The Silent Enemy: An Epic of the American Indian (DVD)

Filmed on location in northern Canada and cast with actual Ojibwe tribe members, this stirring motion picture offers a historical glimpse into the daily trials and tribulations faced by the great Native American peoples at the dawn of the 20th century, capturing their vanishing way of life on celluloid for all time.

As winter bears down on the hungry Ojibwe Indian nation, aging Chief Chetoga must intercede between two warring factions within his tribe. Baluk, a great hunter, believes that Chetoga should take his starving people into the snowy north to find the vast caribou herds. Medicine Man Dagwan rejects this dangerous idea and advises his chief to keep the camp in place, despite dwindling game. When Chetoga sides with Baluk, the entire tribe packs up and sets out on a dangerous trek. Fighting blizzards, wolves and mountain lions, they push ever deeper into the frozen reaches of the vast Canadian tundra, where either grisly death -- or blessed salvation -- await.

Two pulse-pounding sequences highlight this amazing tale of basic survival at its most raw. In one, Baluk single-handedly fights off a pack of wolves and kills their intended prey - an angry bull moose! In another, an incredible caribou stampede overruns an Ojibwe hunting party. Like Nanook of the North, The Silent Enemy is one of many films created during the early days of cinema in an effort to preserve an authentic record of a disappearing culture.

• drama