Storytelling & Justice: A Conversation Inspired by Reservation Redemption at the Triangle Native American Film Festival

On August 8, 2026, Current Tribal Law & Policy, PLLC was honored to participate in the Second Annual Triangle Native American Film Festival at Raleigh’s historic Rialto Theatre and to host a panel discussion following the screening of the documentary Reservation Redemption.

Organized by the Triangle Native American Society, the festival created a space for audiences to experience Native stories told by Native actors, directors, and filmmakers. The day’s programming included animated shorts, documentaries, and feature-length films examining contemporary Native life, history, identity, and culture. The festival concluded with the screening of Reservation Redemption, followed by a panel discussion hosted by Current Tribal Law & Policy, PLLC.

Reservation Redemption: Culture, Accountability, and Transformation

Reservation Redemption follows the journey of “Chief” Marchand Rice, a Colville Citizen, who received a life-without-parole sentence at age 17.

During his incarceration, Rice met Kalispel spiritual leader Francis Cullooyah, who helped change the trajectory of his life. Rice began reconnecting with Native culture and spirituality and eventually became a teacher, mentor, and cultural leader for others in prison.

The film confronts difficult questions about accountability and punishment while also examining the consequences of cultural loss, generational trauma, and disconnection from Native identity. At its center is a powerful idea: reconnection to culture can provide a pathway toward responsibility, healing, and transformation.

Those themes provided the foundation for our discussion following the film.

Cinema Creates Conversation

Current founding partner Amber Holland moderated a panel discussion examining the themes presented by Reservation Redemption through legal, cultural, and community perspectives.

The discussion addressed the disproportionate incarceration of American Indian and Alaska Native people, the complexities of measuring crime and recidivism, barriers faced by people returning to their communities after incarceration, and the legal protections afforded to Native people seeking to practice their cultures and religions while incarcerated.

A significant part of the conversation focused on an issue demonstrated so clearly by the film: culture is not merely an extracurricular activity or amenity.

For many Native people, culture is inseparable from identity, spirituality, family, responsibility, and community. When Native people are incarcerated, maintaining or rebuilding those connections can become part of a much larger process of understanding who they are, accepting responsibility, and determining who they want to become.

Our two panelists brought important and complementary perspectives to that conversation.

Monty “Hawk” Branham: Culture as a Pathway to Healing

We were honored to be joined by Monty “Hawk” Branham of the Catawba Nation, whose life and work embody the importance of cultural preservation, spiritual connection, and community responsibility.

Branham is a Catawba master potter, peer mentor, spiritual leader, singer, dancer, and multi-instrumentalist. His involvement in Catawba cultural life spans decades, and his work has contributed to the preservation and continuation of Catawba traditions.

His perspective was particularly meaningful in a discussion of Reservation Redemption. Branham played a supportive role with the Catawba Cultural Center from 1993-present and continues to lead his Tribal community as a knowledge-keeper and cultural practitioner. He has worked for the past two decades with Catawba Youth and as the Cultural Education Specialist for the Catawba Teen Center. He also served in the role of Peer Support Specialist for the Behavioral Health services as Cultural Education Specialist.

That experience allowed our discussion to move beyond abstract conversations about whether incarcerated Native people should have “access to culture.” Instead, we considered what those practices can actually mean to a person seeking healing, connection, discipline, responsibility, and a relationship with community.

Branham's contribution also underscored why correctional institutions cannot approach Native religion and culture as though there is a single set of practices shared by all American Indians. Native nations possess distinct histories, traditions, spiritual practices, and community protocols. Meaningful cultural access therefore requires listening to Native people and, where appropriate, working with tribal cultural and spiritual leaders who understand those traditions.

Holly James: Law, Tribal Sovereignty, and Native Rights

We were also pleased to welcome attorney Holly James, who brought an important legal perspective to the conversation.

James is a Tribal Attorney and academic. She graduated from USC Law with a concentration in Children's Law, ICWA focus, and earned her Masters from Tulsa Law in Federal Indian Law and Governance. Her focus areas are Constitutional Law, Tribal Law, and Federal Indian Law, as well as laws and policies impacting the LGBTQ community. She recently completed work on her first textbook entitled Constitutional Law for Teachers and Students, available for free for educators from the Constitutional Law Center at the University of South Carolina School of Law. Her research areas focus on Tribal Court and Tribal Bar Association development, Tribal code development, as well as the history and current application of ICWA. Additional research interests include Education Law in Indian Country.

James’ participation helped connect the human story presented in Reservation Redemption with the larger legal framework surrounding Native people in correctional institutions.

Those issues include questions about religious freedom, the treatment of Native spiritual and cultural practices within prisons, the relationship between tribal sovereignty and state and federal institutions, and the role lawyers can play in ensuring that Native people are not required to abandon their identities when they enter a correctional facility.

The legal questions are especially significant because practices that may be unfamiliar to prison administrators, such as access to spiritual leaders, sweat lodges, sacred medicines, ceremonial tobacco, feathers, traditional foods, songs, prayer, or other sacred items, may constitute deeply held religious practices rather than optional cultural activities.

The conversation challenged us to consider not only whether those rights exist on paper, but also whether correctional policies provide Native people a meaningful opportunity to exercise them.

Looking Beyond Recidivism

The panel also examined recidivism and reentry.

Recidivism is frequently used as a measure of whether the criminal justice system is working, but even the term itself can obscure important distinctions. Rearrest, reconviction, a new criminal sentence, and reincarceration for a technical supervision violation measure different things.

For Native people returning home from incarceration, success may also depend on factors that cannot be captured by a recidivism statistic alone.

Does the person have stable housing? Employment? Transportation? Behavioral-health or substance-use treatment? Relationships with family? A supportive community?

Reservation Redemption demonstrates the profound difference that cultural belonging can make. Rice's story does not suggest that reconnection to culture erases criminal conduct or eliminates accountability. Instead, it demonstrates that accepting responsibility for one's past and developing an identity beyond that past can exist simultaneously.

Native Stories Creating Native Conversations

The Triangle Native American Film Festival provided more than an opportunity to watch Indigenous films. It provided an opportunity for those films to become the beginning of conversations within our own communities.

That is particularly important with a film like Reservation Redemption.

The documentary asks difficult questions without offering easy answers. What does accountability require? What does rehabilitation look like? How should a justice system respond when someone demonstrates genuine transformation? What obligations do correctional institutions have to accommodate Native cultural and religious practices? And what role can tribal communities, elders, cultural leaders, attorneys, and families play in helping people reconnect after incarceration?

Those conversations become richer when Native voices are part of answering them.

We are grateful to Monty Branham and Holly James for sharing their perspectives and experiences and to the Triangle Native American Society for creating a space where Native filmmakers, Native communities, and audiences can engage with stories like Reservation Redemption.

At Current Tribal Law & Policy, PLLC we believe conversations about justice involving Native people must include Native voices, tribal perspectives, and an understanding of tribal nations' unique legal and cultural status.

Reservation Redemption reminds us that justice and accountability matter. But it also asks us to consider something equally important: whether our systems leave room for holistic healing, cultural reconnection, and the possibility that people can become more than the worst thing they have ever done.