A short film by Native Women Ride & Brave Space Media

Carlisle 200 follows Native bikers Guarina Lopez (Pascua Yaqui) and Tsinnijinnie Russell (Diné) on a 200-mile prayer ride from Washington, D.C. to the cemetery at Carlisle Indian Boarding School in Carlisle, PA. Through rain and shine on the long gravel trail, Guarina, Tsinnijinnie, and fellow activist-bikers honor the 190+ children buried at Carlisle and raise awareness of the history and ongoing impact of the residential boarding school system on Indigenous communities.

Upcoming Screenings

Department of Interior headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Friday, November 1 12-2pm

Brave Space Media and National Mall and Memorial Parks welcome visitors to our Department of Interior headquarters in Washington, D.C. on November 1, 2024, the first day of Native American Heritage Month, for a special viewing of the documentary film Carlisle 200 .

Join us for a live panel discussion after the film with Guarina Lopez and special guests from the film, moderated by historian and curator Dr. Gabrielle Tayac.

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Watched the film? We invite you to dig further and join the movement for justice through self-education and awareness, community conversation, and action.

This film was brought to life through donated work from the producers and directors, plus some grant funding to cover costs of production.

We continue to seek funding to compensate the storytellers for the time it took to bring this story to the screen. Please consider supporting the filmmakers or reach out if you have leads to grants or film sponsorship.

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Why this story?

CARLISLE 200 helps spark a long-overdue conversation about America’s real history.

This film digs into the overwhelmingly unaddressed historical harm that was inflicted upon Indigenous communities across Turtle Island, harm whose repercussions continue to affect Native nations to this day. Of the nearly 350 residential boarding schools that existed across the United States in the 19th and 20th centuries, Carlisle Indian Industrial School was the first, running from 1879 to 1918 and serving as the blueprint for the establishment of every other school. Through this system, the United States government and the Catholic church forced Indigenous families to give up their children to an institution that perpetrated forced assimilation and cultural genocide. Children had their hair forcibly cut, were banned from speaking their languages, were prevented from wearing traditional dress, and weren’t allowed to follow their age-old cultural traditions. Still, these were children, and as our characters Tsinnijinnie Russell and Guarina Lopez powerfully point out, in the midst of undeniable abuse, these children played, made friends, and fell in love. As time went on and they had their own families, they often sent their own children to these boarding schools, often because there was no other option. This system contributed to a legacy of intergenerational trauma that resounds into the present day (and, in fact, the last boarding school closed as recently as 1996 in Canada).

At the heart of this film is a mission to bring an acknowledgment of this harm into our mainstream American consciousness, so that the work of healing – and the strength of countless tenacious healers – can proliferate fully at all levels: the individual, the community, and the nation. Our characters bring a deep understanding of the role Carlisle plays in Native erasure and of the importance of fighting back through education and healing. As an Indigenous Pascua Yaqui woman, Guarina has been researching and educating around the story of Carlisle for over a decade, compelled by the ways in which the institution is a visceral microcosm of the cultural and physical genocide carried out by settler colonialism across the Americas. As a Native mother, her ties to this story of stolen children are deeply felt. Both Guarina and Tsinnijinnie bring robust historical knowledge, as well as a drive to call for real, sweeping restorative justice – for the nations whose children are buried at Carlisle and for Indigenous folks across Turtle Island as a whole.

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Cast & Crew

Guarina Lopez

Co-Director, Co-Producer, Athlete/Film Character
Guarina is a member of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe of Tucson, Arizona and currently resides on the ancestral lands of the Piscataway and Nacotchtank in Washington, D.C. She is a visual artist, storyteller, athlete, and mother. She is an environmental activist and Indigenous rights advocate, dedicated to sharing stories of the Native people and the land throughout Turtle Island. Guarina is the founder of Native Women Ride, a virtual community highlighting stories of Natives on bikes and educating about the land we ride on.
Tsinnijinnie Russell

Athlete/Film Character
Tsinnijinnie Diné) is a Tribal Member of the Navajo Nation raised in Colorado. He currently resides in Denver, Colorado on Cheyenne, Arapaho, Ute, and Očhéthi Šakówiŋ land. He works at the Denver Public Library in the Special Collections & Genealogy Department and pursues freelance writing projects on the side. He enjoys long bike rides on the beach and greasy frybread near the fire.
Michael Nephew

Film Character
Michael (Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians) is a long-time resident of the Washington DC and a member the American Indian Society of Washington DC (AIS). He has been involved in AIS's decorating of the graves of the children buried at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School. AIS started doing this in 1972.
Keshia Roberson

Athlete/Film Character
Keshia has created unique experiences that center on the historically excluded and underrepresented, like co-organizing her HBCU's first Pride Week. She has led and co-led fitness organizations that have empowered communities and raised funds to support various social justice and reproductive rights organizations and youth bike programs nationwide. Her latest endeavor is Major Knox Adventures, a nonprofit wellness company providing affordable excursions that use history to promote radical joy and strengthen the BIPOC community's legacy in the outdoors.
Kathleen “Taffy” Medley

Athlete/Film Character
“Taffy” resides in NJ with her husband of 35 years. She is a Masters level duathlete; runner and cyclist. Medley has earned the USAT All-American/Duathlete title in 2021 & 2022, became a Spartan, vEveresting Hall of Famer 2x, 2021 Rapha Cycling Club NYC Distance Champion, 2021 & 2022 Major Taylor International Riding Challenge Winner of (2) Elevation categories, and qualified for Team USA/Duathlon in the ‘23 Worlds Triathlon Multisport Championships in Ibiza, Spain. She is a member of USATF, USA Triathlon, South Jersey Bike Crew, KRT/QRT Cycling Club, Philly & Dallas Major Taylor Cycling Clubs, Rapha Cycling Club/NYC and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.
Adam Austin

Athlete/Film Character
Adam is from Herndon, Virginia. Adam has been racing and commuting by bike for 15 years. In 2007, Adam was featured on the Discovery Channel special "Riding the Tour de France Living the Dream".
Sanjana Sekhar

Co-Director, Co-Producer, Cinematographer
Sanjana is an Indian-American socioecological storyteller. As a writer, creative producer, and film director, her work seeks to amplify character-driven stories that heal our human relationships to ourselves, each other, and our planet, with a specific interest in climate justice, ancestral knowledge, and systems of re-nourishment. Sanjana has been featured in the Hollywood Climate Summit, Tedx Climate AcrosstheAmericas, VH1 India, Rolling Stone India, and Webby Honorees. Her latest documentary "Expedition Reclamation" has been awarded Best in Festival at the 2022 No Man's Land Film Festival, Best Climate Documentary, and Best Environmental Film.
Erin Joy Nash

Co-Producer, Co-Director, Editor, Cinematographer
Erin Joy is a filmmaker, photographer, and outdoor adventurer working to cultivate healing and decolonize herself and the systems we live in through storytelling and community building. Her work aims to elevate stories of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color with a focus on rest, healing in relationship to nature, antiracism, intersectional feminism, environmental justice, and compassionate living. Erin Joy currently lives in the Pacific Northwest on the homelands of the Lummi Nation, Nooksak, and Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla. She is the founder of Brave Space Media.
Olivia Komahcheet

Composer
Olivia is a composer and music producer whose work spans within spaces of music, visual media and immersive art experiences. A 2021 Sundance Composers Lab Fellow, Olivia worked closely with leading Film and Television composers on her craft with creative advisors composing for television, video-game, concert music and feature length films. Her original music has been married to films screened at First Amerians Museum, TIFF Film Festival and latest works on feature film "Frybread Face and Me” that premiered worldwide at SXSW 2023 produced by Tiaka Waititi. In the year of 2023, she composed compositions for "Dead Bird Hearts" winning "Best Indigenous Short" at deadCenter Film Festival and is currently working on her first feature length film in coalition with PBS Broadcast Television Network as a lead composer.
Rebekah Graham

Associate Producer
Rebekah aspires towards holistic stewardship of wildlife and natural areas while advocating for accessibility, inclusivity, and equity in the spaces she occupies. She enjoys constantly asking questions, sharing knowledge, and being in relationship with human and more-than-human communities. Rebekah is a transracial adoptee from China and is currently caring for habitats along the Salish Sea.