University of Wisconsin - Extension

Wisconsin Public Television (WPT) takes a look at different views of Native Americans in three of its November programs.

Independent Lens "The Return of the Navajo Boy" goes beyond the Hollywood images of Native Americans. Airing at 10 p.m. Tuesday, November 21, the one-hour broadcast introduces us to the Cly family, which as been immortalized in countless picture postcards of the Monument Valley in the southwestern part of the United States. In the broadcast, the Clys review the photos and a 50-year-old documentary film filled with parents, aunts, cousins and themselves as children. They grapple with the images and the reality - Bernie's chronic lung disease brought on by uranium mining and Elsie's fight to preserve tribal tradition and the loss of a baby brother through a forced adoption.

Spirit: A Journey in Dance, Drum and Song, 10 p.m. Tuesday, November 28, was taped at Green Bay's Weidner Center and combines the power of Broadway choreography and contemporary music with the songs, chants and dances born of Native American culture to tell the story of one person's - and a nation's - search for renewal by exploring ancestral roots. The two-act multicultural performance features more than 80 performers, including dancers, a choir, percussionists and an orchestra.

Music is more than just a sound to the people of the Ojibwe nation and the tradition and its meaning are spotlighted in Ojibwe Music, airing at 10:30 p.m. Wednesday, November 29. Viewers learn, through traditionalist Eddie Benton-Benai, the roles of instruments such as the shaker, the flute and the drum in Ojibwe life and tribal members perform traditional music. This encore broadcast of an original WPT production features scenes shot along the shores of Lake Superior.

WPT is a service of the Wisconsin Educational Communications Board and the University of Wisconsin-Extension.

Wisconsin Public Television is a place to grow through learning on WHA-TV/Madison, WPNE-TV/Green Bay, WHRM-TV/Wausau, WLEF-TV/Park Falls, WHLA-TV/La Crosse and WHWC-TV/Menomonie-Eau Claire.