The thesis analyzes the 1989 movie, Powwow Highway in three aspects: poverty, Native American radicalism and, traditionalism. The main features of traditionalism in Powwow Highway are horse culture and Philbert's journey, which suggest warlike customs of the past, and the methods through which recognition was gained according to Northern Cheyenne beliefs among tribe members. With such features I prove the traditional aspect of the film, how ancestral-roots are one of the most significant elements in it. Powwow Highway's guiding message is traditional culture, also as a target of previous Native American policy. Despite the United States' best efforts to suppress it, it even survived with the help of American Indian radicalism in the late 1960s. Today, traditionalism is still, and presumably will remain, part of Native American identity, despite the passage of time.