Pete Standing Alone of the Kainai Nation was more at home in the White man's culture than his own as a young man. However, confronted with the realization that his children knew very little about their origins, he became determined to pass down to them the customs and traditions of his ancestors. This hour-long film is the powerful biographical study of a twenty-five-year span in Pete's life, from his early days as an oil-rig roughneck, rodeo rider and cowboy, to the present as an Indigenous man concerned with preserving his Nation's spiritual heritage in the face of an energy-oriented industrial …
Have students discuss why it might be important for a Native person to preserve their culture. What is it like to be outside? What is it like to belong? How do we move back and forth? What is the role of ritual and community? What do students think of Pete Standing Alone? Consider screening Round Up or Legacy, two films that feature Pete Standing Alone as an older man.