Community Film: False Promises: The Lost Land of the Wenatchi

Icicle Creek Center for the Arts

The doors open at 6 pm. Please join us for finger foods and mingling before the film. The film will start at 7 pm and be followed by a panel discussion.

This film makes an impassioned plea for the return of the land that was taken from the Wenatchi Tribe of Washington State. For generations, they lived and fished on their land. In 1855, they were offered a reservation under the terms of the Yakama Treaty. The U.S. failed to honor that treaty as well as others that were made with the tribe. Historian E. Richard Hart has been working in Indian affairs for over thirty years. He knows of no other case where a tribe was promised fishing rights in a ratified treaty and again in a ratified agreement, and still does not have those rights honored.

As a result of these injustices, the Wenatchis had to leave their land. Most moved to the Colville Indian Reservation. In 1937, Chief Harmelt died, but today his granddaughter and her children have taken up the fight along with other tribal elders of the Wenatchi Advisory Board and many others. About 28% of the land in the area that should have been a Wenatchi Reservation is still a part of the public domain. When will the U.S. right this historical wrong?

Produced by White Noise Productions
Directed by Rustin Thompson

We are honored to be partnering with The Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, Wenatchee River Institute and the Greater Leavenworth Museum to bring this film to the big screen in Snowy Owl Theater!

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