| Encounter with Saul Alinsky, Part 2: Rama Indian Reserve is a 1967 National Film Board video. In this video, American community organizer Saul Alinsky challenges several young Native men to organize their reserve communities in their effort to change the Indian Act. The spokesman for the young men is Duke Redbird. He argues with Alinsky and states that Indians do not want to enter the corrupting world of politics. Alinsky further provokes the young men by telling them that they must attack their enemy in the real world. Tempers flare as Alinsky looses his cool and charges that the young men are playing "semantical perversions". Alinsky believes that if these young men truly want change they must organize the youth, agitate, and then go into action. Redbird retains his idealistic position that Indian people maintain their value system and that they do not want to be corrupted by "Whiteman?s ways". Alinsky, in frustration, throws out the challenge to the young men?s idealism by questioning what they will do when all the discussions are over. The film abruptly ends at this point. With no introduction, viewers may find this film confusing. However the viewer will find that the issue of the Indian Act remains a significant problem today. In fact in Redbird's opening speech he states that First Nations only want to determine their own lives. This sentiment remains true today. Viewers will find this video from 1967 relevant to current discussions around First Nations and self-government. Black & White. |
