the tough, outspoken activist Buddy Red Bow are sent on the road in a rickety 1964 Buick called the Protector when Buddy’s sister finds herself in trouble with the law in Santa Fe.
Along the way, they experience unforgettable experiences that range from joyful to deeply painful before they reach their ultimate destiny and understand each other.
Imprint (2007)
Shayla Stonefeather (Tonantzin Carmelo), an American Native American attorney prosecuting a Dakota teenager in a controversial murder trial, returns home to the reservation to visit her dying father.
Strange visions and voices of ghosts guide her on a path she did not expect. Although Shayla initially rejects spirituality as an explanation for her experiences, she begins to discover a connection between these visions and her brother’s disappearance two years earlier.
Determined to solve the mystery, Shayla confronts the apparitions and follows them to a terrifying discovery and a solution she could not have predicted.
Apocalypto (2006)
It is the sixteenth century, in the late age of the Maya civilization. The hunter Jaguar Paw (R. Youngblood) lives a traditional lifestyle, with a son and a pregnant wife. One morning, their village is attacked by warriors burning houses and cruelly killing people. At the last moment, Jaguar’s Paw manages to lower his wife and son into a deep cave, leaving a rope at the top so that they can climb up later.
Jaguar Paw’s father was also killed during the raid, and he was captured. One of the attackers cuts the rope, condemning the woman and child to a slow death in the cave. The attackers take the captives to the city of Maya, intending to sacrifice them to the sun god. At the top of the pyramid, a priest is ready to extract the hearts of living prisoners…
Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked The World (2017)
Documentary about the role of Native Americans in popular music history, a little-known story built around the incredible lives and careers of some of the greatest music legends.
Windwalker (1980)
An ancient Indian warrior on the verge of death recovers his life in flashbacks, with special memories of the death of his wife and son.
Hostiles (2017)
In 1892, legendary US Army Captain Joseph Blocker reluctantly agrees to escort a dying Cheyenne chief and his family back to their homeland. They embark on a long and dangerous journey from a military fort in New Mexico to the plains of Montana and soon meet a young widow whose family was killed. The travelers must join forces to survive in a harsh expanse teeming with hostile Comanches and, above all, dangerous outlaws.
Billy Jack (1971)
The Indian reservation is home to the Freedom School, run by pacifist Jean Roberts, which is attended by young whites, blacks, Indians and Latin Americans under an alternative program. The residents of the nearby town, especially Stuart Posner and his son Bernard, are hostile towards the school, its teachers and students, while Sheriff Cole tries to be impartial.
The main support of director Jean and the school is a mixture of white and Indian, war hero Billy Jack, who protects them from the attacks of the Posners…
Angry Inuk (2016)
An Inuk filmmaker takes a close look at the central role of seal hunting in the lives of the Inuit, the importance of the revenue they earn from sales of seal skins, and the negative impact that international campaigns against the seal hunt have had on their lives.
Pocahontas (1995)
The Indian woman Pokohantas falls in love with the gallant colonist John Smith, and their love brings peace between the natives and the newcomers.
Little Big Man (1970)
Jack tells us about how he was captured by the Indians as a child, how they raised him, how he married an Indian woman who was later killed by General Caster before his eyes, and how he became a scout in his army, later at the Battle of Little Big Horn.
Deidra & Laney Rob a Train (2017)
Deidra & Laney’s mother Marigold is taken to jail, and they are left to support themselves. To keep her sister Laney and younger brother Jet from being placed in foster care, Deidra makes a plan to rob trains.
They need enough money to help pay their mother’s bills and bail her out of jail. Along the way, they rekindle old relationships and find out who is real and to be trusted by their family and friends.
The New World (2005)
The year is 1607, the territory of today’s state of Virginia. Three English ships arrive in the bay with the intention of establishing a colony here. Captain John Smith (C. Farrell) has just been spared the death penalty by order of Captain Newport (C. Plummer), because they need every man on such a serious task. They meet amazed natives who have been living their native way of life for centuries.
Although the Indians are not warlike by nature, the newcomers make them cautious and even defensive. When Captain Newport returns to England, Smith is captured by the Indians, but before his execution, he is saved by the chief at the urging of his daughter Pocahontas (Q. Kilcher), who is very fond of the Englishman.
An intense love affair develops between them, the Indian woman begins to learn English, but the circumstances are such that Smith will have to leave the tribe due to the duties imposed on him by the English…
Reel Injun (2009)
The evolution of the depiction of Native Americans in film, from the silent era until today, featuring clips from hundreds of movies and candid interviews with famous directors, writers and actors, Native and non-Native: how their image on the screen transforms the way to understand their history and culture.
Skins (2002)
In the south of Dakota, about a hundred kilometers southeast of the Mount Rushmore monument, the place where the heads of four American presidents are carved into the rock, is the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The once proud Indians from the Lakota Sioux tribe today live in misery and in poverty, unemployed, seek solace in alcohol and memories of the glorious past, and young people are increasingly turning to crime.
Because of all this, the proud Rudy Yellow Lodge (E. Schweig) decided to wear a police uniform and help the community as a law enforcement officer. While he maintains a superficial relationship with the attractive but married Stella (M. Thrush), his job is mainly reduced to calming down family quarrels and the riots of alcoholic tribesmen, and his older brother, the disillusioned and eternally drunk Vietnam veteran Mogie (G. Greene), gives him the most problems ).
When he can no longer help his brother, Rudy tries to help his nephew, teenager Herbie (N. Watts), with advice and money. One night, while patrolling the neighborhood, Rudy stumbles upon the murder of Mogie’s drunken friend, confronts the killer, and himself receives a severe blow to the head. He remembered the colorful pattern of the killer’s sneakers and recognized them on a young man…
Le jour avant le lendemain (2008)
Two isolated families meet for a summertime celebration. Food is abundant and the future seems bright, but Ningiuq, a wise old woman, sees her world as fragile and moves through it with a pervasive sense of dread.
Ningiuq and her grandson Maniq are dropped off on a remote island, where, every year, the family dries the catch and stores it for winter. The task is soon finished. As summer turns to fall, they wait in vain for the others to pick them up.
Prey (2022)
Set among the Comanche people, 300 years in the past, Prey tells the story of a young woman, Nara, a fearless and skilled warrior. She was raised in a session of some of the most legendary hunters to hunt the Great Plains and when danger threatens her camp, she is determined to protect her people.
The prey that awaits and eventually confronts is actually an evolved extraterrestrial predator with a technically advanced arsenal – before them is a merciless conflict between two enemies.
Without a Whisper (2021)
Before the first women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls in 1848, European colonial women lacked even the most basic rights, while Haudenosaunee women had a potent political and spiritual voice and authority in all aspects of their lives. The contact that the early suffragists had with Haudenosaunee women in New York state shaped their thinking and had a vital impact on their struggle for equality that is taken for granted today.
The film follows Mohawk Bear Clan Mother Louise Herne and Professor Sally Roesch Wagner as they seek to correct the historical narrative about the origins of women’s rights in the United States.
Smoke Signals (1998)
A film about the life of Native Americans in the present day. Thomas and Victor are young men who live on a reservation in Idaho. Tomas wears big glasses and bores everyone with his stories, and Viktor is a handsome, silent stoic.
Victor’s father Arnold, an alcoholic who abuses his son, once saved Tomas, who was then a baby, from a fire that killed Tomas’ parents. These two young men become best friends.
Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner (2001)
“Atanarjuat” is the first feature film in the Inuktitut language, the language of the tribes of northern Canada. Atuat is promised to the evil Oki, the son of the chief of their village, even though she loves the good-natured Atanarjuat.
Oki’s sister Puja also loves Atanarjuat. He sees an opportunity for revenge in the rift he creates between Atanarjuat and his brother.
Four Sheets to the Wind (2007)
The film tells the story of Cufe, a young Seminole/Creek man who travels from his small Oklahoma hometown to Tulsa to visit his sister, Miri, after the suicide and funeral of their father.
While Miri struggles with her life in the city, Cufe becomes friendly, and then romantically involved, with Miri’s neighbor, Francie, and he begins to perceive that his life has more possibilities than he had realized.
We Still Live Here: Âs Nutayuneân (2010)
We Still Live Here: Âs Nutayuneân tells the amazing story of the return of the Wampanoag language, the first time a language with no Native speakers has been revived in this country. Four centuries ago, the Wampanoag people helped the first English settlers in America- the Pilgrims – to survive.
Although Americans celebrate ‘the Indians’ every year at Thanksgiving, few know that their descendants are still on their homelands in Southeastern Massachusetts. Spurred on by an indomitable linguist named Jessie Little Doe, the Wampanoag are bringing their language and their culture back.
Apache (1954)
Following the surrender of the great leader Geronimo, Massai — the last Apache warrior — is captured and sent on a prison train to a reservation in Florida. But he manages to escape to Oklahoma and heads back to his homeland to win back his woman and settle down to grow crops. His pursuers have other ideas, though.
