Women of the White Buffalo

Given the opportunity to sit down and watch the 2022 documentary "Women of the White Buffalo" from director Deborah Anderson, I must admit that I did so without skipping a beat. Why? Well, because I have virtually little insight into native American society and culture as it is today.

And I will say that "Women of the White Buffalo" was insightful and a rather good documentary. Sure, it is mostly one that paints a negative portrait of the situation of the native American people, but by doing so I believe that it also opens up the eyes to the reality of what the situation of these people actually has become. There were lots of information in this documentary that made me cringe, as the documentary casts a light upon lots of negative things that has or still is going on here.

But don't get me wrong, there are also positive things to be seen and heard in "Women of the White Buffalo", and when the documentary came to a conclusion, I definitely felt more enlighted upon this issue, and made me actually want to reach out.

The interviews in this 2022 documentary are open and heartfelt, and the people that participated in the interviews feel forthcoming and upstanding in the information they are passing on, speaking directly from their hearts and souls.

This was an informative and insightful documentary, and it is definitely one that is quite worth watching.

My rating of "Women of the White Buffalo" lands on a six out of ten stars.

First let me begin by pointing out the obvious. This is not a documentary, this is a story told to the gullible that might not know enough about Native American history, to know this is just a very narrow part of Native American history told by a very small lens so as to not touch the not so pleasant parts of Native American history and thus focus only on one culprit.

In my book documentaries are expected to be thorough, and represent all sides. This documentary barely represents one side. While painting the white people as the ever eternal oppressor. But forgetting to mention that there's a very unequal distribution of wealth throughout the tribes and its people. How while Native Americans have to live in slums others live as millionaires due to the profits of the casinos.

You won't see that reality because if they showed it, that would ruin the narrative of story they're trying to force feed you.

It's the same old story told again and again. How they'll say "We are a sovereign nation, we don't have to follow American laws" but at the same time they're also saying, but we want American tax money to pay everything for us.

It's a constant complaining about things that happened to their great grandfathers, and how they simply never managed to bounce back, even though many did.

It seems the 21st century is going to go down as the century of the victimization. Because everything is always someone else's fault, and no one wants to look on the mirror and see their share of the blame looking back.

This story doesn't even mention the Kiowa, the Omaha, the Ponca, the Oto, the Pawnee and others. And it doesn't do it because of the truth behind those names. How way before the white man step foot on Native American lands, already Native Americans killed one another for hunting ground and lands. How the lands of one were once the lands of others.

And it's this very narrow view that makes this not a documentary. Because although it tries to press blame on one culprit, it also doesn't actually takes a good look into the real Native American tribes and what they even have to say about one another.

This story is for those that know very little to almost nothing about Native American history, so they can think they know something, and of course blame it on the same people. Because stars forbid that they stop blaming and start sharing evenly between themselves.

In a way it's complaining that it happened to them what they had done to others. It's aiming their sights at the common target of these times, to try and join the victim train.

But the worst part is that it tries to tell you that this is a common united opinion that all Native Americans share, when in fact it is not. The simple fact that not all the tribes were included in this story and they shared their views about one another already says everything.

Because if you have Native American friends, and if you have from different tribes, you'll hear quite the accusations aimed at one another. How one tribe stole this from the other, or took this from the other, while the other side will say that they were simply taking back what had been theirs all along.

And it's funny that some speak of things with such details, because for a people that had no written language some do remember events dating back before their great great grandparents. Things passed down from oral tradition. And everyone that has ever told any story knows, how stories are many times embellished in one way and distorted in another.

And because this isn't really a documentary, and doesn't cover all sides of history, that's why I gave it the rating I did.

One would expect that Native Americans at least had learned not to make the same mistakes others are making, but apparently it's more easy living in the shadow of victimization than owning up to the all the facts.

This ends up being a huge waste of time because the reality is this... If every culture, race and ethnicity had to get reparations from the wrongdoings done to them, then we would be in a world war. Because almost every culture has done some wrong to another.

Those that thrive are the ones too busy with the present and the future, they don't waste time holding on to the past in the hopes of getting something from pity. They're investing in the future, investing in their people and culture, investing in their nation to prepare for the future. Because at the end of day only the future matters. The past is unchangeable, and there's only so much apologies until one can give until the apology becomes a question of why don't they make the life they want to live. Who's actually stopping them, if not themselves.

I am an Irish man who knows very little about the First Nation except, through westerns as a child, and snippets of information garnered through adulthood into old age, which have changed the narritave.

This documovie broke my heart.

Human beings, if that's what we still wish to call ourselves, definitely have the knowledge, and the wherewithall, to destroy ourselves, along with what is around us. And for what?

I looked at the figures and calculated that, as of 1492 America was fully populated with 80m First Nation. I would guess that Europe had quiet less than that. This equates to 25% of current American population.

As of the time this movie was made pre-pandemic, the figures showed that 90% of the First Nation were eridicated. This drastically reduces the population to 2.5%.

The saddest part is, from my perspective, this is the longest CURRENT genocide/holocaust in any memory. The worst part? It now has very little external cause. Most of it is now internal.

I could have watched and said nothing. My conscience said otherwise. Only a few years ago, I found out that a First Nation tribe, sent money, food and blankets to my country, during our Famine, a country they knew nothing about. I know little about the First Nation however, what I can do is stand by them, and abhor what was done to them over the past 500 years.

I wish you well, all of you.

I don't feel like this film represents me as a Native American.

Just wanted to point out that this may represent some, but it does not represent all of us.