The premiere of the documentary series, which investigates the world created by America's First Peoples some 15,000 years ago. First up: Who they were. The answer hides in Amazonian cave paintings, Mexican burial chambers, New Mexico's Chaco Canyon and waves off California's coast.
Recalling the rise of great American nations, from monarchies to democracies. Included: lost cities in Mexico; a temple in Peru; a potlatch ceremony in the Pacific Northwest; and a tapestry of shell beads in upstate New York.
Discovering the cosmological secrets behind America's ancient cities. Scientists explore some of the world's largest pyramids and 3D-scan a lost city of monumental mounds on the Mississippi River. Also: native elders reveal ancient powers of the sky.
How resistance, survival and revival are revealed through an empire of Comanche warriors, secret messages encoded in an Aztec manuscript and a grass bridge in the Andes that spans mountains and centuries.
Native innovators, including NASA engineer Aaron Yazzie (Navajo), sustainable builder Henry Red Cloud (Lakota), and First Nations’ electronic music group The Halluci Nation are leading a revolution in space exploration, architecture, and music. Their revolutionary approach to their work combines deeply held traditions with modern innovation to transform and improve their communities. From designing key instruments used by NASA’s Perseverance rover as it searches for life on Mars, to developing new forms of energy-efficient housing inspired by Plains Indian traditions, to applying principles of electronic music and hip-hop to bring a contemporary powwow beat to the masses, Native people are playing a significant part in every aspect of the modern world.
Within Native communities across America, warrior traditions inspire incredible athletes and connect people to combat, games, and glory. This episode includes teen boxer Mariah Bahe (Navajo), ultrarunner Christian Gering (Katishtya), and Indian horse relay riders from the Flathead National Reservation in Montana. Today’s Native warriors are connected by an incredible history and drive to strengthen and empower themselves, their cultures, communities, and their Nations. This tradition of reaching within oneself to serve has deep roots in Native American communities, including the horse riders on the plains fighting to protect their homelands and the Navajo Code Talkers, who transmitted secret messages in World War II. And it lives on across Native America today, where nearly one in five serves in the American armed forces—the highest rate of any group.
From the corridors of power to the fashion runway, from superheroes in comic books to real-life champions protecting the planet, Native women are continuing their traditional roles as leaders to make a better future. Episode three explores how women are building on deep traditions to improve their communities, their lands, and the world. Political trailblazer Ruth Buffalo (Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation) fights to protect vulnerable people across North Dakota as a state representative. Arigon Starr (Kickapoo) employs music, theater, and comic books to revolutionize how Native people are portrayed in the media. Betty Osceola (Miccosukee Nation) is saving the Everglades through headline-grabbing activism and Jamie Okuma (Luiseño) designs award-winning works of wearable art that are rewriting the story of Native fashion.
From Hollywood films on the big screen to sacred writing deep within the Earth, Native people are fighting to keep their languages and ways of life alive. Though many of the approximately 170 Native languages spoken across the U.S. remain at risk today, it is a time of hope. A revolutionary effort to revitalize traditional languages is unfolding across Native America and Native innovators are applying 21st-century technologies to save a core element of their culture and inspire future generations. This episode explores the recovery of Passamaquoddy songs recorded over a century ago using a laser-assisted needle, and digital scans of Cherokee writing hidden under graffiti in a Georgia cave. In addition, Manny Wheeler (Navajo) shares his mission to dub Hollywood blockbusters like Star Wars into Navajo. Their successes are changing Native America and the world at large.
