This Thursday, Feb. 5 at 7 p.m., the public is invited to a free screening of the 93-minute documentary “Without Arrows: 13 Years in the Life of a Lakota Family” being shown in the Coolidge Theatre at the Deane Center for the Performing Arts at 104 Main Street in Wellsboro. 

Following the Thursday night screening, audience members are welcome to participate in a question and answer session with Delwin Fiddler, Jr., the subject off this film.

The Independent Lens PBS documentary chronicles 13 years (2011–2023) of Fiddler’s life.  As a young man, he left his home on the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota to escape a trauma that splintered his family. 

During the next 10 years, Fiddler built a new life for himself in Philadelphia and then decided to abandon it all and go home to fulfill his mother’s dream and carry on the legacy for his extended family.  

The film follows his journey as he returns to the South Dakota reservation to reconnect with his culture, heal from the trauma, and protect his heritage.  

In 2019, Fiddler created PAZA, Tree of Life to follow his mother’s wish to return their people to the knowledge and traditions of their culture. 

PAZA’s goal is to promote cultural awareness with cultural exchange so that all people might learn the medicine ways of Fiddler’s ancestors who have walked the earth for thousands of years.
While it is impossible to change the route of colonization imposed on Native peoples of Turtle Island, Fiddler believes that through apology, reconciliation and validation, healing can occur.

Like his ancestor, Crazy Horse, Fiddler sees the future with all people working together in harmony for the greater good of humankind.

On Friday, Feb. 6, Rock L. Butler Middle School sixth graders will be at the Deane Center for a performance and dance workshop with Fiddler.

Both the showing of the documentary and the program for sixth graders are free due to a Mid Atlantic Arts Grant and two sponsors, the Dunham Family Foundation and Penn Oak Realty.

To see this free documentary, just show up. For more information, call the Deane Center at 570-724-6220.