Leonardo DiCaprio and his Appian Way banner are backing a new documentary that digs into one of the darkest corners of American history, abuse at Native American boarding schools.
The film is titled Nine Little Indians, and it’s directed by Shannon Kring and has been nearly a decade in the making. It’s now in post-production, and what it’s set to reveal is harrowing.
At the heart of the story are the Charbonneau sisters, nine siblings who, along with their childhood schoolmates, suffered years of trauma at St. Paul’s Indian Mission School in Marty, South Dakota.
The documentary traces their nearly 20-year-long legal battle against the Catholic Church, demanding accountability for the abuse, cover-ups, and the lives lost in silence.
Jennifer Davisson, Appian Way’s President of Production, says the company is all in on telling this story: “We are delighted to partner with Tony Robbins and Shannon Kring on this profound film, which sheds light onto the egregious crimes that took place at St. Paul’s Indian Mission School.
“We hope this documentary honors the surviving victims and those who tragically perished at the hands of the people who were supposed to protect them the most.”
Nine Little Indians also includes interviews with two former nuns from the school and the abbot who oversaw priests accused of rape and murder. One of the most heartbreaking stories is that of Geraldine “Gerri” Charbonneau’s child, conceived through rape and later lost.
Kring began documenting the story in 2016, after tribal members asked her to film the discovery of children’s remains found during construction at the still-active school grounds.
Kring said: “Over the past two decades, I’ve been entrusted with hundreds of hours of searing testimony on the effects of colonization. Always, the most tragic stories can be traced to the Indian boarding school system—an extension of the Great American Land Grab and thus a tool of genocide. It is time that we as a nation atone for this horror of the not-so-distant past.”
Nine Little Indians also includes a subplot following a Northern Cheyenne cemetery surveyor searching for more unmarked graves at the school. Tony Robbins, who has spent time with the survivors, sahred:
“It is an honor to produce this film alongside Shannon Kring and Leonardo DiCaprio, and to have spent time with the Charbonneau sisters and their classmates in South Dakota.
“Their stories outraged me and are a testament to the unbowed courage and resilience of our country’s original inhabitants. I hope that Nine Little Indians inspires you as much as the St. Paul’s Indian Mission School survivors have inspired me.”
American Indian boarding schools were once tools of forced assimilation, operating from the mid-17th century into the 20th. Their brutal legacy has only recently begun to be acknowledged in media and seen in series like 1923 and indie films like The Only Good Indian.
A project like this could finally give a voice to these tragic stories.
Source: Deadline
