GOT DOCS Broken Promises: Native Trust

For the last dozen years, Native Americans have been pursuing a case that would force the Federal government to pay out billions of dollars to native people for the mismanagement of their lands. It’s the largest class action suit ever filed against the US government and the judge says he intends to decide this summer. Supposedly, it’s about grazing leases, and sales of timber, oil and gas on eleven million acres of individually owned trust lands – but the issues go way deeper than that.

Filmmaker Melinda Janko began investigating this story after reading an article in Mother Jones in 2002. What has developed, is film that’s a powerful reminder that the so called Indian Wars aren’t over yet! Janko follows Elouise Cobell fight for justice for landowners like Mary Johnson, an 83-year-old Navajo woman who has five oil wells pumping on her land, but can’t afford running water. Then there is James Kennerly, a Blackfeet Indian, who makes beaded necklaces to supplement the $69 a month payments he receives from the government for the oil beneath his soil.

The majority of filming for Broken Promises is complete, but significant funds are needed for post-production. If you’d like to help the filmmaker tell this incredible story you can give a donation at brokenpromisesthemovie.com. And if you’re a documentary filmmaker working on a film you’d like us to show on GOT DOCS, send us an email, with GOT DOCS in the subject line.