INDIAN COUNTRY DIARIES, a new two-part PBS series, goes inside modern Native American communities to reveal a diverse people working to revitalize their culture while improving their social, physical and spiritual health. Co-produced by the Native American Public Telecommunications and Adanvdo Vision, the series discusses some of the biggest issues facing contemporary Native Americans, including: 

How has new-found casino wealth changed the fortunes of Native Americans?

How are tribes coping with the influx of Indian wannabes, eager for a piece of the pie?  

How can Native American parents teach their children their tribal history when they were not taught it themselves?  

Can Christianity and traditional Native American spiritual beliefs co-exist?  

Is there any perfect middle ground between assimilation and isolation? 

Airing on PBS next month, INDIAN COUNTRY DIARIES explores how these issues and many more are being played out in Native American communities in both urban and reservation settings. In each program, a Native American writer reveals their personal struggle with many of these issues and invites the audience to join them as they seek answers.  

In the first episode, A Seat at the Drum, journalist Mark Anthony Rolo (Bad River Ojibwe) sets out to learn how Native Americans in Los Angeles preserve a tribal identity, survive economically and cope with the pressures of a federal relocation program and assimilation in a multicultural metropolis.  

Part two, Spiral of Fire, takes author LeAnne Howe (Choctaw) to the North Carolina homeland of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians to discover how their mix of tourism, community, and cultural preservation is the key to the tribe’s health in the 21st century. 

INDIAN COUNTRY DIARIES, executive produced by Carol Cornsilk and Frank Blythe, will air nationally on PBS in November 2006 (check local listings.) 

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For more information about INDIAN COUNTRY DIARIES, including educational, press and outreach materials, Visit: www.indiancountrydiaries.org