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Celebrate Native American Heritage Month 2019 on KCET and PBS SoCal

Man walking away with fishing net. | Still from “Restoring the River with the Yurok, Karuk and Hupa” episode of "Tending Nature"
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In honor of Native American Heritage Month 2019, KCET and PBS SoCal will air special programming throughout the month of November celebrating Native American culture, including the return of KCET Original series, "Tending Nature."

Check out the full line-up below:

Tending Nature: Rethinking The Coast with the Ti'at Society Sunday, November 3, 7:30 p.m. on KCET Wednesday, November 20, 7:00 on PBS SoCal

Aerial view of a traditional Tongva canoe launching into the ocean. | Still from "Tending Nature"

Climate change and urban development have significantly altered ocean conditions and our ability to access the coast, making it more and more difficult for the Tongva tribe to carry on their long-held seafaring traditions. Today, members of the Tongva, Chumash and Acjachemen are rebuilding their connection with the ocean and the Channel Islands by rebuilding a Ti’at, a traditional Tongva canoe. Watch Preview.

Tending Nature: Holistic Healing with the Syuxtun Collective Sunday, November 10, 7:30 p.m. on KCET Wednesday, November 20, 7:30 on PBS SoCal

Julie Cordero-Lamb leads a plant walk in Santa Barbara. | Still from "Tending Nature" episode "Holistic Healing with the Syuxtun Collective"

Since the 20th century, Western medicine has focused on treating a patient’s symptoms, not the underlying cause. Today, scientists and doctors are realizing that we should be wary of a health system that relies on direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising and are embracing alternative, preventive whole body options, which start with a healthy mind, body, and spirit. These are concepts Indigenous peoples have practiced for thousands of years, by using medicinal plant knowledge that informed much our pharmacopeia. Watch Preview.

The Warrior Tradition Monday, November 11, 9:00 p.m. on PBS SoCal, Wednesday, November 13, 9:00 p.m. on KCET

A still image from "The Warrior Tradition"

Learn the heartbreaking, inspiring and largely untold story of Native Americans in the United States military. This film relates the stories of Native American warriors from their own points of view -- stories of service, pain, courage and fear. Watch Preview.

Tending Nature: Restoring The River with the Yurok, Hupa and Karuk Sunday, November 17, 7:30 p.m. on KCET Wednesday, November 27, 7:00 p.m. on PBS SoCal

Man walking away with fishing net. | Still from “Restoring the River with the Yurok, Karuk and Hupa” episode of "Tending Nature"

For the past two centuries, California has relied heavily on the natural resources of the North Coast region, exploiting its pristine watersheds for agriculture and its forests for timber. But today, the environmental costs of timber extraction and damming have reached a tipping point. Now the Yurok are working with local and state organizations to revitalize the forests, rivers and wildlife, a comprehensive feat requiring collaboration among community leaders up and down the Klamath and Trinity Rivers. Watch Preview.

N. Scott Momaday: American Masters Monday, November 18, 9:00 p.m. on PBS SoCal

Scott Momaday, Gus Palmer, and Director/Producer Jeffrey Palmer

Examines the enigmatic life and mind of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Navarro Scott Momaday (House Made of Dawn). This documentary profile delves into the psyche behind one of Native America’s most celebrated authors of poetry and prose. Watch Preview.

Return To Rainy Mountain Wednesday, November 20, 8:30 p.m. on KCET

Dr. N Scott Momaday holding his literary work, The Way To Rainy Mountain

N. Scott Momaday, recipient of the first Pulitzer Prize for Fiction awarded to a Native American writer, and his daughter, filmmaker Jill Momaday Gray, take viewers on a modern-day road trip loosely based on his Kiowa nation's ancestral myths and legends, from his bestselling book, "The Way to Rainy Mountain."  Watch Preview.

Our American Family: The Kurowskis Wednesday, November 20, 9:00 p.m. on KCET

Still from "Our American Family"

"Our American Family: The Kurowskis" presents the story of a woman born and raised on the Oneida Reservation in Wisconsin who is married to the son of Polish immigrants. At the time, Native Americans had been pressured to forsake their heritage and assimilate into the culture of their white neighbors. Following a tragedy at a paper mill, the Kurowski family moves to the center of the reservation where their selflessness strengthens the community and prepares the next generation to support their Oneida heritage. Watch Preview.

Tending Nature: Managing Groundwater with the Paiute Sunday, November 24, 7:30 p.m. on KCET Wednesday, November 27, 7:30 p.m. on PBS SoCal

“Managing Groundwater with the Paiute” Alan Bacock, Big Pine Paiute Tribe of the Owens Valley's Water Program Coordinator, testing water levels.

In the wake of the recent drought, scientists and politicians are beginning to understand that reserving and maintaining groundwater is essential for addressing the state’s water needs. California’s Native peoples have lived with drought cycles for millennia and today, the Paiute are shepherding conversations around access to water resources, raising key questions about how our snowpack, streams and aquifers are used and maintained.

And Now We Rise: A Portrait of Samuel Johns Wednesday, November 27, 9:00 p.m. on KCET

A man stands at an overlook.

"And Now We Rise" is a portrait of Samuel Johns, a young Athabaskan hip hop artist, founder of the Forget Me Not Facebook Group for displaced people in Alaska, and activist for a cultural renaissance as he heals from his own legacy of historical trauma. Watch Preview.

Independent Lens: Conscience Point/Jewel’s Hunt Monday, November 18, 10:30 p.m. on PBS SoCal

Still image from "Conscience Point"

Exposing a painful, quintessentially American geography, "Conscience Point" unearths a deep clash of values between the Native American Shinnecock and their elite Hamptons neighbors, who have made sacred land their playground. / Jewel comes from a long line of skilled native Alaskan hunters. But can she balance the complications of a modern teenager with her connection to village life? Watch Preview.

Native America: From Caves to Cosmos Sunday, November 24, 11:00 p.m. on PBS SoCal

Zuni story keeper Octavius Seowtewa returns to the Grand Canyon, place of his people's emergence from the earth.

Combine ancient wisdom and modern science to answer a 15,000-year-old question: who were America’s First Peoples? The answer hides in Amazonian cave paintings, Mexican burial chambers, New Mexico’s Chaco Canyon and waves off California’s coast. Watch Preview.

Native America: Nature to Nations Monday, November 25, 11:00 p.m. on PBS SoCal

Still image from "Nature to Nations"

Explore the rise of great American nations, from monarchies to democracies. Investigate lost cities in Mexico, a temple in Peru, a potlatch ceremony in the Pacific Northwest and a tapestry of shell beads in upstate New York whose story inspired our own democracy. Watch Preview.

Native America: Cities of the Sky Tuesday, November 26, 11:00 p.m. on PBS SoCal

Quechua shaman Puma leads a renewal ceremony at an ancient shrine above Cusco - the former capital of the Inca Empire.

Discover the cosmological secrets behind America’s ancient cities. Scientists explore some of the world’s largest pyramids and 3D-scan a lost city of monumental mounds on the Mississippi River; native elders reveal ancient powers of the sky. Watch Preview.

Native America: New World Rising Wednesday, November 27, 11:00 p.m. on PBS SoCal

Still from "New World Rising"

Discover how resistance, survival and revival are revealed through an empire of horse-mounted Comanche warriors, secret messages encoded in an Aztec manuscript and a grass bridge in the Andes that spans mountains Watch Preview.

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