- Directed by
- Florio, Maria
- Mudd, Victoria, American, born 1946
- Narrated by
- Sheen, Martin, American, born 1940
- Subject of
- Hopi Tribe of Arizona, Hopi
- Distributed by
- Earthworks, American, founded 1980
- Owned by
- D.C. Public Library, American, founded 1896
- Date
- 1985
- Medium
- polyester film
- Dimensions
- Duration: 56 Minutes
- Length (Film): 2025 Feet
- Caption
- This film was a part of the Washington D.C. Public Library's circulating 16mm film collection housed at the Martin Luther King Jr. Central Library. The collection is particularly noted for the wide variety of African American and African diaspora content.
- Description
- A documentary film with the title Broken Rainbow. It consists of a single reel of color 16mm polyester film with optical sound. The documentary discusses the plight of the Navajo and Hopi peoples who were forcibly relocated from Black Mesa, Arizona after the 1974 Navajo-Hopi Land Settlement Act. It opens with footage of a congressional hearing on the Navajo relocation. Other scenes/topics that arise in the documentary include a discussion of the origins of the Hopi and Navajo nations; footage of Navajo people doing everyday tasks such as herding sheep, farming and grinding corn, as well as harvesting medicinal berries; interviews with Navajo people in their native language where they talk about their connection to the land; archival footage of clashes between Europeans and Native Americans (the narrator comments that Nazis studied the internment camps used on the Navajo to design the ones in Europe); the attempted acculturation of the Navajo and Hopi peoples by white Americans; relations between Navajo and Hopi peoples; footage of the construction of the Santa Fe railroad and the consequences it had on the nations; creation of the Navajo Tribal Council Chambers; as well as the impact of World War II on the Navajo and the contributions the Navajo made to the American military. The final sections of the documentary discuss the creation of the Navajo Tribal Council Chamber and the impact of coal and other mining on the Navajo. The narrator and interviewees state that the Navajo gain miniscule pecuniary benefits from the mining industry but suffer immensely from the health consequences. One of the men featured suffered adverse health risks from unwittingly using radioactive ore to build his house. There are also scenes of Navajo and Hopi activism and resistance despite the government destroying the flora and livestock they rely on in order to remove them from the land.
- Place used
- Washington, District of Columbia, United States, North and Central America
- Place filmed
- Hopi Reservation, Arizona, United States, North and Central America
- Navajo Nation, Arizona, United States, North and Central America
- Collection title
- DC Public Library Film Collection
- Classification
- Time-based Media - Moving Images
- Movement
- American Indian Movements
- Topic
- Activism
- American West
- Colonialism
- Communities
- Decolonization
- Documentary films
- Economics
- Film
- Government
- Health
- Race relations
- Resistance
- United States History
- Credit Line
- Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
- Object number
- 2017.55.92.1a
- Restrictions & Rights
- Restrictions likely apply. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.




