- Welcome to Independent Lens .
I'm Pete Schwaba, host of Wisconsin Public Television's
Director's Cut .
Tonight, we bring you an unsettling chapter
in our nation's history
with the documentary Dawnland .
This film tells the story of abuses suffered
by Native American children in the child welfare system.
For the greater part of the 20th century,
the U.S. Government took
indigenous children from their families
and forced them to live in the homes of white families,
where, more often than not,
the culture these children knew
was erased from their memories.
In Dawnland , for the first time,
they are being asked to share their stories.
In addition to sharing these stories,
Co-directors Adam Mazo and Ben Pender-Cudlip
also focus on the nation's first ever
government-sanctioned Truth and Reconciliation Commission
in the state of Maine.
Native and non-Native leaders came together
to address the abuse the Wabanaki people suffered
and their quest for cultural survival.
As recently as the 1970s, 25% of Native American children
were living in non-native foster care.
Even today in some states,
native children are fourteen times more likely
to be placed into foster care
than non-native children.
It's a film about cultural survival,
stolen children,
and one state that is trying to make reparations.
Dawnland starts now on Wisconsin Public Television,
your home for independent film.