The U.S. government made Native people choose between God and food — this is the receipt.
This documentary offers a deep, candid, and historical look at the Christian experience of America's largest and best-known tribes: the Dakota and Lakota. Its exploration into Native American history also takes a hard and detailed look at President Ulysses S. Grant's Peace Policy of 1873, which was, in effect, a "convert to Episcopalianism or starve" edict put forth by the American government in direct violation of its Constitution. The devastation it had on the values of the people affected were dramatic and extremely long-lasting. Grant's policy was finally ended over 100 years later by the Freedom of American Indian Religions Act in 1978. Interlaced with extraordinarily candid interviews, this documentary presents an insider's perspective of how the Dakota and Lakota were estranged from their religious beliefs and their long-standing traditions.
Writing
Unflinching framing of Grant's policy as constitutional betrayal.
Direction
Elders speak for themselves — no narrators drowning them out.
Director
Mark St. Pierre
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Grant's policy wasn't hidden — it was praised by 19th-century progressives as 'humane' compared to outright extermination, revealing how 'civilization' became its own violence.
The title's burial metaphor carries double weight: literal Dakota/Lakota funeral rites suppressed, and who carries responsibility for historical death — the interviewees name names.
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