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Modern native american stereotypes
Native stereotypes in movies
Native stereotypes in movies
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Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee and Dances With Wolves: Are The Similarities Greater Than The Differences? The 1990’s through the 2000’s were a golden age for historical film making. Two films, though, defied usual historical films. Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee and Dances With Wolves are great examples of this. These two movies are no doubt similar in many ways, and not only earned their place in records, but in people’s hearts. Although the two films have similar settings and similar time settings. Dances with wolves takes place in 1863, while Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee takes place at 1860. However, all movies can’t be the same. John Dunbar from Dances With Wolves is not a real character, …show more content…
and neither is the overall story. Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee is based on true events that had occured at the Battle Of The Little Bighorn. So therefore, there is a major difference in historical accuracy. Although these two films were very different, they had some great similarities.
Both of these movies have similar time periods, and give you a great outlook on the Native American way of life. John Dunbar (Dances With Wolves) is a soldier who has been honored for his courage, and has been allowed to be posted on any outpost he desires. He chooses an outpost on the frontier, which confuses many of his fellow soldiers. At this time, Indians still roamed the frontier, and it was a very barren place. Due to unfortunate events on the journey, the only two people who know of his location are gone. John Dunbar seeks refuge in a small abandoned outpost and waits for the soldiers to arrive. As days and days go on, he starts to give up hope that anyone will be coming at all. In the middle of the state of perish, he makes contact with an Indian, Kicking Bird. Kicking bird had discovered John’s camp, and wanted to steal Cisco, his horse. Luckily Dunbar scared him away, and saved his horse. The setting is Western, just like Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee. Charles Eastman (Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee) is a former Sioux tribe member, but has been raised as if he has been a white man for almost his whole life. As Charles later becomes a doctor, he tries to fight for him and his people’s
rights. And that's not all, the main characters both have very similar personalities. They are both brave, and can push themselves to be able to defy authority for their people. Both of the characters, John Dunbar and Charles Eastman, are actually very similar in many ways. They mainly feel alone and lost in where they are placed in society. Not only are those two similar, Kicking Bird and Sitting Bull are both characters that give very important information and their thoughts and personal opinions on the events that are happening in their lives. These characters are all very brave, and can all fight for themselves and their people. They will do whatever it takes to ensure the safety of their people and their land. Even the directors have similarities. They both chose a dramatic story, that is mainly historical and emotional. They are both Western movies, which just adds to their similarities. When I was watching the movie, I felt that I was actually feeling the same emotions for the main characters in Dances with Wolves, and Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee. They both have a similar aspect on the movie. The movie also has John and Charles share their thoughts as if they were in a diary. This also shows how both of these movies directors had very similar looks on how they wanted the movie to be. Overall, Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee and Dances With Wolves are both similar in many ways. They both have the same setting, the same feel to the movie, and the same personalities. Bury My Heart At WOunded Knee and Dances With Wolves are similar in many ways.
Thunderheart is a movie inspired by the sad realities of various Native American reservations in the 1970’s. This is the story of a Sioux tribe, conquered in their own land, on a reservation in South Dakota. Thunderheart is partly an investigation of the murder of Leo Fast Elk and also, the heroic journey of Ray Levoi. Ray is an F.B.I. agent with a Sioux background, sent by his superior Frank Coutelle to this reservation to diffuse tension and chaos amongst the locals and solve the murder mystery. At the reservation, Ray embarks on his heroic journey to redeem this ‘wasteland’ and at the same time, discovers his own identity and his place in the greater society. Certain scenes of the movie mark the significant stages of Ray’s heroic journey. His journey to the wasteland, the shooting of Maggie Eagle Bear’s son, Ray’s spiritual vision, and his recognition as the reincarnation of “Thunderheart,” signify his progression as a hero and allow him to acculturate his native spirituality and cultural identity as a Sioux.
Native American Literature & Film 22 April 2014 Social Injustice in Roundhouse Lives for Native Americans on reservations have never quite been easy. There are many struggles that most outsiders are completely oblivious about. In her book The Roundhouse, Louise Erdrich brings those problems to light. She gives her readers a feel of what it is like to be Native American by illustrating the struggles through the life of Joe, a 13-year-old Native American boy living on a North Dakota reservation.
The movie Dances with Wolves was a real good movie and I enjoyed watching it. It showed how life was back in the time of the Civil War. The movie also showed how Indians lived and how they respect everything except the white men.
The film, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, documents the annihilation of the American Indians in the late 1800s. The film starts out in the Black Hills of the Dakotas, a land sacred to the Sioux Native Americans. The Sioux claimed the land and their population flourished due to the good resources in the area. The white people want to gain control of the land and force the natives to relocate to another area. They want the natives to assimilate and believe that this strategy will improve the nation. Senator Henry Dawes comes up with the plan to relocate the natives to several reservations, where they can learn the ways of the white people. Dawes uses an americanized native named Ohiyesa, or Charles, as proof of the success of assimilation. The Sioux are forced to assimilate in order to protect their lives.
They brought real Natives to play the Natives on the big screen and eventually movies were created by Natives themselves. Around the same time was the Hippie movement; many people wanted to be like the Natives they saw in the films even though it was not an accurate depiction of the Natives. They liked the 'positive stereotypes' of the Natives in the movies, the family unity and their strength as warriors. In the 1960's the American Indian Movement (AIM) also began and in 1973 The genocide at Wounded Knee occurred. Jim Jarmusch says “That is a genocide that occurred and the [American] culture wanted to perpetrate the idea that [the natives] these people are now mythological, you know, they don’t even really exist, they’re like dinosaurs.” This shows just how much Americans wanted to belittle the Natives, and despite succeeding for a number of years, the New Age of Cinema commenced and movies like Smoke Signals began what some would look at as a Renaissance. The Renaissance explained in Reel Injun discusses the rebirth of the Native American in the Hollywood films, and how the negative stereotypes went away with time. Reel Injun also makes a point to explain how it impacted not only the films but Americans who watched them, and ultimately America as a
The United States government initially celebrated the Battle at Wounded Knee as the final conflict between Native Americans and the United States military - after which the western frontier was considered safe for the incoming settlers. Over 20 medals were awarded to the soldiers for their valor on the battlefield. However, the understanding has changed regarding what actually took place at Wounded Knee on December 29, 1890. The Hollywood version of the Battle of Wounded Knee accurately presents the case that the Battle at Wounded Knee was actually a massacre of the Sioux - the culminating act of betrayal and aggression carried out by the United States military,
The movie starts by showing the Indians as “bad” when Johnson finds a note of another mountain man who has “savagely” been killed by the Indians. This view changes as the movie points out tribes instead of Indians as just one group. Some of the tribes are shown dangerous and not to be messed with while others are friendly, still each tribe treats Johnson as “outsider.” Indians are not portrayed as greater than “...
The Indians were being confined to crowed reservations that were poorly run, had scarce game, alcohol was plentiful, the soil was poor, and the ancient religious practices were prohibited. The Indians were not happy that they had been kicked off there land and were now forced to live on a reservation. The Indians then began to Ghost Dance a form of religion it is said that if the Indians were to do this trance like dance the country would be cleansed of white intruders. Also dead ancestors and slaughtered buffalo would return and the old ways would be reborn in a fruitful land. Once the Bureau of Indian affairs noticed what was going on they began to fear this new religion would lead to warfare. The white peoplewere scared that this new dance was a war dance. They called for army protection. Army was called in to try to curbed this new religion before it could start a war.
“Film is more than the instrument of a representation; it is also the object of representation. It is not a reflection or a refraction of the ‘real’; instead, it is like a photograph of the mirrored reflection of a painted image.” (Kilpatrick) Although films have found a place in society for about a century, the labels they possess, such as stereotypes which Natives American are recognized for, have their roots from many centuries ago (Kilpatrick). The Searchers, a movie directed by John Ford and starred by John Wayne, tells the story of a veteran of the American Civil War and how after his return home he would go after the maligned Indians who killed his family and kidnapped his younger niece. After struggling for five years to recover his niece back, who is now a young woman, she is rescued by his own hands. Likewise, Dances with Wolves is a Western film directed and starred by Kevin Costner. It is also situated during the American Civil War and tells the story of a soldier named John Dunbar that after a suicide attempt; he involuntarily leads Union troops to a triumph. Then, by his request he is sent to a remote outpost in the Indian frontier “before it’s gone”. There, the contact with the natives is eminent and thus it shows how through those contacts this soldier is transformed into another Indian that belongs with the Sioux to tribe and who is now called Dances With Wolves. While both John Ford and Kevin Costner emphasize a desire to apologize to the indigenous people, they use similar themes such as stereotypes, miscegenation, and the way characters are depicted; conversely, these two movies are different by the way the themes are developed within each film.
The video “Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee,” tells the story of being pushed onto reservations in the Midwest and Black Hills negotiations. The main characters include Charles Eastman, Red Cloud, and Sitting Bull. These characters each play a significant role in capturing the emotional state of life among the governing agencies and tribal members.
which eventually came true. General Custer was defeated, but this only prompted the U.S. government to send more troops. John Dunbar, a character in the film Dances with Wolves,
"After a while I went out and left the hospital and walked back to the hotel in the rain" (332). This last line of the novel gives an understanding of Ernest Hemingway's style and tone. The overall tone of the book is much different than that of The Sun Also Rises. The characters in the book are propelled by outside forces, in this case WWI, where the characters in The Sun Also Rises seemed to have no direction. Frederick's actions are determined by his position until he deserts the army. Floating down the river with barely a hold on a piece of wood his life, he abandons everything except Catherine and lets the river take him to a new life that becomes increasing difficult to understand. Nevertheless, Hemingway's style and tone make A Farewell to Arms one of the great American novels. Critics usually describe Hemingway's style as simple, spare, and journalistic. These are all good words they all apply. Perhaps because of his training as a newspaperman, Hemingway is a master of the declarative, subject-verb-object sentence. His writing has been likened to a boxer's punches--combinations of lefts and rights coming at us without pause. As illustrated on page 145 "She went down the hall. The porter carried the sack. He knew what was in it," one can see that Hemingway's style is to-the-point and easy to understand. The simplicity and the sensory richness flow directly from Hemingway's and his characters' beliefs. The punchy, vivid language has the immediacy of a news bulletin: these are facts, Hemingway is telling us, and they can't be ignored. And just as Frederic Henry comes to distrust abstractions like "patriotism," so does Hemingway distrust them. Instead he seeks the concrete and the tangible. A simple "good" becomes higher praise than another writer's string of decorative adjectives. Hemingway's style changes, too, when it reflects his characters' changing states of mind. Writing from Frederic Henry's point of view, he sometimes uses a modified stream-of-consciousness technique, a method for spilling out on paper the inner thoughts of a character. Usually Henry's thoughts are choppy, staccato, but when he becomes drunk the language does too, as in the passage on page 13, "I had gone to no such place but to the smoke of cafes and nights when the room whirled and you
Many theatrical storylines depict Indians and Native Americans as selfish thieves and savages, who have no mercy for anyone but themselves. Instead of following the trend of portraying Indians as ignorant fighters, the movie Dances with Wolves avoids these stereotypes by playing the Sioux tribe of South Dakota as an authentic caring people with real emotions and values. In all, the movie did an impressive portrayal of life and the way things happened in that time period; however, producer Kevin Costner failed to keep the entire movie exact in its history.
Let us begin our journey by comparing the captivity theme. Along with captivity, we will explore the levels of assimilation each captive reaches. In Dances With Wolves, there is an English woman who had been taken captive as a child. This woman, named Stands With A Fists, fully assimilated to the Native-American culture and customs. Stands With A Fists no longer spoke, dressed, ate, or lived as the English did. However, later in the film, she begins to recall the English language in order to translate for the Indians. Stands With A Fist, though captive,
Duffy says this to imply that her dance was perfect as if she were a