These two films by John Ford can be described as biased. Biased itself means to be unfairly prejudiced for or against someone or something. We see exceedingly clear examples of this in both films. They portray the Native American in way that denies them of any agency. To anyone without a keen idea to the reality of who Native Americans actually are, they would most likely be terrified of them. They are displayed as being primitive, animalistic savages that only seek to cause violence. We see this all over the early American film industry, discriminating against all different races and cultures. Another example of this would be the Birth of a Nation, in which the white male is the hero who comes to save the day yet again. One of John Ford’s earlier films, Stagecoach, gives the Native American nearly no agency whatsoever. We don’t even see the first Cherokee until late into the film, but even before that the audience develops a stern hatred and fear against them. Examples of this range from the crude dialogue about them to the spine-chilling music played when Cherokee is mentioned. When they finally make an appearance they are displayed just how we expected them to be; ruthless, primitive, and savage. Not once does Ford even lend the opportunity for us to see a different point of view of …show more content…
We are presented a story from the point of view of the white American. With no prior information about the Native American the best way to describe them as would be primitive, animalistic and savage. It is almost ridiculous watching the crude portrayal of the Indians while knowing the reality of who they really are. If anything we are the primitive, animalistic savages. After all we did decimate their entire population by a whooping 80% which exceeds the definition of genocide. Biased would most definitely be the best way to describe both of these films. I think even a Native American watching either of these films would be rooting for John
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
Cowboys and Indians is the popular game played by many children played as a game of heroes and villains. Natives are villainized in American pop culture due to the history being told by educational institutions across the nation. There are not many positive roles popular in the media about Native Americans. Many roles are even played by white people. The costume representation is not accurate either. The disrespect towards them is especially seem on Halloween, when people dress as Natives in cute and sexy ways that they think represent their culture. War paint, beads, feathers and headdresses are ceremonial accessories that represent their culture, it not a fun costume to wear. Only if they are being criticized and ridiculed, like they have been in the past. Racism has also been a huge problem when it comes to using creative names for sports teams, like the Redskins for example. Redskin is a derogatory and offensive term towards Native Americans and many white people do not see it as wrong due to the privilege they inherited throughout history. The disrespect towards them has grown and today it seems that if Natives were not getting ridiculed, they are for the most part ignored. The concerns that King describes in his book explains how the past has wired Americans to believing everything they have once learned. White people
Even recently, controversial films have been released depicting Native Americans as fake or unrealistic to actual occurrences. The film industry needs to understand that their methods are demoralizing an entire community or culture of people, and they must be fully aware of the history before producing a Native American film. Visual sovereignty and survivance are some of the most important practices that would help films stay within the limits and not cross any lines by targeting Native American people and their culture. It is crucial for Hollywood cinema to continue making films that challenge the previous “Imaginary Indian” topic and tell a story that reveals the truth about Native American
Although the work is 40 years old, “Custer Died for Your Sins” is still relevant and valuable in explaining the history and problems that Indians face in the United States. Deloria book reveals the Whites view of Indians as false compared to the reality of how Indians are in real life. The forceful intrusion of the U.S. Government and Christian missionaries have had the most oppressing and damaging effect on Indians. There is hope in Delorias words though. He believes that as more tribes become more politically active and capable, they will be able to become more economically independent for future generations. He feels much hope in the 1960’s generation of college age Indians returning to take ownership of their tribes problems.
[2] So, then, what exactly are the problems with this film? Notably, nearly every film or TV show based on Daniel Boone has similar twisted depictions and representations of Boone, the native Americans, the white settlers, and the interaction therein. This suggests something deeper, and subtler maybe, than a few misinformed filmmakers. Something hidden seems to be imbedded deep w...
Portrayal of Native Americans in Last of the Mohicans and Stereotypes of Native Americans Introduction James Fenimore Cooper wrote the novel Last of the Mohicans. James Fenimore Cooper had a remarkably boring, wealthy existence. His parents were shrewd and ambitious, easily acquiring money and power. Thus he was exposed early on to the finer pleasures of life. The Last of the Mohicans takes place in the midst of the French-Indian war. Specifically, it focuses on one battle in a war that lasted for many years. This was the last and most important conflict over French and British possessions in North America. Unlike the earlier wars, which began in Europe and spread to America, this struggle broke out solely in America in 1754, and was not settled until 1763. For this reason, Indian involvement in the conflict was incredibly high. This book depicts the battle of Fort William Henry and adds the fictional kidnapping of two white pioneering sisters (whites were often kidnapped by Native Americans in Cooper's novels). Cooper knew few Indians, so he drew on a Moravian missionary's account of two opposing tribes; the Delawares and the "Mingos." Although this characterization was filled with inaccuracies, the dual image of the opposing tribes allowed Cooper to create a lasting image of the Indian that became a part of the American consciousness for almost two centuries. This book was actually made into a movie in 1992, and did very well at the box office. Of all of Coopers books, this is by far the most famous. Cooper here tells the story of the stolid colonial scout Hawkeye, who, with his two Indian companions Chingachgook and his son Uncas, stumble on a party of British soldiers conducting two fair maidens to their father, the command...
When they are represented, they are misrepresented. They are easily one of the most underrepresented cultures and people in American media. Native Americans shouldn’t be confined to a stereotype, should have a greater presence in the media, and shouldn’t be misrepresented when they are presented. The stereotype of Native Americans has been concocted by long history.
For Americans moving west in the 1820's and 30's there was little firsthand knowledge of what the frontier would be like when they arrived. There was a lot of presumption about the Indians. Many felt, through the stories they heard and read, that they had sufficient information to know what the Indians would truly be like and how to respond to them. Unfortunately, as is described in James Fenimore Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales, white settlers stereotyped the Native Americans as savage, heartless beasts.
Mike Gabriel portrays the source of conflict as a love story between Pocahontas and John smith and those two sides never liked each other they were always fighting, they mainly fought over land and those battles were always bloody. An example of the love in the film clip is when the father of Pocahontas was about to hit John Smith with his stick and Pocahontas jumped on John Smith to block from the blow of the stick (Gabriel, 1995). Mike immediately cut to Pocahontas's reaction shot so the audience could see her reaction. This humanized her because her reaction was very sad and mad at the same time, those feelings are normal for a human to have. These elements contribute to the inaccurate portrayal of Mike Gabriel's film because in the real world the Native Americans would have killed him because love wouldn't have stopped anything because they had complete hatred for each other.
Many people are unaware of how harmful and hurtful this stereotype is. According to Frozen in Time: The Impact of Native American Media Representations on Identity and Self Understanding, these stereotypes “result in poorer self-esteem and mental health for Native youth [while] also contribut[ing] to the development of cultural biases and prejudices (39). The inaccurate representations of Native American Indians in the media encourages an identity that is not true.
The representation of First Nations people in popular culture is both relevant and done without consultation. Movies, television shows, advertisements, music, and children’s books all seem to portray the negative stereotype that was introduced with historical literature. According to Shaughnessy, “society was forced to generate extreme racism in order to suppress the large Indian population,” and consequently, these formed perceptions are what carry on through to today. Racist depictions are both subliminal and blatant in their representations in popular culture and society is shown this at an early age. Disney films such as Pocahontas and Peter Pan introduce concepts of sexual objectification and stereotyping First Nations peoples to a young
There were many stereotypes that were shown in this book but the two that stuck out to me the most was the way they tried to show that almost every native American except Juniors grandmother was an alcoholic on the reservation. He saw that his friend and his mother were always walking around with bruises and knew that they were from his dad because he drank a lot and beat them. This can be seen as harmful in the fact that after reading this book you can just take this view into the reservation life as all there is and assume that all the Native Americans are raging alcoholics and wife beats and lazy drunks. Most people won’t see it that way because we as a species are smarter than that hopefully. The positive take on this that if you read this you might see that drinking is a problem on some reservations and maybe try to help in some way by giving a donation to a tribe that sticks out to you and to their recovery programs because for this to get done you need time, money and participation.
The history of the relationship between Indigenous Peoples of the North America and European settlers represents a doubtlessly tragic succession of events, which resulted in a drastic decline in Indigenous population leading to the complete annihilation of some Native groups, and bringing others to the brink of extinction. This disastrous development left the Indigenous community devastated, shaking their society to its very pillars. From the 1492 Incident and up to the 19th century the European invasion to the North America heavily impacted the social development of the Indigenous civilization: apart from contributing to their physical extermination by waging incessant war on the Indian tribes, Anglo-Americans irreversibly changed the Native lifestyle discrediting their entire set of moral guidelines. Using the most disreputable inventions of the European diplomacy, the colonizers and later the United States’ government not only turned separate Indigenous tribes against each other but have also sown discord among the members of the same tribe. One of the most vivid examples of the Anglo-American detrimental influence on the Native groups is the history of the Cherokee Nation and the U.S. Indian Removal Policy. The Cherokee removal from Georgia (along with many other Indian nations) was definitely an on-going conflict that did not start at any moment in time, but developed in layers of history between the Native Americans, settlers of various cultures, and the early U.S. government. This rich and intricate history does not allow for easy and quick judgments as to who was responsible for the near demise of the Cherokee Nation. In 1838, eight thousand Cherokees perished on a forced march out of Georgia, which came to be called the T...
Looking back at the history of the United States, there are many instances and issues concerning race and ethnicity that shape the social classes that make up the United States today. There are many stories concerning the American Indian that are filled with betrayal, but there is probably none more cruel and shameful as the removal of the Cherokee Indians in 1838. Blood thirsty for money and property, the white settlers would soon use dirty methods to drive the Cherokee out of their home- lands. The United States government played a critical role in the removal of the Cherokee. “Soon the state governments insisted on the removal of the native peoples, who were already out numbered by the white settlers and considered to be uncivilized “heathens,” not worthy of the land they held” (Sherman 126). This was the attitude of the white settlers. Because of the color of their skin, they spoke a different language, and they were not accustomed to the white mans’ way of life, the Cherokee people suffered many great afflictions even unto death.
Like many Native American Tribes, the Cherokee were systematically suppressed, robbed, dispossessed, and forced out of their ancestral homelands by Americans. This topic has become really difficult and uncomfortable to talk about for no reason other than embarrassment. We, as Americans, are mortified that our own country would partake in the act of forcibly removing a culture from it’s home. We are mortified that we let this become a socially acceptable way to treat Native Americans; but mostly, we are mortified that we conned the Cherokee Natives into signing an unlawful treaty that forced them to leave their Georgia homeland and move west via the Trail of Tears. The novel, The Cherokee Nation and the Trail of Tears, written by Theda Perdue