Broken Rainbow

BROKEN RAINBOW presents a moving account of the forced relocation of 12,000 Navajo Indians that continues to take place in Northern Arizona. The United States government claims that by moving the Navajo off the land, it is settling a long-standing territorial dispute between the Navajo and Hopi Tribes. To the traditional Navajo and Hopi, there is no dispute. They believe relocation was designed to facilitate energy development. In the words of the traditional elders: “There is no word for relocation in the Navajo language: to relocate is to disappear and never be seen again.” 25% of the first group of Navajo adults who were relocated were dead within six years.

At this very moment, almost 30 years after making Broken Rainbow, a 1,172 mile Dakota Access Pipeline is being proposed to go from North Dakota to Illinois, with blatant disregard for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. The tribe was not informed, nor part of the discussion until Native activists brought it to the press.

If approved, the pipeline will disrupt areas of cultural significance, including sacred burial grounds. It will expose the tribe’s water supply to contamination, certain to poison its people and grazing animal life.

BROKEN RAINBOW speaks for all indigenous people who are struggling to survive as individuals and as distinct cultures in the face of Western technology and values. The film is an appeal from the Earth herself, as it has become impossible in America today to separate environmental issues from Native American survival.


An Earthworks Films production

Produced, Written and Directed by
Maria Florio and Victoria Mudd

Narrated by Martin Sheen

Voiceovers by Buffy Saint Marie, Burgess Meredith, Semu Huate

Original Song by Laura Nyro.

Distribution-New Video