Comparing Dances with Wolves with The Searchers

Different aspects of dances all represent something special and meaningful to each specific tribe. Firstly, the purposes of the Native American’s dances are for entertainment, religious rituals, successful hunts, harvests, to give thanks, prayer, victory, mythology, along with many more. (Weiser- Alexander and Alexander) In the video Native American Indian

Native Americans were affected by whites depleting their resources. Americans moving west found killing Buffalo to be a sport in a way. The Buffalo at the time was a viable resource for the Natives. There was a letter to a Professor Baird from William G. Hornaday. Hornaday states, “There are only two buffalo left in that land! Since seeing the buffalo

It is clearly seen that there was gendered division of labor in the film as the men focused much on animal hunting and war fighting whereas the women focused on raising the children, cooking or to do the house chores. Soon after Dunbar told the Sioux about the discovery of migrating herd of buffalos, the Sioux shifted the entire tribe nearer to the location of the buffalos and celebrated for their upcoming hunt by gathering around the campfire and dance along with each other. Also, we can see that the Sioux tribe practices barter system when Dunbar traded his military uniform and hat for the Sioux’s traditional clothing and accessories. As the story progresses, when Kicking Bird saw how Dunbar and the wolf were chasing each other in the field, he then suggested and named Dunbar as ‘Dances With Wolves’, officially acknowledging him as one of the Sioux tribe members. Later on, Dunbar and Stands With A Fist eventually fell in love with each other and when they were getting married after Kicking Bird released her mourning, Dunbar realized how generous the entire Sioux tribe was to him, offering him the most valuable thing they could afford, as it’s one of the traditions that Sioux practices.

The Buffalo were very important to the Native Americans tribes living in the Great Plains because Buffalo was their main food. They have many uses like: Buffalo bones provided marrow to eat, Buffalo bones were carved to make knives, and could boiled to make glue, Buffalo skin could be used to make clothes, moccasins, bedding, saddle covers and water-bags, dried Buffalo dung provided fuel for fires, and even the tail of a Buffalo could be used as a fly swatter. Then tragedy struck. When the first explorers came to the Great Plains, they killed over 35 million buffalo for either sport or food and the drive the Indians of the Great Plains. That step reduced the buffalo population to 1,500 but the year of 1912.

Dances with Wolves’ sense of identity is entirely with the Lakota Sioux when he is captured by the U.S. Army, his original people, and is beaten, yet Dances with Wolves refuses to cooperate with them, “I am Dances with Wolves, and I have nothing to say to you. You are not worth talking to.” Dances with Wolves sense of identity is closely related to his mindset.

Stagecoach – a movie that is widely accepted as the most damaging movie for the Native identity – helped to illustrate this image to viewers at the time. As a result, many Americans believed Natives were all uncivilized and violent, leading to nationwide stereotyping and prejudice. The Indian was the enemy of America as a result. Stagecoach also shows Natives being hunted like animals, which sends the image of them being non-human and thus they should be treated as such. Stagecoach and movies like it mispresented Natives for decades and caused a loss-of-identity amongst the Native community because Natives were dressed the same throughout various films. It was not until the 1970s and 1980s where Natives were properly represented on

In the movie, Native Americans are often portrayed as spiritual, noble, and free this ideal image of Native Americans captured the world’s imagination at one point. It all began in late 1800s when Native Americans were among the first to shot silent by Thomas. One of the common attraction that made

The buffalo would supply the Indians with their necessities for living including resources for thread, clothes, food and shelter. The buffalo was also used for trading things more valuable. An important action that undermined the Plains Indian culture was the large killing of buffalo in a short period of time. Army commanders who worked in the north west often tried to deprive the Indians of their main source of survival by killing the buffalo as a way to drive them of their land. As the population of buffalo dwindled, the Plains Indians had no means of independent support or nourishment and were forced to accept the US government’s policy of living on Indian reservations. The killing of buffalo was supported by the US military in order to undermine the survival of the Indians, and up to 250 buffalo were killed each

Land was not divided, it was shared. Teepees were set up in a circle and ceremonies and dances were held in the center. Even when the Indians were short on something, they always managed to share what they had with other tribes in need. They did not do this because they had to, it was the code that they lived by. When a neighboring tribe of Black Elk’s was on the move without any food or clothing, they gave them as much food and clothing as possible even though they were short themselves. Nature also played a large role in the Indian’s lives. “Birds make their nests in circles, for their religion is the same as ours” (APT 315). The traditional Sioux way of life created interdependence between man and nature. Respect for the cycle of the seasons and animal life was necessary in order to secure food, clothing, and shelter. When the Indians lived in cooperation with nature, those necessities were available to them. They were available in such plenty, that their very existence seemed proof of the care of the Great Spirit. Bison were very important to the Native Americans. Even though they hunted and killed them they had great respect and love for them. They only hunted what they needed to survive. When they did kill a bison, every part of it was used. The meat was used for food, and the fur was used for clothes. The bones were even used as tools and weapons. Nothing was wasted.

white people. The Indians believed that buffalo would come again and their ancestors would return to

Hollywood has helped create and perpetuate many different stereotypical images of the different races in the world. Those stereotypes still continue to affect the way we think about each other today and many of those stereotypes have been proven to be historically inaccurate. The movie Dances With Wolves, directed by actor Kevin Costner, does an excellent job in attempting to promote a greater acceptance, understanding, and sympathy towards Native American culture, instead of supporting the typical stereotype of Native Americans being nothing but brutal, blood thirsty savages.

Everyone has a preconceived opinion of how a certain ethnic group is in terms of the way they live, the morals they hold, the way they deal with people different from them, and how they deal with one another. We come to these conclusions by what we have seen in the media, heard from other people, or actually experienced ourselves. Most people would consider these opinions to be stereotypes. Dances with Wolves is a motion picture that deals with and touches on all sides of personal stereotypes we as American and American Indians have about each other. John Dunbar takes us through and allows us to see how it is to come into a situation he was not familiar with and then eventually the

I thought this film was very unique because it shows the true Native American perspective of everyday life, not the usual phony stereotype of Indians such as teepees and bow and arrows. It also showed how much Native Americans are not much different than other cultures. Instead of singling other cultures out or judging people that are different from

These harmful images of how the Indian Americans were depicted, were subliminally created by him in many of his previous films where they were repeatedly stereotyped under the maligned appearance of bloodthirsty savages and hardly ever illustrated by their alter ego the noble savages. These descriptions and especially the denigrated bloodthirsty savage illustrations of the Indians remain seen as purely animals into the eyes of non-native populations, which caused racial discrimination against them at that epoch. Therefore, John Ford tried to redeem himself by making the film The Searchers, where he tried to expose the nefarious causes of resentment and racism that at that time the general population had for the Indians. This way of apology is likely to be strong supported by the image of the film’s hero. The depiction of the hero stresses the despicable habits of the westerners such as the tendency of the prejudices towards others. As shown by the arrival of the John Wayne character to his brother’s house and how he looked at Martin who is half-blood Indian. Similarly, Dances with Wolves represented an explicit apology to the indigenous people. However, although it was made by a white person point of view, it emphasizes Indians’ points of view. This is implicitly represented as the hero who is a white soldier from the American Civil War transformed himself into a real Indian of the Lakota Sioux tribe. Although both films symbolize intentions of apology to the

In the film The Searchers directed by John Ford, Ethan is the main character, which hates native Americans to the fullest and goes on an adventure with Martin looking for his niece, Debbie. Debbie was captured by the Comanches when they killed her family and burned their house down. Even though Debbie was white, when Ethan and Martin find her after searching for her for years they find that she has converted into a full Native American. She actually did not want to go back with Ethan and Martin and wanted to stay with her new family. I was confused as to why John Ford made the white female actors rescued from the tribes insane and delirious, however Debbie became a Native American princess about to marry an Indian man. This is demeaning to the Native American audience because being Native American is not a form of religion or group where you can just