We Are The Land: The Struggle Between Renewable Energy and Indigenous Values

In 2013, a solar power company developed a renewable energy project on a vast tract of land in the Mojave Desert. That land had been home to prehistoric Native American communities. Over the course of thousands of years, many archaeological artifacts accumulated in the area. Those artifacts were displaced and destroyed to make way for the new power plant. This film tells the story of the tribes whose ancestors inhabited that desert basin. Their descendants speak of the pain caused by destruction of their cultural patrimony, but also of the vitality of the desert landscape for its indigenous people. They envision a sustainable future that protects the values of the past.

Directed by Jesse Dizard and produced at the Advanced Laboratory for Visual Anthropology at CSU, Chico.

www.csuchico.edu/alva