FNX Opens Native American Heritage Month With People of the West on Nov. 1

A historical documentary series that tears down the myths of California history premieres Nov. 1 on FNX, the country’s only national TV network for Native programs. People of the West, from Pechanga Studios, tells 500 years of the state’s past through the eyes of its first people.

Most Americans learn California history from the people who took the land. Many classrooms still teach the missions and the Gold Rush as proud chapters in America’s History. People of the West pushes back with Native historians, survivors, and actors across 10 episodes. It also lands on FNX for the first day of Native American Heritage Month.

The idea began with a field trip. Creator and executive producer Brad Munoa is a member of the Pechanga Band of Indians, or Payómkawichum. His daughter visited Mission San Luis Rey in fourth grade and asked to make adobe bricks “like the Indians did.” In other words, a school lesson had her act out the forced labor her own ancestors endured. Another of his kids went to a Gold Rush camp that praised the pioneers and skipped the harm they caused tribes.

“I knew we could do better,” Munoa told Patch.

Pechanga Studios made the series with Boardwalk Pictures, the company behind “Chef’s Table” and “Last Chance U.” Christopher Nataanii Cegielski, a Diné filmmaker, shared directing duties with Phillip Montgomery and Josh Baker. The episodes mix acted scenes, historic photos, animation, and interviews.

Episode one opens with creation stories and Spanish explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo’s 1542 landing on Kumeyaay land at San Diego Bay. From there, it follows Native nations through the missions, the Gold Rush, and statehood. In 1851, Gov. Peter Burnett told lawmakers to expect “a war of extermination” against Native people. State-paid militias helped carry it out. Munoa doesn’t soften any of it. What textbooks call manifest destiny, the show calls genocide.

Still, Munoa says it’s really about survival. “Tribes were strategic, and they weren’t just passive observers of history,” he told ICT. “They didn’t just let this all happen.” Leaders met and weighed their choices. They could fight, hide, or try to work with the newcomers.

Later episodes bring the story into modern times. A Paiute grandmother relives her years at the Sherman Indian Boarding School in Riverside. Mohawk activist Richard Oakes and student leader LaNada War Jack lead the 1969 takeover of Alcatraz Island. Armed deputies raid a small card room on the Cabazon Reservation. Their raid sparks a court battle over tribal sovereignty, the right of tribes to govern themselves. The case reached the U.S. Supreme Court and reshaped tribal gaming nationwide. The final episode visits tribes from the Channel Islands to the Coachella Valley that care for their homelands today.

Voices come from Kumeyaay, Ohlone, Chumash, Miwok, Wintu, Yurok, and other nations. Well-known Native actors fill the acting roles, including David Midthunder (Hunkpapa Lakota), Gene Brave Rock (Blackfoot), and Montana Cypress (Miccosukee).

The team also built People of the West for classrooms. They wrote a 155-page curriculum for middle school through college that fits California’s Ethnic Studies and history standards. Munoa calls the approach edutainment. “We wanted to make it for kids, for teens, so that they were so compelled that they couldn’t look away,” he said.

The series debuted this summer at the Dances With Films festival in Hollywood and won its Series Audience Award. Now it’s headed to a much larger audience. FNX broadcasts from KVCR, the PBS station in San Bernardino, and the Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation helped found it. The network can reach more than 84 million homes through 29 stations in 34 states. The Nov. 1 air date also falls 12 years to the day after FNX went national.

Native families have always carried these stories. We’ve passed them down at the dinner table, in ceremony and on the front lines of protest. Now the rest of the country gets to hear them.

Catch People of the West on FNX Nov. 1. Check local listings or stream FNX live at fnx.org or on the FNX app. Teachers can sign up for the curriculum at peopleofthewest.org.