Leonardo DiCaprio Is Backing New Native American Documentary ‘Nine Little Indians’

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Leonardo DiCaprio is getting back into the business of documentaries. Today, Deadline has revealed that the Academy Award-winning actor and his production company, Appian Way, have joined ranks with filmmaker Shannon Kring for her project, Nine Little Indians. The investigative production, which has been in the works for nearly a decade, uncovers the harrowing tale of horrifying abuses that took place at a U.S. boarding school for Native American children. At the center of the story are the nine Charbonneau sisters and several of their schoolmates, all of whom endured inhumane circumstances at St. Paul’s Indian Mission School in Marty, South Dakota.

The story that will unfold in Nine Little Indians will be a difficult one to watch as it flips through the seemingly endless chapters of a nearly two-decade-long struggle with the justice system that has put the Charbonneau sisters through the wringer. The women have done everything in their power to put the Catholic Church on blast and force them to be accountable for the absolutely repulsive crimes that line the plaintiffs' lawsuit. The Charbonneau sisters also show up for those who wish to keep their names off the record and those who died in peril at St. Paul’s. Along with the Charbonneau sisters, the project also follows the mission of a Northern Cheyenne Indian school cemetery surveyor who is hot on the trail of numerous unmarked graves on the school’s property. Putting those responsible directly in the spotlight, two nuns previously employed by the school and an abbot will sit down for interviews.

Sadly, St. Paul’s is just one of many instances of an educational system taking terrible advantage of the Indigenous population and — through horrifyingly brutal measures — forcing them to become more Westernized. Cases like these are coming more and more into the light, with Kring pulled into this particular story back in 2016 when tribal members reached out to her to record the skeletal remains of missing children after they had been discovered on school grounds. The school, by the way, is still in use.

The histories of those who suffered and continue to suffer at the hands of St. Paul’s and other institutions like it simply can’t continue to be swept under the rug. Instead, documentaries like this one are incredibly important to ensure folks are educated on the matter. In a statement released with today’s announcement, Jennifer Davisson, Appian Way's President of Production, shared a like-minded sentiment, saying,

“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.”

https://collider.com/nine-little-indian ... -dicaprio/