Many scientists and tribal people consider persistent toxic chemicals to be the greatest threat to the long-term survival of Indigenous Peoples. These chemicals contaminate the traditional food web, violate treaty rights, travel long distances, and are passed from one generation to the next during pregnancy. They cause cancer, learning disabilities, and other serious health problems. Indigenous Peoples’ connection to Mother Earth places them on a collision course with these chemicals. “In a supreme irony that borders on the absurd, the documentary informs us that after 150 years of fighting to keep their fishing and hunting grounds, the U.S. government has told certain tribes that their local fish and game are too laden with chemicals to be eaten.” (Chicago Tribune) Continued survival within a contaminated environment means making life and death decisions that could alter whole cultures, diets, ceremonies and future generations. Directed by Joseph Di Gangi and Amon Giebel, USA, 1999, 54 min.

Shown with Interference (Dustin D. Morrow, USA, 2002, 3 min). Shot during a lightning storm in rural Illinois, Morrow examines two modes of electricity: that coming from the sky, and that encompassed by the digital camera he uses.

Cosponsored with the Department of Natural Resources, the American Indian Program, the Center for Religion, Ethics and Social Policy, and the Department of Rural Sociology. Sponsored in part by a grant from the Cornell Council for the Arts.