Native American Culture In Chris Eyre's Smoke Signals

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In Chris Eyre’s Smoke Signals a recurring topic of discussion is frybread. Made of simple ingredients such as flour, water, and baking powder, frybread has become a delicacy of the people on the Couer D’Alene Indian Reservation. Its popularity is due to the poverty of the Couer D’Alene Indians and how cheap it is to make. Frybread is also a very stereotypical Native American food that plays a part in Thomas’s turning into a “real Indian.” Frybread is symbolic of Native American culture as a result of colonialism because it shows the decline in their standard of living. Before being restricted by the federal government, the Couer D’Alene were a fishing tribe. This meant that about 85% of their diet was fish. Now that they are restricted from …show more content…

A very important scene that exemplifies this is the scene on the bus when Victor teaches Thomas how to be a real Indian. The movie uses frybread as the symbol to represent the desire to fulfill the stereotype because Thomas is wearing the “Frybread Power” shirt when he lets his hair down. They feel the need to act this way because they have only lived on the reservation and do not know anything different. In the movie the viewer is given the impression that the Indians on the reservation fear the outside world. One of the girls they run into on the reservation even says that even though they are still in the United States it is like they are going to a foreign land. As the movie progresses, Victor and Thomas move away from the stereotype. Victor cuts his hair, even though earlier in the film he states that an Indian’s strength is his hair. Thomas goes back to braiding his hair and wearing a suit. This represents the change in culture of Native Americans since the colonialism era. Another scene in the movie that shows change in society is when Victor and Thomas are in the sheriff’s office after the car accident. They think that they are going to be in trouble for simply “being Indian”. Victor and Thomas end up getting off without being in any trouble because there is no actual evidence against

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