Natives of the Southwest

The Natives of the Southwest (VHS)

from The Native Americans series by TBS (1994)

One part of a six-part series.

This 50 minutes episode is mostly about the Navajo, Hopi, and Apache peoples.

I was hoping for more history.

It was mostly about the modern plight of these peoples.

There was one interesting snippet on the Anasazi. The word was explained to mean, "enemies of my ancestors." The word was described as an offensive epithet. I got the distinct impression that this was not something that they wished to discuss, maybe even bordering on taboo to discuss this subject with white people.

Very negative portrayal of the Spanish explorers and missionaries. The Spanish explorers enslaved the tribes to work in mines in Mexico. The Spanish missionaries burned people for witchcraft (apparently defined as anything not Catholic).

Fascinating creation stories.