Well, growing up, I've always been involved in my culture.

I attended a lot of powwows.

I've been dancing since I was a young person.

And I've always seen commercial tobacco incorporated into our cultural celebrations.

And I was always curious, "Why are we using commercial tobacco?"

And I didn't know why, I was just always told that tobacco is sacred, tobacco shouldn't be misused.

I get a lot of people saying that we put drugs in our pipe, but it's actually the inner bark of a red willow.

And it's a lack of education.

A lot of times, when we do use traditional tobacco, it is in, like, ceremony.

It is in a private situation, so a lot of people don't know that it is very special to us and it is sacred, and it's all used in a good and meaningful way to pray.

You know, they feel like all tobacco is evil, right?

And so, they create names for their organizations, like Tobacco-Free Kids.

Well, I don't want my kids to be tobacco-free, I want children in our community to be tobacco-free.

I want them to use traditional tobacco.

Alright, my name is Leya Hale, I'm an Associate Producer at Twin Cities PBS, and I produced Reclaiming Sacred Tobacco.

- [Woman] Tobacco has always been a part of our culture.

It was against the law for us to practice our religion.

The only way that we could do it was to smoke commercial tobacco.

- [Man] It's been marketed to us, we've been targeted in our communities.

- [Woman] American Indians in the Northern plains, including Minnesota, have the highest smoking rates of American Indians anywhere across the country.

It was really surprising to hear that TPT was going to produce a documentary about this topic.

I didn't know that they were aware of it, and I was actually approached by a senior producer in the hallway, and they told me, "Hey, I just got out of a meeting with ClearWay Minnesota, "and they're wanting to a project about this topic, "and they want you to be involved."

And I was just, like, I was just so excited, because I've always wanted to do a documentary about this issue within the American Indian community.

And I was, let alone, happy just to be a part of it, but then, I eventually found out that I was going to produce it, so that was-- I was just really nervous, but at the same time, I was, like, overwhelmed and I was more nervous than excited (laughs).

It was-- So, Reclaiming Sacred Tobacco was my very first documentary that I was solely going to produce on my own.

The reason why I was nervous was I know that this issue is sensitive to native people, so I just knew that it was going to be difficult to portray everyone in a authentic way.

And I didn't want to shame anyone, I didn't want to shame communities or shame people for utilizing commercial tobacco.

Because I know the history behind it, and I know that a lot of people are just unaware and it's not their fault.

It was banned at one time, and people might make different choices if they understood the history and the reasons why things are being done the way that they are currently being done.

The most important part of the whole process is to see participants within the documentary.

Yeah, I just wanted them to be happy with it, because I know, myself, I don't ever put myself in front of a camera or tell my stories, so I know it's really hard, especially for native people to do that, because there's just a past history with native people being exploited, so people are really reluctant to be in front of a camera and tell their story.

So, I was just really pleased and happy to see the participants at the premiere.

They're really happy with the outcome.

A lot of them came up to me after, and they were just congratulating me, and I felt like I didn't need to be congratulated.

It was that they provided the stories, they provided the emotions and I was the one that just put it together.

So to hear them excited about it and to tell me that I did a good job of putting it together, I just felt overwhelmed and I just felt-- I just felt like I wanted to cry (laughs).

Because I felt like I did something to help them in their communities.

I created some type of a tool to assist them to further educate people.

(nostalgic American Indian singing)