Film looks at challenges in recruiting police for Navajo Nation
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Navajo Nation police recruits in the HBO Original three-part documentary series "Navajo Police: Class 57." Photo: Courtesy of HBO
A new documentary examines how one of the nation's largest Indigenous tribes handles a police shortage and the plight of some aspiring officers who want to help.
The big picture: The HBO Original three-part documentary series "Navajo Police: Class 57" counters the romantic portrayals of Tony Hillerman's novels and John Ford's westerns about the Navajo Nation and gives a vivid picture of what's at stake in a vast region battling inequality.
Details: "Navajo Police: Class 57," streaming now on Max, follows 28 recruits as they struggle through the Navajo Police Training Academy just after the pandemic.
- Recruits, such as Shawvan Levi, must undergo a rigorous program of physical training and mind games to prepare to become officers in one of the poorest areas in the U.S.
- After class, recruits are shown fighting to get through everyday life with the pressures of family life on the reservation and dreams of improving their communities.
- Slowly, the recruiting class gets smaller as the series continues.
The intrigue: The Navajo Nation is the size of West Virginia and has only 180 officers to patrol the sprawling reservation.
- Navajo police chief Daryl Noon tells filmmakers that the tribe needs 500 officers to offer basic police services.
- Commissioned Navajo officers share thoughts about hoping all the recruits pass the class and needing more officers to help an overworked department.
What they're saying: "Natural and cultural beauty abounds, and the romance of Navajo history is very much alive and well," co-director David Nordstrom tells Axios.
- "However, these truths exist alongside more vexatious realities that stem from the ongoing exploitation of Navajo land, culture, and people."
- Co-director Alex Jablonski tells Axios filmmakers spent weeks on the reservation before capturing footage to build trust and assure Navajo residents that they sought authentic voices.
- "I think they knew that our hearts were in the right place and why we were making this."
Yes, but: Co-director Kahlil Hudson tells Axios the purpose of the series was to show three-dimensional Indigenous people not just going through struggle and failure but in moments of joy and triumph.
- "We knew in making a series about policing that those darker elements would be present, but it was important for us to show Native people empowered to make a change in their community."
The bottom line: "Navajo Police: Class 57" is a rare, honest look into the challenges around reservation life and how Indigenous people work to address those disparities themselves.
