"Montana Mosaic: Indian Boarding Schools" (2006)

"Montana Mosaic: Indian Boarding Schools" (2006)

Feb 26, 2014

The Montana Experience: Stories from Big Sky Country

MONTANA MOSAIC: INDIAN BOARDING SCHOOLS, directed by Gita Saedi Kiely

"Kill the Indian, save the man."  This motto -- put forward by Captain H. Pratt in the 1880's -- sums up the American government's Native American "assimilation" strategy in the last 19th and early 20th centuries.  Indian boarding schools, as they were called, tore Native children from their families. cultural traditions, and even their languages.  To fulfill their mission, these schools undermined Indian culture while insisting on the superiority of non-Indian culture. The boarding school experience still casts a long and painful shadow over the lives of many Native Montana people.  This film traces the effects of the boarding schools on Indian children and Indian culture and their lingering legacy in Montana.

This is an episode from the twelve-part "Montana Mosaic" series, produced by the Montana Historical Society. 

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ABOUT THE FILMMAKER

Gita Saedi Kiely was the series producer/story editor for Kartemquin Films' acclaimed series THE NEW AMERICANS, a three-part series following five immigrant families' journey to the U.S.  She has produced for Channel 4 in the UK, CBS and PBS in the U.S. and RTE in Ireland. Her other work includes line producing REEL PARADISE, a documentary about indy film guru John Pierson and his adventure on a remote island in Fiji; and JAILED FOR THEIR WORDS, a  documentary on the Montana Sedition Act. Gita is an adjunct lecturer at the University of Montana School of Journalism and was the 2013 Festival Director of the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival. She is currently producing Mossedegh & Me, a personal reflection on the CIA coup that ousted then Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh from 1950s Iran.  

http://kartemquin.com/films/mossadegh-me

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