The Hemp Report

Standing Silent Nation

By Suree Towfighnia & Courtney Hermann

What does a family have to endure to create a future for itself? In April 2000, Alex White Plume and his Lakota family planted industrial hemp on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota after other crops had failed. They put their hopes for a sustainable economy in hemp's hardiness and a booming worldwide demand for its many products, from clothing to food. Although growing hemp, a relative of marijuana, was banned in the U.S., Alex believed that tribal sovereignty, along with hemp's non-psychoactive properties, would protect him. But when federal agents raided the White Plumes' fields, the Lakota Nation was swept into a Byzantine struggle over tribal sovereignty, economic rights and common sense. A co-presentation of Native American Public Telecommunications.

Broadcast Date:
Tuesday, July 3, 2007 at 10PM (1 hour)
(check local listings)

For more information please see:

P.O.V. on PBS: Standing Silent Nation

Suree Towfighnia & Courtney Hermann: Prairie Dust Films

The Hemp Report: Oglala Sioux Plant Industrial Hemp

Vote Hemp: Legal Cases - White Plume

Natives Unite: Hemp at Pine Ridge: The Alex White Plume Story

Natives Unite: Hemp at Pine Ridge: Background

Mother Jones: The Drug War Comes to the Rez