In November, KQED proudly celebrates the diversity of our community with a special American Indian Heritage Month programming lineup on KQED Public Television.
Premiere dates are listed below. Please click on each program for additional airdates and information.
KQED World
Wednesday, 11/2 12:30pm Black Gold Boom
Some Native American tribes have banned fracking on tribal lands. With vast deposits of oil underneath its borders, should the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation in western North Dakota drill for black gold or outlaw oil exploration on its land?
Thursday, 11/3 11am Finding Refuge
The efforts of one dying woman to preserve her Native culture don't end when she passes, but prompt a renewal in finding pride in that culture.
Monday, 11/7 8am Sol This documentary is a moving tribute to Solomon Tapatia Uyarasuk, a charismatic young Inuk and an amateur acrobat, musician and poet, who had become a rising star in the world of circus arts. Sol was found dead in the Igloolik police station in 2012 at the age of 26.
Friday, 11/18 7am Crying Earth Rise Up A Lakota mother studying geology seeks the source of the water contamination that caused her daughter's critical health problems. Meanwhile, a Lakota grandmother fights the regional expansion of uranium mining.
Saturday, 11/19 9pm Mystic Voices: The Story of the Pequot War This two-part program presents a balanced view of events, underlying causes, consequences and legacy of the first declared war in American history.
Monday, 11/21 8:30am Tracing Roots: A Weaver's Journey This program follows master weaver and Haida elder Delores Churchill on a journey to understand the origins of a spruce root hat found with a 300-year-old traveler discovered in Northern Canada in a retreating glacier.
noon Choctaw Code Talkers This documentary reveals the wartime contributions of forgotten World War I heroes, the Choctaw soldiers.
Tuesday, 11/22 noon Sand Creek Massacre What led approximately 600 volunteer soldiers to attack a peaceful settlement of Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians in the Southeastern Colorado Territory?
Wednesday, 11/23 8am Horse Tribe This program tells an epic story about the connection of human to animal, history to life, individuals to community, grief to resolve and values to action.
Monday, 11/28 noon Jim Thorpe: World's Greatest Athlete
This documentary chronicles the life of the Olympic gold-medal winner and his support of American Indian rights.
1pm Racing the Rez For the Navajo and Hopi, running is much more than a sport; it is woven into the cultural fabric of their lives. This documentary offers a rare view into the surprising complexity and diversity of contemporary reservation life, from the point of view of five teenage boys on the cusp of adulthood.
Wednesday, 11/30 11am America Reframed “Yellow Fever”
Follow young Navajo veteran Tina Garnanez on her journey to investigate the history of the Navajo uranium boom, its lasting impacts in her area, and the potential new mining in her region.
KQED Plus
Saturday, 11/5 11pm Independent Lens “Indian Relay” Watch as teams from three American Indian communities compete in a grueling style of bareback horse racing.
Saturday, 11/12 12:30pm America by the Numbers with Maria Hinojosa “Native American Boomtown” The Bakken oil boom is bringing billions of dollars and tens of thousands of jobs to North Dakota. But most people don't know that a substantial part of the state's oil production is concentrated on an Indian reservation.
11pm Independent Lens “Young Lakota”
A proposed abortion clinic in a South Dakota Native American reservation causes a political storm.
Sunday, 11/20 11am Ishi's Return (NEW)
Ishi's descendants in California fight to have his remains repatriated to his ancestral home.
Members of the Lakota talk about seeking ways to restore their culture after a legacy of colonialism.
Sunday, 11/20 7pm Johnny Cash's Bitter Tears
The recording of Johnny Cash's record "Bitter Tears: Ballads of the American Indian" is examined.
KQED 9
Tuesday, 11/29 11pm Medicine Woman
This film interweaves the lives of Native American women healers of today with the story of America's first Native doctor, Susan La Flesche Picotte (1865–1915).
KQED 9 is available over the air on DT9.1, 54.2 and 25.1 and via most cable systems on Channel 9. It is on XFINITY cable from Comcast (Channels 9 SD and 709 HD) and on Wave (Channels 9 SD and 164 HD). It can also be found on DIRECTV and DISH satellite systems (Channels 9 SD and HD).
KQED Plus is available over the air on Channels 54, DT54.1, 9.2 and 25.2, and via many cable and satellite systems on either channel 10 or 54. It is on XFINITY cable from Comcast (Channels 10 SD, and 710 HD) and on DIRECTV (Channel 54 SD and HD) and DISH (Channel 54, SD only) satellite systems.
This schedule also lists programs airing on KQED Life (XFINITY 189, Channel 54.3 and Wave 157) and KQED World (XFINITY 190, Channel 9.3 and Wave 156).
