Back on the reservation, standing on the sacred ground of the Wounded Knee massacre, Nerburn finally feels the full weight of what has happened to the Lakota, and the sickening responsibility borne by generations of children of the White men who rained hell down upon them.
“…a solid gut punch to watch that starts slowly and builds into an emotional crescendo of cultural self-discovery and horror…”
We have gone from a nation forged by Manifest Destiny a brief couple hundred years ago, to the 2016 election of an essentially white supremacist president. If you’re looking for a harbinger of our future as a country, there is no better sign than that. We should be aware, as our national glory fades, that 200 years is a very short time to be a nation and that if we don’t change course, someone even more savage, more ambitious, smarter, and stronger may be waiting up the road to make us the object lesson of our own Wounded Knee.
Director Steven Lewis Simpson takes his time to tell this story, it drags in places, and seeing through Nerburn’s eyes we can become as frustrated as he is not understanding the lessons of the elder at first. However, the film pays off extravagantly, and, also like Nerburn, you’ll be sad when your time with Dan and his extended family is over, and you’ve been sent back to your regular life.
"…once he’s earned the elder’s trust, he’s shown life on the reservation in intimate detail..."
