The Long Walk

Please note: copyright to The Long Walk is held by WNET. All rights reserved. WNET is the premier public media provider of the New York metropolitan area and parent of public television stations THIRTEEN and WLIW21. The Long Walk was originally produced by KQED for National Educational Television (NET) - the predecessor of WNET - and first aired in 1970.

This Philip Greene documentary recounts how the Navajo people were treated by white settlers during the Nineteenth Century, considers the modern world's impact on traditional ways of life and examines the education of Navajo children at the Intermountain School in Brigham City, Utah and the Rough Rock Demonstration School in Chinle, Arizona. Also includes interviews with Native Americans, who reflect on their experience of cultural assimilation and school principals Wilma Victor and Dillon Platero, who describe their approaches to teaching. Rough Rock's Deputy Director Anita Pfieffer explains that students: "Can go home to their relatives and operate like a Navajo. Go to a middle class home and operate like a middle class Anglo. And if they know how to switch between the two, there's no problem." Ends with views of a graduation ceremony at Rough Rock School, with Senator Edward Kennedy in attendance, who delivers a speech. This was the first such graduation ceremony in a school controlled by Native American people in the USA. The film is narrated by Richard O. Moore, with translations by Ed Radenzel.