ABOUT
Drowned Land is a feature documentary that shares the stories of a group of water protectors determined to preserve the lifeline of their community and end a cycle of environmental exploitation on the Kiamichi River.
Recently, the state of Oklahoma signed an agreement to divert up to 85% of the water from the most ecologically diverse river in Oklahoma - the Kiamichi, located deep in the Choctaw Nation.
The Kiamichi and its tributaries have a history of exploitation with disastrous consequences to the community and the environment. The construction of Sardis Dam in the Kiamichi watershed by the US Army Corps of Engineers flooded the town of Sardis and displaced its residents - all that is left is the Sardis cemetery, now an island in the middle of the lake.
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Colleen Thurston is the director of Drowned Land and a Choctaw Nation citizen who has a personal tie to this story. To make room for resource exploitation and white settlement, the federal government forcibly removed the Choctaw Nation from their homelands in the southeastern United States and sent them on the harrowing Trail of Tears to Oklahoma.
A century after this act of land theft and genocide, Colleen’s Choctaw grandfather was an engineer with the Corps of Engineers, who helped to design and build the dams which displaced the very people who like himself came from a history of displacement. In Drowned Land, Colleen explores the legacy of her grandfather’s work and cycle of displacement within the Choctaw Nation and the Kiamichi watershed.
