Theportrayal of Native Americans in television and films concernsindigenous roles in cinema, particularly their depiction inHollywood productions. Especially in theWestern genre, Native Americanstock characters can reflect contemporary and historical perceptions of Native Americans and theWild West.[citation needed]
The portrayal of Native Americans in American cinema has, since the beginning of the motion picture industry, employed harmful stereotypes, especially the archetypes of Native Americans as violentbarbarians and noble andpeaceful savages.[1] A variety of images appeared from the early to mid 1930s, and by the late 1930s negative images briefly dominated Westerns. In 1950, the watershed filmBroken Arrow appeared, which many credit as the first postwar Western to depict Native Americans sympathetically. Starting in the 1990s, Native American filmmakers have attempted to makeindependent films that work to represent the depth and complexity of indigenous peoples as people and provide a realistic account of their culture.[1] Contemporary Native filmmakers have employed the use of visual sovereignty, defined bySeneca scholar Michelle H. Raheja as "a way of reimagining Native-centered articulations of self-representation and autonomy that engage the powerful ideologies of mass media," to take back the right to tell their own stories.[2]
Circa the 1860s, stories involving heroic Indian figures were proliferated indime novels.[3]
From the 1870s to the 1910s,Wild West shows such asBuffalo Bill'sWild West Show popularized conflict betweencowboys and Indians. These stage performances toured America and Europe, presentingromanticized fiction about theAmerican frontier which some audiences misunderstood as history.[3] In 1912, Buffalo Bill Cody produced a three-minute silent film titledThe Life of Buffalo Bill, starring himself.[4][5]
In his 1917 novel, Cody identified himself as an "Indian fighter,"[6] and his wild west shows led to widespread misrepresentation of Native Americans, despite involvement with Native American actors.[3] Some Native actors chose to portray the shows' chiefs as belligerent, while others portrayed their roles with humble dignity - possibly creating thebloodthirsty savage &noble Indian dichotomy, or "double stereotype."[3]
In 1908,D.W. Griffith releasedThe Red Man and the Child. The film featured a sympathetic depiction of Native American characters; however, critics describe their portrayal as a "helpless Indian race...forced to recede before theadvancing white."[7] Similar depictions includedThe Indian Runner's Romance (1909) andThe Red Man's View (1909).
By 1910, one-fifth ofAmerican films wereWesterns.[8]
Circa 1910,Nanticoke film directorJames Young Deer[9] was hired byPathé to produce accurate Native American silent films with positive portrayals.[10] Deer, an actor, writer, and director, was involved in the production of over 150 movies, an example beingWhite Fawn's Devotion: A Play Acted by a Tribe of Red Indians in America.[11]
In 1912,D. W. Griffith releasedA Pueblo Legend andThe Massacre, which both failed to show Native Americans in a positive light.[11]The Massacre romanticizedCuster's roles in theIndian Wars, with recurring scenes of white mother struggling to protect her infant, while a Native American mother is killed and collapses offscreen. Griffith would later become infamous for his creation ofTheBirth of a Nation, aracistpropaganda film that portrayed theKKK as heroic.[12][13]
In 1914,Theodore Wharton directedThe Indian War Refought: The Wars for Civilization in America which romanticized multiple battles including the 1890Wounded Knee Massacre, wherein U.S. Army soldiers killed over 250Lakota Indians, including men, women, and children, and buried them in amass grave. This film depicted themassacre as a battle; it was directed by theWar Department and approved by theUnited States government. It can be therefore considered apropaganda film, with the goal of rationalizing the government's actions.[14] Despite its historical inaccuracies, a 1914Moving Picture World advertisement claims,
This most realistic film of the age...has been APPROVED BY THEUNITED STATES GOVERNMENT and made under the DIRECTION OF THEWAR DEPARTMENT...Historically Correct and all scenes TAKEN ON THE EXACT LOCATION of the original battles.[15]
In 1914, ethnologistEdward S. Curtis directed silent filmIn the Land of the Head Hunters, a fictionalized documentary about the lives and culture ofKwakwakaʼwakw people of theQueen Charlotte Strait inCanada. Although Curtis wrote and directed the film, all of its actors were entirelyKwakwakaʼwakw.[16]
In 1918, vaudeville performerWill Rogers (Cherokee, 1879–1935) made his film debut withLaughing Bill Hyde. He starred in numerous silent films, made the transition to talkies, began producing his own films, and went on to become the highest paid entertainer in Hollywood.[17]
The 1930 silent filmThe Silent Enemy is an example of a film that focuses on Native American characters prior to colonization. The film dramatizes a famine experienced by theOjibwe during thepost-classical era and incorporatesfolklore,spiritual visions, andreligious elements. The film begins with asound-synchronized speech in English byOjibwe chief and activistChauncey Yellow Robe who stars in the film.[18]
Early films featuring Native characters varied in their depictions.[which?] Some of these characters[who?] were often shown wearing leather clothing with feathers in their hair or with elaborate feather headdresses. Authors[who?] have argued that Native communities were often depicted as cruel societies that sought out constant warfare and vengeance against white characters. But while some individual Native characters appeared as drunkards, cruel, or unintelligent, others, like those inThe Red Man and the Child (1908),A Mohawk's Way (1910), andThe Red Girl and the Child (1910), were friends or allies to white settlers. These depictions however were often one-dimensional and perpetuated the idea that the only good Native is one that helps white settlers.[1][19] A few successful Indian/white marriages did occur in film during these early years, such asA Cry from the Wilderness (1909),A Leap for Life (1910) andThe Indian Land Grab (1911).[20] Other depictions were generalized stereotypes and used largely for aesthetic purposes and many tribes were represented. Feather headdresses were culturally and historically correct for approximately two dozen Plains tribes, and those of the American southwest were often wearing traditional clothing.[21] This was done to create a more recognizable character for white audiences to view as "indian". Many directors[who?] did not care about accuracy when it came to language either, with Native actors being asked to speak in their native language no matter what tribe they are supposed to be from in the film.[example needed] These discrepancies worked to create the Hollywood Indian stereotype prevalent within the western genre.[22][23]
Beverly R. Singer argues that "Despite the fact that a diversity of indigenous peoples had a legal and historical significance in the formation of every new country founded in the Western Hemisphere, in the United States and Canada the term 'Indians' became a hegemonic designation implying that they were all the same in regards to culture, behavior, language, and social organization".[citation needed] Other scholars[who?] argued these films in fact showed a wide range of depictions of Native people from noble to sympathetic.[24]
TheRevisionist Western, also known as a Modern Western or an Anti-Western, is a subgenre of Western films that began circa 1960. This subgenre is characterized by a darker and more cynical tone that was generally not present in earlier Western films.[citation needed]
In the 1970s, Revisionist Westerns likeLittle Big Man andSoldier Blue often portrayed Native Americans as victims and white people as the frontier's aggressive intruders.[25] While the studio comedyLittle Big Man still centers on a white protagonist,Dustin Hoffman, the Native Americans are depicted sympathetically while members of the United States Cavalry are depicted as villains. The Cheyenne in the film are living harmoniously and peacefully at the start of the film, and it's the encroachment of the violent white men who are the harmful, disruptive influence on their culture and landscape.[26] The film is also noted for including aTwo-Spirit character as well as showing Lt. ColonelGeorge Armstrong Custer as a lunatic – a fool and a fop – whom the white protagonist betrays for the sake of his adopted Indian family.[26]
The 1980s saw the emergence ofindependent films with contemporary Native content such asPowwow Highway, aroad movie andbuddy film where one protagonist, an angry young activist, namechecks theAmerican Indian Movement while the other visits sacred sites to greet the dawn. Both are on their way to free a friend from jail.[27]
1990'sDances with Wolves, while hailed by mainstream audiences and providing jobs for manyLakota actors, has also been cited as a return to theWhite savior narrative in film.[28] In the film U.S. soldiers capture John Dunbar (Kevin Costner) and take him as a prisoner. Native Americans race onto the scene and kill all of the U.S. soldiers while none of the Native Americans appear to have been killed. Some of them receive injuries, but they are portrayed as strong and immune to the pain. However, Dunbar then becomes part of the tribe and leads the Sioux against their rivals, the Pawnee, and later helps them escape the same army he once served. The final credits of the film suggest thatSioux people are now extinct, which a few criticized.[29]
Native FilmmakerChris Eyre wrote and directed the filmSmoke Signals (1998) which has been selected for preservation in theNational Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[30] It is one of few films featuring Native American characters and directed by a Native filmmaker (along withEdwin Carewe's early films) that received theatrical distribution.[31]Smoke Signals was written, directed, and acted in by Native Americans.[31] LikePowwow Highway, it is also a road movie and buddy film that examines friendship, fatherhood, and the roles of tradition versus modernity in Indian Country.[32]
InThe Doe Boy (2001) a Cherokee boy is nicknamed Hunter, after accidentally killing a female deer instead of a buck during his first hunting trip. The disappointment of his father and the distance between them is compounded by the physical limitations placed on Hunter to avoid injury. Breaking away from his father and overprotective mother, he meets with a girlfriend and falls in love with her, and drawing on the wisdom of his full-blood grandfather, Hunter gradually discovers love and a true sense of his possibilities. Later on his father was accidentally shot and killed by hunters. Hunter meets with the buck deer and decides not to kill the buck.[33]
InBuffalo Dreams (2005) Josh Townsend has to move again with his mother and father, astrophysics researcher Dr. Nick Townsend, to a New Mexico small town. While working on the copy machine, Josh gets bored and decides to work for the Native American family tribal buffalo reserve, working with Navajo clan elder John Blackhorse's cynical grandson Thomas and his buddy Moon. Kyle's cyclist gang invites him for a bike ride which Josh joins their group, and he takes them to a secret waterfall where they spray-paint graffiti in the sacred site and litter the ground, Josh gets into trouble with John, and he apologizes to John's family and challenges his rival Kyle to a mountain bike race. During the race the buffalos escape and stampede towards town, and Josh and his friends gather up the buffalos to save their small town from getting stampede.
The New World (2005) offers a largely fictionalized retelling of the relationship betweenJohn Smith andPocahontas. John Smith arrives to the Americas with the Pilgrims and is immediately captured by a Native American tribe. The film did offer several myths about Pocahontas, changing her into an adult so the film can be made into a love story. In reality, Pocahontas was a child of about ten she met John Smith, and most scholars agree that some of the events in the film never took place.[34][35]
In 1973, American actorMarlon Brando declined anAcademy Award in protest for the representation of Native Americans inHollywood cinema, citing killing of helpless unarmed Indigenous peoples and the theft of their territory.[39]
Whitewashing in film refers to the historic phenomenon stemming from the early 1900s where white actors have been cast for roles not meant for them. Instead of hiring someone that fits the intended race/ethnicity of the character, a white person is traditionally given that role. This is not unique to one racial or minority group; from Black, to Asian, and to Native American, many marginalized groups in America have felt the effects of whitewashing in the film industry.[40]
Whitewashing is two-pronged in effect, for not only does it impede Native American representation in film, but it also forces them into stereotypical roles.[41] The tropes of the savage Native American or the Native American at the mercy of white people have long been recycled for years. This allows Hollywood, a predominantly white industry from top to bottom, to continue to gatekeep access to coveted film roles. In 2017, roughly 70% of the characters in the top Hollywood releases for that year were white.[42] That year, roughly 60% of the US population was white, showing a disproportionate representation of white people in Hollywood.[43] This also reinforces many of the stereotypes many people possess regarding Native Americans, because there hasn't been a significant culture change as yet regarding how Native Americans are portrayed in mainstream American media. Furthermore, white actors have never faced a shortage of roles available to them in Hollywood, while Native Americans and other marginalized groups continue to experience this.[44]
Dark Cloud, also known as Elijah Tahamont, was anAlgonquinchief born inSt. Francis Indian Village, Quebec, Canada who lived from 1861 to 1918. He starred in films such asWhat Am I Bid? (1919),The Woman Untamed (1920),The Birth of a Nation (1915), andThe Dishonoured Metal (1914).
Red Wing was born in 1884 to aWinnebago mother and French Canadian/Sauk father on theWinnebago Reservation in Nebraska. Early in her career, she starred in many small film roles. She was best known for starring in one of Hollywood's first feature Westerns,The Squaw Man (1914). She was married toJames Young Deer, another indigenous actor and director.
Edwin Carewe, also known as Jay John Fox, was born inGainesville, Texas, in 1883 to a white father andChickasaw mother. An actor early in his career, Carewe started directing Hollywood films in 1914 during the silent era.[55] Some of his films includeRamona (1928),Evangeline (1929),Resurrection (1927), andJoanna (1925).
Luther Standing Bear, also known as Ota K'Te (Plenty Kill), was born on thePine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota and lived from 1868 to 1939.[56] He is anOglala Lakota writer and actor who started acting in 1912. Some of his filmography includesWhite Oak (1921),Cyclone of the Saddle (1935), andUnion Pacific (1939).
James Young Deer was born James Young Johnson in Washington D.C. in 1876. He hails from theNanticoke people of Delaware, and worked both as a director and actor. Some of his films includeThe Stranger (1920),The Great Secret (1917), andLieutenant Daring RN and the Water Rats (1924). From 1911 to 1914, James Young Deer was Head of Production/general manager for thePathé Frères West Coast Studio located inEdendale, California. He was married to Native American actressRed Wing and died in 1946.
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Wes Studi, born in 1947 in Oklahoma, is aCherokee actor and professional horse trainer known for starring in over 80 films. Some of his work includesDances with Wolves (1990),The Last of the Mohicans (1992), andAvatar (2009). He is credited with bringing versatile and masterful performances into Hollywood which have helped to dismantle some of the stereotypes surrounding Native Americans within the industry. In 2019, Studi received theGovernors Award, an honorary award that commemorates the lifetime performance of an actor each year. Studi is just the second actor to receive an award for performances in film, following Ben Johnson in 1972.[57]
Born in South Dakota,Russell Means was an Oglala LakotaDakota Native American who lived from 1939 to 2012. Means was the first director of theAmerican Indian Movement, which was originally created to fight poverty andpolice brutality amongst American indigenous communities. He fought for the rights of indigenous people worldwide, and is known for giving a televised speech in 2000 where he said he prefers the label 'Indian' to 'Native American' because everyone born in the United States should be considered a Native American.[58] He also ran an unsuccessful presidential campaign in 1987 as a member of theLibertarian party. He has starred in films such asThe Last of the Mohicans (1992),Natural Born Killers (1994) andPocahontas (1995).
Will Sampson, from Oklahoma, was a member of theCreek Nation who lived from 1933 to 1987. He received his big acting break with the role "Chief" Bromden inOne Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), one of only three films to win theBig Five Academy Awards. Sampson was also known for starring in films such asThe Outlaw Josey Wales (1976),Orca (1977), andThe White Buffalo (1977). After dying in 1987, he was buried on the reservation that he grew up on.
Floyd Westerman, who also went by 'Red Crow', was a Dakota Sioux actor, activist and musician born in 1936 on theLake Traverse Indian Reservation in Roberts County, South Dakota. He starred inDances with Wolves (1990),Dharma & Greg (1997), andHidalgo (2004). Outside of film, Westerman has used his musical talents to bring greater awareness to issues facing indigenous people in the United States. He collaborated with artists such asSting,Willie Nelson, andDon Henley to achieve such goals. He was also an ambassador for theInternational Indian Treaty Council, a multinational organization striving for the self-determination and autonomy of indigenous peoples across the world. He died in 2007.
Visual sovereignty is a way of looking at indigenous sovereignty outside of legal parameters defined by Seneca scholar Michelle H. Raheja as "a way of reimagining Native-centered articulations of self-representation and autonomy that engage the powerful ideologies of mass media," to take back the right to tell their own stories. ScholarJulia Boyd writes "White males have long dominated the film industry (. . .) Yet, Indian filmmakers have been on the rise in recent decades."[1][2]
As an example of visual sovereignty,Igloolik Isuma Productions was the firstInuit owned production company known for producing films such asAtanarjuat: The Fast Runner. Isuma was formed in 1981 and created Inuit films in their native language Inuktitut. Isuma Productions also runs IsumaTV that hosts indigenous filmmakers. The Isuma Website states it hosts "over 7000 films and videos in 84 languages." Isuma Productions continues to be a leader when it comes to visual sovereignty.[59][60][61]
Smoke Signals (1998): Native Filmmaker Chris Eyre wrote and directed the filmSmoke Signals, which has been selected for preservation in theNational Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[30] It is one of few films featuring Native American characters and directed by a Native filmmaker (along withEdwin Carewe's early films) that received theatrical distribution.[31]Smoke Signals was written, directed, and acted in by Native Americans.[31] Like Powwow Highway, it is also a road movie and buddy film that examines friendship, fatherhood, and the roles of tradition versus modernity in Indian Country.[32]
Written and directed by Mi'kmaq filmmakerJeff Barnaby,Rhymes for Young Ghouls (2013) tells the story of Aila, played by Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs, as she goes up against Popper, an Indian agent and head of the nearby residential school. The reservation has been deeply affected by the residential school, partaking in the use of drugs and alcohol in order to forget the trauma inflicted by the school system. Rhymes for young ghouls is a revenge story against the Canadian residential school system and offers a path towards decolonization through educating people on the residential school system and opening up dialogue as a means to decolonization. Written and acted in by Natives, Rhymes for young ghouls exemplifies visual sovereignty.[62]
Another Jeff Barnaby film,Blood Quantum (2019) is about a zombie apocalypse where only Mi'gmaq people are immune. Barnaby explores life in a post-colonial society through the lens of a zombie apocalypse where they must resist and fight against their oppressors and avoid extinction. Barnaby once again used a native cast to tell a native story showcasing visual sovereignty.[63]
Written and directed by the Cree-Métis filmmakerDanis Goulet,Night Raiders (2021) takes place in a dystopian post-war North America where children are owned by the state. Night Raiders is in scathing commentary on Native residential schools and the kidnapping of children by the state to be placed in these schools. The film stars Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers, a Blackfoot and Sámi actress, as Niska and Brooklyn Letexier-Hart as Waseese.[64]
Written and directed byChloé Leriche,Before the Streets (French:Avant les rues) is a 2016 Canadiandrama film[65] Set among theAtikamekw people of northernQuebec, the film starsRykko Bellemare as Shawnouk, a man undertaking the process ofrestorative justice after accidentally killing someone in the process of committing a crime.[65]
Also by Her, And the tellings of Elders from Manawan,Atikamekw Suns (French:Soleils Atikamekw) is a 2023 Canadian drama film, written, produced, and directed byChloé Leriche. The film centers on the true story of five youths from theAtikamekw First Nation community ofManawan who were found dead in a truck in the nearby river in 1977, with police investigation remaining inconclusive to this day about whether the truck driving into the river was a simple accident or a racially-motivated attack.[66]
Directed and produced byRiley Keough and Gina Gammell—in both of their respective feature directorial debuts—from a screenplay by Keough, Gammell, Franklin Sioux Bob and Bill Reddy. It stars Jojo Bapteise Whiting and Ladainian Crazy Thunder.War Pony is a 2022 Americandrama film, Follows the intertwined lives of two young Lakota boys living on thePine Ridge Indian Reservation.
Reservation Dogs is an Americancomedy-drama television series created bySterlin Harjo andTaika Waititi forFX Productions. It follows the lives of four Indigenous teenagers in ruralOklahoma, as they spend their days hanging out and committing crimes to earn enough money to leave their reservation community. It is the first American series to feature allIndigenous writers and directors, along with an almost entirelyIndigenous North American cast and crew.[67]
an indian love story 1911.
When they laid down their arms, we murdered them. We lied to them. We cheated them out of their lands. We starved them into signing fraudulent agreements that we called treaties which we never kept. We turned them into beggars on a continent that gave life for as long as life can remember. And by any interpretation of history, however twisted, we did not do right. We were not lawful nor were we just in what we did.
The eight-episode series is notable for two firsts: using an entirely Indigenous creative team (behind-the-scenes and in front of the camera) and shooting its entire season in Oklahoma (never done before for a scripted series).
