In the Altai Republic of Russia and in Northern California, indigenous shamans resist massive government projects that threaten nature and culture.

Indigenous shamans resist massive government projects that threaten the fragile balance of nature and culture. In the Russian Republic of Altai, traditional native people create and patrol their own mountain parks, trying to rein in tourism and reroute a pipeline to China planned by state-owned Gazprom. In northern California, Winnemem Wintu teenagers grind herbs on a sacred medicine rock their ancestors used for a thousand years, as elders protest U.S. government plans to enlarge Shasta Dam and forever submerge the touchstone of a tribe. Narrated by Graham Greene. Episode one of the four-film ''Standing on Sacred Ground'' series. With Winona LaDuke (Anishinaabeg), Oren Lyons (Onondaga), Barry Lopez and Satish Kumar. Narrated by Graham Greene, with cultural stories narrated by Tantoo Cardinal.—Anonymous