Smoke Signals presents Indigenous life through humor, storytelling, grief, trauma, and resilience while challenging stereotypes often placed on Native communities. In this film we explore the Journey of Victor and Thomas, from the Coeur d'Alene Reservation in Idaho, to Phoenix, Arizona, to retrieve Victor's father's ashes. Through the relationship between Victor and Thomas, the film explores the lasting effects of alcoholism, family separation, abuse, and intergenerational trauma. Victor's father, Arnold Joseph, struggles with drinking and violence, which deeply affects Victor’s emotional development, especially his anger, distrust, and difficulty processing grief. The film repeatedly returns to the idea of absent fathers and broken families, showing how these experiences are connected to larger historical realities faced by Indigenous communities.
One of the most important aspects of the film is its use of storytelling. Thomas functions as both a storyteller and cultural memory keeper, using humor and oral tradition to preserve identity and connection. Victor, by contrast, represents skepticism, emotional suppression, and the pressure to appear “stoic,” reflecting how trauma can disconnect individuals from culture, vulnerability, and relationships. Their opposing personalities demonstrate two different ways Indigenous people may cope with pain and identity. The film also critiques stereotypes placed on Native Americans, including racism, media portrayals, and expectations of how Indigenous men should act. References to John Wayne, Columbus, and “cowboys versus Indians” expose how colonial narratives shaped public perception of Indigenous people.
The film further highlights how Indigenous communities are often treated as separate from mainstream society, shown symbolically through comments about passports, reservations, and “different countries.” At the same time, the film emphasizes community, humor, and cultural resilience. Even painful memories are processed through storytelling, relationships, and shared experiences rather than isolation. The ending suggests that healing comes not from forgetting trauma, but from acknowledging it honestly while remaining connected to culture and community.
From a multicultural counseling perspective, the film demonstrates the importance of culturally responsive and relational approaches to therapy with Indigenous clients. Counselors must recognize the impact of intergenerational trauma, historical oppression, racism, substance abuse, and disrupted family systems without reducing Indigenous identity to those struggles alone. The film suggests that healing may occur through storytelling, humor, cultural reconnection, spirituality, and communal support rather than solely through traditional Western clinical models. It also reminds counselors to avoid stereotypes and assumptions about Indigenous experiences. Effective counseling requires humility, flexibility, and respect for Indigenous ways of healing and communication. Smoke Signals ultimately shows that Indigenous resilience survives despite trauma, and that cultural identity and community remain central to healing.
Killers of the Flower Moon portrays the violent exploitation, racism, and systemic oppression experienced by the Osage Nation during the oil boom of the 1920s. The film demonstrates how greed, colonial power structures, and white supremacy led to the murders and manipulation of Osage people for financial gain. Throughout the film, Osage families are treated as valuable only because of their oil wealth, while white settlers, businessmen, and government systems attempt to control their land, money, and bloodlines. The repeated murders, lack of investigations, and legal corruption reveal how Indigenous lives were devalued and ignored within American society and institutions.
The film also emphasizes the cultural strength and spirituality of the Osage people. Ceremonies, prayer, drumming, traditional beliefs, and references to ancestors remain central throughout the story despite ongoing violence and colonization. Mollie’s family maintains spiritual traditions and community identity even while facing immense loss and betrayal. The film contrasts Indigenous worldviews with Western systems of power, medicine, religion, and law. For example, Native understandings of illness, ancestors, omens, and healing are often dismissed or overshadowed by Eurocentric medicine and Christian influence. This demonstrates how Indigenous perspectives were historically marginalized while colonial systems positioned themselves as superior and “civilized.”
The film also explores themes of racial hierarchy, assimilation, and cultural erasure. Discussions about “full blood” Osage members, diluted bloodlines, interracial relationships, and guardianship systems reveal how Indigenous identity became controlled through racist legal and social structures. Violence against Indigenous people is shown not only through physical murder, but also through emotional manipulation, theft, exploitation, and forced dependence. Ernest’s relationship with Mollie reflects this complexity because love, betrayal, greed, and colonial influence become intertwined. The ending of the film, especially the staged radio retelling of the murders, highlights how Indigenous suffering has often been turned into entertainment or historical footnotes rather than fully acknowledged truths.
From a multicultural counseling perspective, the film demonstrates the importance of understanding historical trauma, systemic oppression, and cultural resilience when working with Indigenous communities. Indigenous clients may carry the effects of generational grief, racism, land displacement, distrust of institutions, and violence that are tied directly to historical experiences like those shown in the film. Counselors must recognize that healing cannot be separated from culture, spirituality, history, and community. Western counseling models alone may not fully address Indigenous experiences if they ignore Indigenous values, ceremonies, family systems, and communal healing traditions. The film challenges counselors to move beyond stereotypes and simplistic cultural “competence” by developing approaches that are relational, culturally grounded, and respectful of Indigenous worldviews. Killers of the Flower Moon ultimately reveals both the devastating impact of colonial violence and the enduring strength of Indigenous identity, spirituality, and survival.