Best Native American Movies
by RedruM65 | created - 11 Dec 2011 | updated - 24 Feb 2017 | PublicMy personal favorites of some of the best movies with a Native American theme. Feel free to let me know your favorites.
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1. Thunderheart (1992)
R | 119 min | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
A young mixed-blood FBI agent is assigned to work with a cynical veteran investigator on a murder on a poverty-stricken Sioux reservation.
Director: Michael Apted | Stars: Val Kilmer, Sam Shepard, Graham Greene, Fred Ward
Votes: 17,124 | Gross: $22.66M
2. Last of the Dogmen (1995)
PG | 118 min | Adventure, Western
A Montana bounty hunter and an anthropologist discover a tribe of Native Americans living in a settlement isolated from the rest of the world.
Director: Tab Murphy | Stars: Tom Berenger, Barbara Hershey, Kurtwood Smith, Steve Reevis
Votes: 5,967 | Gross: $7.40M
3. The Last of the Mohicans (1992)
R | 112 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
Three trappers protect the daughters of a British Colonel in the midst of the French and Indian War.
Director: Michael Mann | Stars: Daniel Day-Lewis, Madeleine Stowe, Russell Means, Eric Schweig
Votes: 187,556 | Gross: $75.51M
4. Dances with Wolves (1990)
PG-13 | 181 min | Adventure, Drama, Western
Lieutenant John Dunbar, assigned to a remote western Civil War outpost, finds himself engaging with a neighbouring Sioux settlement, causing him to question his own purpose.
Director: Kevin Costner | Stars: Kevin Costner, Mary McDonnell, Graham Greene, Rodney A. Grant
Votes: 290,473 | Gross: $184.21M
5. Smoke Signals (1998)
PG-13 | 89 min | Comedy, Drama
Arnold rescued Thomas from a fire when he was a child. Thomas thinks of Arnold as a hero, while Arnold's son Victor resents his father's alcoholism, violence and abandonment of his family.
Director: Chris Eyre | Stars: Adam Beach, Evan Adams, Irene Bedard, Gary Farmer
Votes: 12,600 | Gross: $6.72M
6. Powwow Highway (1988)
R | 91 min | Adventure, Drama
Two Northern Cheyenne men take a road trip from Montana to New Mexico to bail out the sister of one of them who has been framed and arrested in Santa Fe. On the way, they begin to reconnect to their spiritual heritage.
Director: Jonathan Wacks | Stars: Gary Farmer, A Martinez, Joanelle Romero, Amanda Wyss
Votes: 1,899 | Gross: $0.28M
7. Windtalkers (2002)
R | 134 min | Action, Drama, War
Two U.S. Marines in World War II are assigned to protect Navajo Marines, who use their native language as an unbreakable radio cypher.
Director: John Woo | Stars: Nicolas Cage, Adam Beach, Peter Stormare, Noah Emmerich
Votes: 73,616 | Gross: $40.91M
8. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (2007 TV Movie)
TV-14 | 133 min | Drama, History, Western
A historic chronicle based on the book by Dee Brown explains how Native Americans were displaced as the United States expanded west.
Director: Yves Simoneau | Stars: Aidan Quinn, Adam Beach, August Schellenberg, Anna Paquin
Votes: 7,433
9. Coyote Waits (2003 TV Movie)
107 min | Drama, Mystery
Two tribal cops uncover a plot involving a lost fortune, an historical artifact and a mythical Coyote on a Navajo reservation.
Director: Jan Egleson | Stars: Adam Beach, Candice Costello, Jimmy Herman, Gary Kanin
Votes: 749
10. A Thief of Time (2003 TV Movie)
94 min | Crime, Mystery
Officers Leaphorn and Chee search for a missing anthropologist suspected of stealing artifacts from a burial site.
Director: Chris Eyre | Stars: Gary Farmer, Adam Beach, Ernest Tsosie III, Wes Studi
Votes: 707
11. Skinwalkers (2002 TV Movie)
100 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
The story revolves around the legend of the skin walkers or "S Dubs", a folk legend from Utah about the spirits of murdered Indians returning to seek revenge upon those who disrespect the land.
Director: Chris Eyre | Stars: Harrison Lowe, James Dalgai, Adam Beach, Saginaw Grant
Votes: 1,054
12. Squanto: A Warrior's Tale (1994)
PG | 102 min | Adventure, Biography, Drama
Fictional chronicle of Squanto's life prior to and including the arrival of the "Mayflower" in 1620.
Director: Xavier Koller | Stars: Adam Beach, Mandy Patinkin, Sheldon Peters Wolfchild, Irene Bedard
Votes: 1,432 | Gross: $3.34M
13. Dance Me Outside (1994)
R | 84 min | Comedy, Drama
A story of life on a First Nations reserve in Ontario: Silas and Frank are trying to get into college to train to be mechanics but they find themselves having to deal with girls, family - and murder.
Director: Bruce McDonald | Stars: Ryan Rajendra Black, Adam Beach, Jennifer Podemski, Michael Greyeyes
Votes: 1,332 | Gross: $0.30M
14. Streets of Laredo (1995)
TV-14 | 100 min | Drama, Western
Captain Woodrow Call, now retired from the Rangers, is a bounty hunter. He is hired by an eastern railroad baron to track down Joey Garza, a new breed of killer.
Stars: James Garner, Sissy Spacek, Sam Shepard, Ned Beatty
Votes: 2,280
15. Dead Man's Walk (1996)
PG-13 | 272 min | Western
In this prequel to "Lonesome Dove", two young men join the Texas Rangers unit that's on a mission to annex Santa Fe.
Stars: F. Murray Abraham, Keith Carradine, Patricia Childress, Edward James Olmos
Votes: 1,929
16. Skins (2002)
R | 84 min | Crime, Drama
An inspirational tale about the relationship between two Sioux brothers living on the Pine Ridge reservation.
Director: Chris Eyre | Stars: Eric Schweig, Graham Greene, Gary Farmer, Noah Watts
Votes: 1,559 | Gross: $0.24M
17. Sioux City (1994)
PG-13 | 102 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
A young Lakota Sioux, adopted by a wealthy Jewish couple in Beverly Hills, gets in touch with his cultural roots and solves a mystery in this thriller. Because of his upbringing, Jesse ... See full summary »
Director: Lou Diamond Phillips | Stars: Lou Diamond Phillips, Salli Richardson-Whitfield, Melinda Dillon, Lise Cutter
Votes: 519
18. Clearcut (1991)
R | 100 min | Drama, Thriller, Western
A white lawyer finds his values shaken when he is paired with an angry Indigenous activist who insists on kidnapping the head of a logging company to teach him the price of his destruction.
Director: Ryszard Bugajski | Stars: Ron Lea, Graham Greene, Michael Hogan, Floyd 'Red Crow' Westerman
Votes: 1,364
19. Crazy Horse (1996 TV Movie)
TV-14 | 90 min | Action, Biography, Drama
The legendary Native American chieftain refuses to go with his people peacefully to the reservation and starts a rebellion.
Director: John Irvin | Stars: Michael Greyeyes, Victor Aaron, Nathaniel Arcand, Frankie Avina
Votes: 513
20. Geronimo: An American Legend (1993)
PG-13 | 115 min | Drama, History, Western
The story of the Apache chief and his armed resistance to the U.S. Government's subjugation of his people.
Director: Walter Hill | Stars: Jason Patric, Gene Hackman, Robert Duvall, Wes Studi
Votes: 13,475 | Gross: $18.64M
21. Windwalker (1980)
PG | 108 min | Adventure, Drama, Western
In 1797 Utah, an aged Cheyenne patriarch helps his kin to fight off a raiding party of rival Crow warriors and he tells his grandchildren the story of their family.
Director: Kieth Merrill | Stars: Trevor Howard, Nick Ramus, James Remar, Serene Hedin
Votes: 1,226 | Gross: $18.64M
22. Into the West (2005)
TV-14 | 92 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
Tales from the American West in the 19th century, told from the perspective of two families, one of white settlers and one of Native Americans.
Stars: Joseph M. Marshall, Irene Bedard, Gil Birmingham, John Terry
Votes: 7,553
23. Rhymes for Young Ghouls (2013)
R | 88 min | Crime, Drama
Red Crow Mi'kmaq reservation, 1976: By government decree, every Indian child under the age of 16 must attend residential school. In the kingdom of the Crow, that means imprisonment at St. Dymphna's. That means being at the mercy of "Popper", the sadistic Indian agent who runs the school.
Director: Jeff Barnaby | Stars: Devery Jacobs, Glen Gould, Brandon Oakes, Roseanne Supernault
Votes: 1,467 | Gross: $0.00M
24. The Missing (I) (2003)
R | 137 min | Adventure, Drama, Thriller
In 1885 New Mexico, a frontier medicine woman forms an uneasy alliance with her estranged father when her daughter is kidnapped by an Apache brujo.
Director: Ron Howard | Stars: Tommy Lee Jones, Cate Blanchett, Evan Rachel Wood, Jenna Boyd
Votes: 38,225 | Gross: $26.90M
25. Comanche Moon (2008)
TV-14 | 120 min | Drama, Western
The adventures and love lives of young Texas Rangers Woodrow Call and Augustus McCrae leading up to their retirement to the city of Lonesome Dove.
Stars: Steve Zahn, Ryan Merriman, Keith D. Robinson, Wes Studi
Votes: 3,286
26. Follow the River (1995 TV Movie)
PG | 91 min | Adventure, Drama
An "inspirational" saga of a pioneer woman who is abducted by Shawnee Native Americans.
Director: Martin Davidson | Stars: Sheryl Lee, Ellen Burstyn, Eric Schweig, Tim Guinee
Votes: 515
27. Little Big Man (1970)
PG-13 | 139 min | Adventure, Comedy, Drama
Jack Crabb, looking back from extreme old age, tells of his life being raised by Native Americans and fighting with General Custer.
Director: Arthur Penn | Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Faye Dunaway, Chief Dan George, Martin Balsam
Votes: 37,881 | Gross: $31.56M
28. The Education of Little Tree (1997)
PG | 112 min | Drama
Little Tree is an 8-year-old Cherokee boy who loses his parents during The Great Depression and begins living with his Indian grandparents and learning the Cherokee way of life.
Director: Richard Friedenberg | Stars: James Cromwell, Joseph Ashton, Tantoo Cardinal, Mika Boorem
Votes: 1,822 | Gross: $0.12M
29. DreamKeeper (2003)
TV-PG | 174 min | Drama, Fantasy
The legends of the Native American nations come to life in this epic new miniseries, as two generations--a century-old storyteller and his grandson, a troubled 17-year-old boy--embark on a cross-country journey toward self-discovery.
Director: Steve Barron | Stars: August Schellenberg, Eddie Spears, Gary Farmer, John Trudell
Votes: 1,722
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