Support Samara Jones’ Native-Led Know Your Rights Animated Short Film
What’s happening
Across Minnesota and the United States, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are actively racially profiling Native American citizens – stopping them, interrogating them, and demanding proof of US citizenship. In some cases, ICE agents have even sent Native American citizens to ICE detention centers. These encounters reflect the US’s broader failure and even refusal to recognize Native Americans birthright citizenship and that they are indigenous to this land.
As a result of these ongoing and increasingly hostile interactions, many Native American citizens now carry tribal IDs out of fear of being wrongly detained by ICE agents.
This issue is not simply about immigration enforcement; it’s about Native American people’s over four-hundred-year fight to live freely on their own homelands.
The response: RIGHT TO REMAIN
RIGHT TO REMAIN: Native Rights & ICE is a Native American-led animated short film series rooted in Minnesota. The project transforms existing know-your-rights information into visually compelling, culturally grounded, and widely shareable media to support Native communities facing increasing—and often hostile and discriminatory—interactions with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
This series is being created by a collective of Native filmmakers, animators, scholars, musicians, and community organizers working together to ensure this information is accessible, accurate, and rooted in community experience.
Each film centers Native testimony and directs viewers to vetted legal resources outlining their constitutional rights during encounters with immigration enforcement. The films also include call-to-action QR codes that connect audiences directly to community support resources.
The first film + the series
The first short film in the series, currently in production, animates an original track by Tall Paul (Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe), a Minnesota-based artist and activist. His music directly addresses the targeting of Native communities by federal immigration enforcement systems.
My film
My animated short is part of this larger series.
It follows a Choctaw woman who is asked to “prove” where she’s from—moving between present-day and historical confrontations between Native Americans and US federal forces, exposing the deeper reality of colonial systems of power that seek to define and constrain Native people’s identity, civil rights, and freedom. The film explores how identity documentation has become critically linked to survival for Native American citizens, and what it means to reclaim one’s Indigenous identity and assert tribal sovereignty in the face of increasingly dangerous and discriminatory colonial systems of control and oppression.
While rooted in personal storytelling, this film speaks to a shared experience among Indigenous people across the U.S.
Why this project, why now
In the face of mounting ICE presence in cities across the US and increasing reports of racial profiling against Native American citizens by federal immigration enforcement officers, this project disseminates urgent know your rights resources that are not only informative but culturally grounded, emotionally resonant, and easy to share.
Why me
My name is Samara Jones. I’m a Choctaw filmmaker, community-based storyteller, and program coordinator based in Los Angeles.
My work centers Native voices, cultural preservation, and restorative storytelling, shaped by years of service in Urban Indian Health Centers. I’ve collaborated with cultural leaders, elders, and interdisciplinary partners, approaching storytelling as a relational practice grounded in care and listening.
I’ve led youth media programs and created films such as The People’s Home, which traces the fight for culturally sensitive healthcare for Native Americans in Los Angeles and addresses their broader struggles against cultural erasure and ongoing disparities in Native health, housing, and cultural continuity. The People’s Home has been screened at several prestigious national festivals and institutions, including the LA Skins Fest, University of California Davis, and the Golden Eagle Festival.
This project is deeply personal—rooted in both my lived experience and my commitment to creating pathways for Native stories to be seen and heard.
[My Portfolio ]
What I’m asking
I am currently raising funds while actively in production and post-production.
Your support will help:
Compensate Native artists, animators, and collaborators
Cover animation, sound design, and original music
Complete post-production and finalize the film
Distribute the film across community networks, social media, and educational spaces nationwide
Goal: [$13,000] by May 25th
Stay connected / Learn more
See the attached document to learn more about the team leading the project.
Instagram: right2remain _
Organizer
