The Ballad of Crowfoot (1968)

Released in 1968 and often referred to as Canada’s first music video, The Ballad of Crowfoot was directed by Willie Dunn, a Mi’kmaq/Scottish folk singer and activist who was part of the historic Indian Film Crew, the first all-Indigenous production unit at the NFB. The film is a powerful look at colonial betrayals, told through a striking montage of archival images and a ballad composed by Dunn himself about the legendary 19th-century Siksika (Blackfoot) chief who negotiated Treaty 7 on behalf of the Blackfoot Confederacy. The IFC’s inaugural release, Crowfoot was the first Indigenous-directed film to be made at the NFB.

Released Jan. 1, 1968 10 min 11+

Genres: Documentary, History, Music, Short

Keywords: mdblist.imdb-short, imdb.19th-century, imdb.treachery, imdb.betrayal, imdb.native-american-chief, imdb.canadian-history, imdb.prejudice + 50 more, imdb.hardship, imdb.buffalo, imdb.indian-chief, imdb.bison, imdb.tragedy, imdb.no-title-at-beginning, imdb.20th-century, imdb.1960s, imdb.land-grab, imdb.kinestasis, imdb.song, imdb.stills, imdb.newspaper-clipping, imdb.music-video, imdb.death, imdb.pawn, imdb.hypocrisy, imdb.frontier, imdb.archive-footage, imdb.native-american-rights, imdb.year-1877, imdb.starvation, imdb.injustice, imdb.settlers, imdb.peace, imdb.year-1864, imdb.leader, imdb.confederacy, imdb.folk-music, imdb.montage, imdb.suffering, imdb.alberta-canada, imdb.train, imdb.christmas-card, imdb.anger, imdb.treaty, imdb.northwest-rebellion, imdb.native-canadian, imdb.racism, imdb.canada, imdb.blackfoot-indian, imdb.independent-film, tmdb.indigenous, tmdb.music, tmdb.mi-kmaq, imdb.american-indian, tmdb.archive-footage, tmdb.colonial-betrayal, tmdb.scottish-folk-singer, aspectratio.1-33-1