(USA, 2013, 92 min., color, DVD, PG) Starring Kimberly Guerrero and Mo Brings Plenty Set in the early 1980s, The Cherokee Word for Water begins with the return of Wilma Mankiller to her rural Oklahoma Cherokee community where many houses lack running water and others are little more than shacks. After centuries of being dehumanized and dispossessed of their land and identity, the people no longer feel they have power or control over their lives or future. Based on the true story of the Bell Waterline Project, the movie is about a community coming together to improve its life condition. Led by Wilma Mankiller, who went on to become the first woman chief of the Cherokee Nation, and full-blood Cherokee organizer Charlie Soap, they join forces and build nearly twenty miles of waterline using a community of volunteers. In the process, they inspire the community to trust each other, and reawaken universal indigenous values of reciprocity and interconnectedness. The successful completion of the waterline sparked a movement of similar self-help projects across the Cherokee nation and in Indian country that continues to this day. –cw4w.com “Wilma Mankiller, the first modern woman chief of the Cherokee Nation, died four years ago this spring, but thanks to a determined effort by her family, friends and the communities she spent her life advocating for, her legacy lives on in film.” –Melissa McGlensey, Ms. Magazine Blog, 1/28/2014