Indian Country Diaries: A Seat at the Drum

Vision Maker Media, Lincoln, NE - 2006

Indian Country Diaries is a two-part series for national public television that explores issues facing contemporary American Indians in both urban and reservation settings. Compelling narrative stories weave themes of identity, sovereignty, health, assimilation, religion and more into a fascinating portrait of a people too often invisible both on television and to American society in general.

In A Seat at the Drum, journalist/playwright Mark Anthony Rolo (Bad River Ojibwe) seeks to learn how American Indians in Los Angeles preserve tribal identity, survive economically and cope with the pressures of assimilation in a challenging metropolis. His personal quest to come to terms with these issues leads him to meet Native community leaders, Indians relocated from reservations, boarding school students, Native business leaders and single parent families whose stories typify the experiences of urban Indians.

As these characters tell how Indians in Los Angeles create community and retain a connection to their tribes; choose whether their language and traditions are relevant in the modern world; cope with mounting social problems and declining social services; and develop business empires fueled by gaming profits, Rolo is propelled toward a reckoning with his own identity.
Visit the website IndianCountryDiaries.org to learn more.