ON SACRED GROUND is based on the true events during the 2016 construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline that runs through the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in North Dakota on land that is owned by the Lakota “Sioux” Tribe. The filmmakers worked alongside the Sioux tribe to ensure their depiction of the events to ensure their story was accurately told. The film was written by Josh and Rebecca Tickell (Kiss The Ground / Netflix) and William Mapother (Lost, Another Earth) who stars in the film alongside David Arquette, Amy Smart, Frances Fisher, Irene Bedard, David Midthunder, Kerry Knuppe and Mariel Hemingway.

The film follows Daniel (William Mapother), a journalist and Afghanistan War military veteran, and Elliot (David Arquette), an oil company executive, who find themselves on opposite sides of the fight during the construction of the contentious pipeline. As the story unfolds, Daniel starts to align himself more with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe than the oil company he was hired to write about favorably, and the two characters go down separate paths as the events unfold during one of the most heated protests and confrontation with Native American tribes in modern US history.
 

Protests of the Dakota Access Pipeline occurred at several places because of concerns about the pipeline's impact on the environment and to sites sacred to Native Americans. Indigenous nations around the country opposed the pipeline, along with the Sioux tribal nations. In North Dakota, next to and on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, nearly 15,000 people from around the world protested, staging a sit-in for months.
 

The film was produced by the Tickells’ under their Big Picture Ranch banner.