Oyate

The Dakota Access Pipeline protests became an inflection point for Indigenous people and modern tribal sovereignty. Thousands of people from across the country gathered at the STANDING ROCK reservation to stand in solidarity with the Lakota people. Since then, community leaders have used their newfound platform to organize and educate people about their issues.

OYATE, meaning national of people, uses the #NoDAPL struggle as a jumping off place to dive into an array of issues that affect indigenous people.  The film center around a diverse group on Indigenous voices led by activist kPhllis young, attorney Chase Iron Eyes, hip hop artist Stuart James, and Secretary of the Interior Deb Harland as they unravel a history of systemic oppression defined by broken treaties, land theft, and cultural erasure. The latter half of the story follows the subjects on the ground as they take the fight to state governments, Washington, DC, and eventually the United Nations.