This documentary focuses on efforts by the Lakota Sioux to preserve their heritage in the face of acculturation, poverty and the generation gap. Precariously perched on a cultural divide, Sioux elders, medicine men and educators discuss song and dance, oral tradition, medicine and spirit world and their relevance to contemporary conditions. The tape begins with scenes of a Sweat Lodge ceremony -Inipi- central to the spiritual life of the Lakota people and reenacted here for educational purposes. For Ben Black Bear Sr., an activist for traditional ways, music and dance are time-honored ways of transmitting culture and chronicling historical events. The Sioux reverence for nature is epitomized by Lakota medicine men, experts in the restorative properties of plants and herbs, the knowledge of which is obtained through animal helpers and the revelations of the Pipe Fast or Vision Quest. Interviews with tribal members illustrate how these ancient mores are adversely affected by "American" values of competition, individualism and private property.