How hard they fought for those concessions. This is not to downplay the accomplishments of the American Indian Movement, because they definitely managed to get major concessions from the U.S ruling class, but the continuing destruction of indigenous cultures in America has not abated, only evolved in the ongoing predator-prey relationship between oppressed and oppressor in this country. They won concessions. Not reforms. Not changes. Concessions from the ruling class. As long as the bourgeoisie control this country, that is all we will ever get. It's a stark example of why reform will not work (I am talking to you, democrats and democratic socialists). Revolution is necessary to right these wrongs.

The film manages to show their stories despite interruptions…

“Wagon Burners.”

While studying medicine in Phoenix, Arizona, I encountered something I had hoped had long since disappeared in the United States. A terrible divide and a representation of the darker history of this country. If you want to observe the real nature of Phoenix do not go and visit the sunny palisades and blonde transplants of Scottsdale. Instead, make your way to the invisible and ghostly frontier of the Indian reservations where the grittier business of US policy is transacted. Go to the borders along any one of the highways that ring the city. You learn a lot among the smoke-filled outposts and the true discrimination at the frontier of Sheriff Joe and Maverick McCain’s white people and two…

Other than the story in Incident at Oglala, I knew very little of the American Indian Movement (AIM), and next to nothing about Dennis Banks. Watching this documentary – particularly on American Independence Day – was a great introduction to the movement and Banks, and really opened my eyes further to the shocking ways Native Americans have been treated for far too long.

The story is told by Banks and many other people involved at the time, both from AIM members, US Marshals, judges, attorneys, family members, and more. Many interviews with Banks, in fact, take place at the actual locations where situations happened, including a military base in Japan where he had served. Through these stories, paired with news footage and…