100 Years

Filmmaker Melinda Janko’s documentary focuses on the long and shameful history of how the federal government reaped the riches of natural resources on Native American lands without distributing the wealth back to the indigenous peoples. This situation was challenged in court in 1996 by Elouise Cobell, a tribal elder of Montana’s Blackfoot Confederacy, who brought forth the largest class-action lawsuit ever filed against the U.S. government. Cobell charged that the Department of the Interior enabled energy companies to take the bounty from native lands without providing accountability for environmental damage or financial transparency on their revenue gains (while also mismanaging the indigenous population’s trust funds). The lawsuit dragged on through three presidential administrations until 2010 when Congress approved the funds to enable a $3.4 billion settlement in favor of 300,000 Native Americans. Janko’s documentary chronicles a modern-day David and Goliath struggle, with the behemoth bureaucracy of the federal government working to stall and frustrate Cobell’s history-making lawsuit. 100 Years also notes that many Native Americans living on tribal lands today are without electricity and running water in their homes, even as their reservations are plumbed for oil, timber, and mineral wealth. A compelling portrait of an indefatigable heroine fighting for the disenfranchised, this is highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (P. Hall)