Handlung

Morgan Spurlock spends 30 days living on a Native American reservation in New Mexico. He stays with a Native American family, attempts to learn the Navajo language, and tries to become more acquainted with Navajo culture by participating in several tribal ceremonies.—Shatterdaymorn

The season finale of "30 Days" took host and creator Morgan Spurlock to a Navajo Indian reservation to experience Native American life. Would he find a Najavo nation on the rise, or would he discover that Native Americans are still on the bottom of the socio-economic totem pole, he wondered.

Spurlock explained that there have been many mixed messages about the American Indian. First, he was a violent savage in need of taming by the white man, then became the proud spiritualist trying to maintain balance and harmony with nature in a changing modern world. Nowadays, he said, all we hear about is the Native American as a savvy businessman making loads of cash from casinos. He suggested that it's possible they deserve the chunk of change they're getting, given the fact that they were nearly wiped out and banished to reservations. Life on the res was supposed to give Native Americans a place to re-establish their indigenous heritage and connection to the land, but it's become a place of poverty, alcoholism and unemployment. He said most reservations don't have casinos and Indians remain the poorest Americans.

Spurlock would live by three rules: he'd move onto the reservation and become part of a typical Navajo family; he'd learn the Navajo language; and soak up Navajo culture by taking part in Navajo ceremonies. Spurlock stopped at a roadside "Indian trading post" in Gallup, N.M., the last stop before reaching the reservation. He perused the various Native American ornaments, spears and headdresses and wondered whether any real Indian has that stuff in their home. A man there suggested Spurlock bring the oldest sheep he can find to his host family, so off he went. He picked up a sheep for $100 on the side of the road, tied it up, dropped in the back of his truck and named it "Lunch."

Spurlock acknowledged how little knowledge he has about the Navajo culture. He said 200,000 Navajo area spread out on the 17 million-acre reservation, which resides in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.

Spurlock has met the Dennison Family, which turned out to welcome him in a hogon, a traditional Navajo structure they used to live in. The family asked him why he was there, and he told them he wanted to understand their life. They left him to live in the hogon so he could experience the melding between modern and traditional life.

The Dennisons' son Kyle explained that there are very few jobs on the res. Spurlock went off to find a job only to get denied at every turn. He said there were 25 newspaper job listings on the reservation. The unemployment rate on the reservation is 60 percent. He found a job at a tire shop, where the owner explained that it was difficult to get a business started on the reservation and many people give up and work construction in other parts of the United States.

Spurlock started trying to learn the complication Navajo language, but soon it was time to butcher his sheep, "Lunch," and he was the man for the job. He and the women cut the sheep's throat and skinned it, and Spurlock had to empty and clean the stomach, which would also be cooked and eaten.

Water works? On his 10th day, Spurlock washed himself, as usual, with a bowl of water and explained that many Navajo don't have running water. He said billions of gallons of fresh water flow right through the reservation, but Uncle Sam never gave them the rights to most of it. That water ends up watering desert cities in Arizona and Nevada. Many residents have to make runs to a well every two days for water, and they limit their intake by using just 10 to 15 gallons a day. By comparison, the average resident of Phoenix uses 10 times that much. The treaties that created the reservations and sovereign Indian nations required that Native Americans be given basic necessities, and despite "millions and millions" of dollars being given, Spurlock said, there seems to be no guidance on how it should be used. "Should anyone in America be without running water?" he asked.

Spurlock practices lasso techniques with the Dennisons' kids. Kyle, a rodeo champion on the res, faced the reality of having to continue winning rodeos in order to stave off getting a job, which would likely be off the reservation. Carl Dennison, the host family father, said he wanted his children to be educated and stay away from drugs and alcohol, in particular, which ruined his and his brother's chances at rodeo success.

Battling the bottle: Spurlock talked about the rampant alcoholism among Native Americans and said that even though drinking and possessing alcohol on the reservation is illegal, more than half of the crimes committed there are alcohol related. He rode along with a local police officer to see how they deal with the problem. Spurlock wondered whether more jobs and better opportunities on the reservation of would make alcohol less attractive.

Makin' tortillas: Spurlock brought grandma some wood in exchange for her teaching him how to make tortillas. With a translator there, grandma showed Spurlock how to work the dough and they talked about how she can't communicate or pass down many traditions to her grandchildren because they don't speak much Navajo. She got emotional and Spurlock gave her a hug and later said he'd love to just learn one thing he could say to her in Navajo by the time he leaves, just so she could see he was trying.

On Day 21, Spurlock went for more intensive language help from a Navajo teacher. She said the language is disappearing fast. In 1979, she said, 80 percent of students spoke Navajo and just 10 years later it was down to 5 percent, due to the tremendous English influence. She feared that if the language went away, it would take their culture, their traditions and their prayers with it.

The Medicine Man: Spurlock decided to visit a medicine man to participate in a sweat ceremony to purify his body and mind. Spurlock said he felt, experienced and saw things he couldn't explain during the ceremony. After the ceremony, he said he felt "really here" and more calm than he had in a very long time. "I really think Native Americans are in tune to something that a lot of us have lost," Spurlock said, referring to a connection to the earth and to life.

Back to the rodeo: Spurlock went to watch Kyle participate in one last rodeo, which could have determined whether he'd continue to compete or be forced into getting a job off the res. The family struggled with the idea that Kyle would go have to off the reservation for work. He applied for a job in Tucson, Ariz., and said, "I think it's time for me to get on the road."

A complicated place: Spurlock said that his time on the reservation showed him that it is "a really complicated place." He said there are no easy answers. There were things that reminded him of a third-world country, but also where people were so proudly trying to hang onto a culture that was vanishing. He said he hoped they would be able to find a way for both worlds to co-exist. "That's their American dream," he said.

On his final night, Spurlock thanked the Dennisons for opening their home to him and said the experience changed him. He told grandma, in Navajo, "I'm going home, far away. I've learned very much from you." He got emotional as he said his final goodbyes. "I didn't think I'd be this sad to be leaving," Spurlock said, "but this place and these people just really effected me."

Spurlock said he felt that Native Americans have been let down. "This whole idea of kind of cordoning them off and forgetting about them is just not something that we can do," he said. "They are a part of our culture as Americans and they're a part of our heritage as Americans, and we can't write them off as just not being important and just think that casinos are going to fix everything. I think that we owe it to them to do that."