The Divided Trail: A Native American Odyssey

Duration: 30

Year Published: 1977

Creator: Jerry Aronson

Format: 16mm

Color: Color

Description: Documents the complex dilemmas currently faced by Native Americans and conveys their determination to maintain cultural integrity and to gain equal rights within American society. Recounts the events which befall three Chippewa Indians--Michael Chosa, Betty Chosa Jack, and Carol Warrington--as they struggle to overcome the near disintegration of their individual and tribal identities under the enormous pressures of contemporary society. Directs attention to the cultural and emotional betrayal by the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Federal Government which urged Indians to leave the reservation with promises of employment and a better life but offered only unemployment, slums, and alcoholism. Depicts the Indians' militant response to their loss of civil status.