Robin Davey and Yellow Thunder Woman's documentary The Canary Effect (2006) opens with a quote from Felix S. Cohen stating, "
our treatment of the Indians, even more than our treatment of other minorities, reflects the rise and fall of our democratic faith." It transitions to an animation, the story of the Pilgrims and Indians shown satirically. But we know the story, we learned it well. Columbus, 1492, and how curiosity didn't kill the cat. Curiosity killed the Native American. Of course that's not the story we first learned, is it? In grade school with our innocence spilling out of us till there's no more like our juice boxes, we take a history course. There's glue and construction paper and you construct a turkey. You can be a Pilgrim or Indian, it's your choice. What you don't know is that choosing one side equates to the act of grave digging or soul exchanging rituals. One side ends lives, the other dictates this ceasing of existence.
The Canary Effect unapologetically speaks of the genocide committed against the indigenous people by the American government, troops, and people. The documentary focuses on revealing the horrid accounts of the mistreatment of the indigenous people. The film is structured in a chronological manner. It begins with the history of the Natives. Professors, historians, and historical data are used to illustrate the tragic times past. The film then transitions to present time (which was then 2006 for the filmmakers) and focuses on interviewing people who live on the reservations. While watching it your world won't shatter. You will feel the guilt that one does when they've done nothing wrong and everything wrong for not knowing of the wrong thing to begin with. Your world won't shatter, but it will shift. The documentary launches with a history of the Native people, beginning with the discovery and escalating to the torturing of the innocent. Filmed speeches from Presidents showing how something as beautiful as language can be contorted and manipulated to mask scars, wounds. There's a clip were Reagan states he doesn't know what the Natives are so angry about, since some of them made money from the casinos and oil. Another clip shows George Bush Jr. not being able to define sovereignty, his dismissiveness. The documentary includes facts about the Indian massacres, such as the Sand Creek Massacre in which blameless men, women, and children were killed in Colorado. It lists so many massacres committed against the Native people that you will begin to feel uncomfortable, you will know that something of this sort occurred, you wouldn't know how it still lingers round their lebensraums today. It is shared of how through the Americanization of Indian children, they were forced to changed their names. Children go up to the board choose a name. Children who haven't lived long enough to understand the depth of a name. Mom's tongue releasing her love for you. It's changed by a person who doesn't care about you, or your mother. You won't understand this, but you'll feel the loss. This America, or The United States, has neglected the people whose home they invaded. As of 2006, the unemployment rate on the reservations was at eighty-five percent. In the documentary interviewees spoke of the blatant discrimination they face when seeking employment. As a result of the mistreatment of these people, chaos ensues. The jails are stuffed with communities of people, too small to shelter the persons mostly arrested for public intoxication. Familial bonds impossible to strengthen, kids on their own. Suicide rates among children at a disturbing level. Almost half the girls at a school attempted suicide. Suicide attempts occurred three to seven times weekly on the Cheyenne reservations. Soulless people wandering through their borders searching for some sort of salvation. There's soulless people existing on our land. This concept of being American seems to not be applicable to everyone. As expressed in Ted Roosevelt's "True Americanism" you can come to this country just leave your past life at the door. Well what he actually said was, "after passing through the crucible of naturalization, we are no longer Germans; we are Americans." Or, you're no longer who you were, you're what we want you to be. This same Roosevelt described the Sand Creek Massacre (1864) "as righteous and beneficial a deed as ever took place on the frontier." Are the Natives not true Americans? If this land is not theirs, then how can one expect them to live? You will ask yourself, can you live without a home? The natives' truths are relevant to all of us. We are taught that history is boring, and it is the way it is presented through texts at times. Everyone remembers bobble-heading their way through history classes in high school. This documentary is not that history lesson. This documentary is the match lit in the dark room. My intent in writing this review is awareness. Perhaps it is pointless to know something that you can do nothing about. But maybe, if enough people know of a certain thing, the nonacceptance of that thing will become intolerable. And the change that we once thought unfathomable will not only become a realistic notion but a necessity. Because if, as people, we continue to waltz whilst cradling the unacceptable, we will reduce our state to a definitive sorrowfulness. It's not about focusing on one group of people, it's about loving and caring for our singular race, the human one. This documentary is one that you should watch. Your moon and stars don't shine so brightly everywhere. And this term America doesn't fly so elegantly out of everyone's hearts, we should understand why.
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