[2] After she graduated, she worked on the Makah Reservation as Community Action Director and created her tribe's first Head Start Program.
In 1971, she edited The Talking Leaf for the Los Angeles Indian Center as a part of their public information department.
And just prior to film school she worked on UCLA's high potential program as an English instructor.
[6] Osawa also worked with her husband for the Seattle-based KSTW-11 public affairs program, Native Vision.
Eagles Caged focused on the female Native American inmates incarcerated in the women's prison in Purdy, Washington.
[2] Her first documentary, In the Heart of Big Mountain focuses on Kathrine Smith, a Navajo matriarch and the relocation of her tribe.