The 1992 film Thunderheart is framed as a murder mystery-meets-thriller with a spiritual awakening component. Credit: Tristar Pictures
In February 2025, Leonard Peltier walked out of prison after five decades of incarceration.
His harrowing story as a former leader of AIM, the American Indian Movement, forms the underpinnings of Thunderheart (1992) starring the late, lamented Graham Greene, Val Kilmer, Sam Shepard and Fred Ward.
Although fictional, the events depicted in Thunderheart loosely parallel a series of violent conflicts between the federal government and AIM on the Pine Ridge Reservation and in the town of Wounded Knee in 1970s South Dakota.
The last installment of this season’s Native Film Series at the Briscoe Western Art Museum, Thunderheart will screen for free this Saturday.
The movie is framed as a murder mystery-meets-thriller with a spiritual awakening component, but themes of corporate collusion and government exploitation of Native lands can’t help but seep to the surface. In the meantime — and in the real world — Peltier will remain under house arrest until his passing.
Free with online reservation, 1:30-4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 15, Briscoe Western Art Museum, 210 W Market St., (210) 299-4499, briscoemuseum.org.
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