Documentary 'Bounty' confronts colonial death warrants against Indigenous people
WBUR reviews Upstander Project’s short film Bounty and interviews filmmakers and participants about the importance of the film. “Adults often fear saying the wrong thing, or teaching the wrong thing and upsetting other parents, acknowledges co-director Adam Mazo.” That is why Upstander Project aims to educate and mobilize people against injustice.
“It may be buried history. But the atrocity of colonists’ bounty proclamations against Native American people also occupies the present. In the potent new documentary “Bounty,” members of the Penobscot Nation read one such death warrant to their family members, including their children, in order to share the truth.
The nine-minute film takes place in Boston’s Old State House, where in 1755, colonial settlers signed the declaration of a cash reward, in descending value, for the scalps of Penobscot men, women and children.”
Continue reading at WBUR.
New England once hunted and killed humans for money. We’re descendants of the survivors
Opinion piece written by Dawn Neptune Adams, Maulian Dana with Adam Mazo for The Guardian. This piece focuses on the fact that the settlers whom many Americans mythologize at Thanksgiving as peace-loving Pilgrims issued government orders offering cash for dead Native American children.
“For more than 10,000 years, the Wabanaki peoples have been living in a region called the Dawnland. Captain John Smith rebranded the area “New England” in a map he made in 1614. He and the other colonial settlers renamed rivers and villages to claim the land for themselves and erase Native people from their homelands. But that wasn’t enough. Eventually colonial officials introduced a grisly incentive to hasten that erasure: bounties for dead Native Americans.
Yes, the settlers whom many Americans mythologize at Thanksgiving as peace-loving pilgrims were, just a generation later, issuing official government orders putting a price on the scalps of Indigenous children, women and men.”
Continue reading at The Guardian.
New short film explores Boston's role in long, dark history of scalping Indigenous people
A review by GBH of Bounty, which “centers on the bounty system established by colonial Massachusetts to incentivize settler-colonists to exchange the scalps of Indigenous people for substantial pay. The film’s creators intend it as an experience that leaves viewers reassessing their own relationship with history.”
“History is the most fickle of the sciences. To record it objectively is an exercise in futility; to assume omniscience in the record is to be a fool. Still, the origin myths of the United States are peddled as self-evident truths, so when a group of artists and educators offer up a contribution that reassesses that record, they make it a priority to ensure as many people as possible rethink what they believe their histories to be. At least, that’s the case with the Upstander Project and their new documentary short Bounty, with a world premiere on November 10.
Bounty centers on the bounty system established by colonial Massachusetts to incentivize settler-colonists to exchange the scalps of Indigenous people for substantial pay.”
Continue reading at GBH.
Documentary Highlights Government-Issued Bounties On Native Americans
Watch a clip of Bounty and listen to an interview with filmmakers and CBSN Boston.
“The new documentary "Bounty" is bringing to light the story of government issued bounties targeting indigenous people, specifically the Penobscot Nation in Maine. Learn more at bountyfilm.org”
Watch at CBS Boston.
Maulian Dana interviewed on Downton with Rich Kimball
Listen to filmmaker Maulian Dana talk with Rich Kimball about Bounty and other Upstander Project films.
“Maulian Dana joined us on today’s show to discuss the new documentary, BOUNTY.”
Listen at WZON.
November is Native American Heritage Month
For Native American Heritage Month, NEPM offers a diverse collection of programs on TV, radio and online, including Dawnland.
“November is Native American Heritage Month — a time to celebrate rich and diverse cultures, traditions, and histories and to honor the important contributions of Native people. It’s also a time to acknowledge the unique challenges Native people have faced both historically and in the present, and the ways in which tribal citizens have worked to conquer these challenges. NEPM is committed to inclusion and representation in media. For Native American Heritage Month, we offer a diverse collection of programs on TV, radio and online. Enjoy!”
Continue reading at NEPM.
GlobeDocs 2021: Finding light in the darkness
“This year’s GlobeDocs covers a wide range of subjects and approaches, emotions and styles, even including, yes, animation.” Upstander Project’s short film Bounty is included in this stunning line up of films that look into dark subjects while also trying to bring smiles and hope.
“This year’s GlobeDocs festival inevitably includes documentaries that look into the darkness of subjects such as racism (“Attica,” “Free Renty: Lanier v. Harvard,” “Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America”), environmental doom (“Becoming Cousteau”), the plight of refugees (“Flee”), sexism (“Jagged”), and COVID-19 (“The First Wave). But it also shares stories that bring smiles (”No Straight Lines: The Rise of Queer Comics,” “Paper & Glue”) and hope ( “The Rescue”).
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At the Old State House, where the Declaration of Independence was first read in Boston, so was a proclamation setting bounties for the scalps of Penobscot people, in 1755. That is the subject of “Bounty,” from Dawn Neptune Adams, Maulian Dana, Adam Mazo, Ben Pender-Cudlip, and Tracy Rector.”
Continue reading at The Boston Globe.
SEEDCAST: STORYTELLING IS GUARDIANSHIP
Since time immemorial, Indigenous people have celebrated storytelling as a way to connect the present to past lessons and future dreaming. Narrative sovereignty is a form of land guardianship, and Nia Tero supports this work through its storytelling initiatives, including the Seedcast podcast, as well as in this monthly column for media partner the South Seattle Emerald.
“Many of us have known for quite a while that climate change, accelerated by human decisions and behaviors, is not only real but a direct threat to life as we know it. While the findings of the IPCC report released in August of 2021 might not have been a surprise, that didn’t make them less alarming. The report inspired urgent conversations not only at planet-focused nonprofits like the one I work at, Nia Tero, but on a global scale and in individual homes: What can we do to heal the planet? What role can we play? Where are the solutions?
The good news is that human decisions and behaviors can also heal the planet, as evidenced by the land guardianship carried out by Indigenous peoples around the world in the form of tending to the land with fire, seed saving, or not taking more than you need.”
Continue reading at South Seattle Emerald.