(580) 581-3460
Now Showing
Moving pictures - with sound and everything!
Ready to sit for a spell? Rather watch and listen than walk and read? Well, how about a show then? Something entertaining and educational?
But no food or drink! We're not that fun.
Indians, Outlaws, Marshals, and the Hangin' Judge
A film by Larry Foley (University of Arkansas Press)
Monday - Saturday, 12:00 PM, 3:15 PM;
Sunday, 3:00 PM
Indians, Outlaws, Marshals and the Hangin' Judge is a story set in the late 19th Century, with topics that resonate today: racial bias, gun violence, Indian affairs and accusations of police brutality. It's the colorful story of Indian removal, crime, capital punishment and an infamous federal judge who sentenced scores of felons to "hang by the neck until you are dead." Outlaw gangs hid from the law in lands given to native people, until Indian Territory was taken away and turned back to settlers. Told in first person using the actual words written by St. Louis Republic newspaper reporter Ada Patterson in September 1896, this real-life story is set in and around Fort Smith, Arkansas, in the same time and place as the fictional Western novel and film, True Grit. Patterson narrates, much as Mattie Ross tells the story in the Charles Portis classic. With careful and honest detail to the words and visual history of the era, we re-create Patterson's interview with Judge Isaac Parker, the infamous "hanging Judge," conducted on the date (September 1, 1896) Parker's court was stripped by Congress of its jurisdiction over Indian Territory. Parker, who was dying of kidney disease, tells Patterson a gripping tale of his court, and his view of American Indians: "Twenty-one year's experience has taught me they are a religiously inclined, law-abiding, authority-respecting people," and of the "brutes" who stood trial before his bench. "
Runtime: 80 minutes
Video footage of the 1526 steam engine's arrival to the Museum of the Great Plains plays immediately before and after the feature.
The Buffalo Soldiers: an American Legacy
A documentary by Rusty Spur Productions
Monday - Saturday, 11:00 AM, 2:15 PM;
Sunday, 2:00 PM
By the end of the Civil War, nearly 200,000 black soldiers were serving in the Federal Army. After the war, many decided not to return to a life of sharecropping and racial oppression, instead volunteering to battle outlaws and Indian raiders along the western frontier. This program uses dazzling reenactments and the expertise of military historians to tell the multifaceted story of the Buffalo Soldiers, a name given to black troops by their Native American adversaries. Viewers learn about the daily lives and daunting assignments of these proud African-Americans, the harsh environments in which they conducted missions, and the deeds of individual Buffalo Soldiers such as Sgt. Emanuel Stance, Lt. George Burnett, and Henry Flipper—the first black cadet to graduate from West Point, whose promising career was ended by an unjust and later discredited court martial. Hosted by well-known TV judge Joe Brown.
Runtime: 43 minutes
English closed-captioning is included.
Ferret Town
A short film by Caldera Productions
Monday - Saturday, 11:45 AM, 3:00 PM;
Sunday, 2:45 PM, 4:45 PM
The black-footed ferret was thought to be extinct when a small population was discovered near Meeteetse, WY in 1981, setting off an urgent race to recover the species from only 18 animals. This film follows the ongoing efforts of many dedicated individuals to return this endangered species to the wild.
Runtime: 10 minutes
Video footage of the 1526 steam engine's arrival to the Museum of the Great Plains plays immediately before the feature.
The Plow That Broke the Plains
A U.S. documentary film
Monday - Saturday, 10:30 AM; 1:45 PM
Sunday, 1:30 PM
This documentary is about what happened to the Great Plains of the United States when a combination of farming practices and environmental factors led to the Dust Bowl of the 1930s.
Runtime: 25 minutes
THE LAKOTA BERENSTAIN BEARS
"Visit the Dentist"
A collaboration between the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Lakota Language Consortium, and Berenstain Enterprises, Inc
Monday - Saturday, 10:15 AM; 1:30, 4:45 PM;
Sunday 1:15, 4:30 PM
When one of Sister Bear's teeth starts coming loose, she tries to hide it to avoid going to the dentist.
The Lakota Berenstain Bears Project is a joint venture of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and the Lakota Language Consortium. Voices of the characters are all from the Lakota-speaking Standing Rock, Cheyenne River, Pine Ridge, and Rosebud communities of North and South Dakota, and reflect all local dialects of the language.
Runtime: 14 minutes
ARRIVAL OF THE 1526
A home video by Archie Dunn
Monday - Saturday, 10:55,11:45 AM;
12:00, 1:25, 2:10, 3:15, 4:40 PM;
Sunday, 1:55, 2:45, 3:00, 4:25, 4:45 PM
See footage of the Frisco 1526 steam engine as it inched to the Museum of the Great Plains in 1961! (Spoiler alert - tanks and a crane involved.)