MHA Nation filmmaker wins award for short documentary

Not knowing what to expect, Deegan said he was surprised “how strong the community was up in Turtle Mountain in their spiritual ways. Everyone came out for that day, like so much support. And that was really amazing to witness.”

Deegan recorded throughout the day, talking to tribal representatives and community members, and then spent the next couple months editing the film with a colleague.

White buffalo, which symbolize hope and revival, are sacred in Native culture. This reverence is passed down among many tribes through the legend and prophecy of the White Buffalo Calf Woman. One Lakota version of the story says that many years ago, a beautiful woman appeared to two warriors. One of the warriors had bad intentions and tried to touch her, so she turned him to ashes. She taught the other how to hold ceremonies to honor the earth, gifted him with a sacred pipe and told him to share the knowledge with their people. Then, she transformed into a white buffalo and disappeared. The prophecy says that when the white buffalo returns, Native communities will experience a rebirth.

“A lot of people feel like this is a spiritual prophecy that’s come to light,” said Deegan. “And it’s happening in real time.”

The 15-minute film, “Waabishki (White) Mashkode-bizhiki (Bison),” premiered in Hollywood at the Native film festival LA Skins Fest on Friday, Nov. 21. It was one of 75 film screenings attended by hundreds of Indigenous filmmakers.

The film won the festival’s short documentary category at its award ceremony Sunday night.

Les Thomas, a Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa citizen who produced the film and is of Metis descent, said the white buffalo coming back means that the world has to “pull together” to protect Mother Earth at a time when extreme weather events that decimate communities are happening more frequently because of climate change.

“We need to get this message out to the world,” said Thomas, noting that the film helps to share that message of hope and unity and lets people decide for themselves if the arrival and gifting of the white buffalo calves fulfilled the prophecy. For Thomas, it did, as Native communities are beginning to experience a revival of their traditional ways, such as encouraging language revitalization and requiring Native history education in schools.

Running parallel to the revival spoken of in the white buffalo prophecy, Indigenous filmmaking is also experiencing a surge of attention and development. Native-made or Native-involved TV shows like “Reservation Dogs” and “Dark Winds” and movies like “Killers of the Flower Moon” are telling Native stories with care and complexity and gaining mainstream recognition.

Deegan said Indigenous filmmakers are sharing perspectives that are fresh and original, so “the sky is the limit” for Indigenous films.

“We’re tired of the tent-pole film. We’re tired of the blockbuster dud,” he said. “The shift is happening right now, and the next group up is the Indigenous filmmaker.”

Deegan and “Waabishki (White) Mashkode-bizhiki (Bison)” are part of that new wave of filmmaking. Filmed in one day, the short documentary chronicles Turtle Mountain’s buffalo ceremony and the gifting of five white buffalo calves.

It opens with a view of the city of Belcourt on the Turtle Mountain Reservation. Ceremony helper, Trevor Gunville, says the ceremony represents a new beginning. Throughout the film, tribal members, including film producer Thomas, talk about the significance of the ceremony.

Buffalo were brought to the brink of extinction by American hunters and fur traders in the late 19th century. An estimated 30 to 60 million buffalo roamed the Great Plains in the 1800s, but their numbers fell to less than a thousand at the turn of the century. Native communities relied heavily on buffalo for food and used buffalo hides to keep warm in the winter. Their existence was tied to the buffalo. When the buffalo were decimated, so were Native communities.

But recently, there has been a resurgence of buffalo. Tribes like Turtle Mountain, tribal organizations and conservation groups are successfully restoring buffalo populations. The return of the white buffalo is a testament to this and a promise of Native resurgence, said Thomas.

The first white buffalo calf to be born after the decimation of the buffalo population was welcomed in 1994 in Janesville, Wisconsin. Since then, white buffalo calves have been born in North Dakota, South Dakota and Yellowstone National Park. The Turtle Mountain Reservation purchased their first white buffalo from a North Dakota ranch in 2021 and have since welcomed the birth of eight white buffalo calves. In 2024, the tribe decided to gift five of their calves, which were presented at the ceremony to representatives of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Spirit Lake Tribe, Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate and Red Lake Band of Chippewa.

“It was a historical moment in time,” said Thomas. A moment that is now preserved in film.

The film ends with Turtle Mountain tribal citizen Marshall Larocque speaking to people who attended the buffalo ceremony.

“When that buffalo gets strong, we’ll get strong again,” he said. “The old way of life will come back.”