Hollywood Portrayal Of Native People

When most people think of "Indians," they think of the common stereotyped of the wild, yelling, half-naked "savages" seen on the television movies. With more modern movies like Dances with Wolves and some of the documentaries like How the West was Lost, some of these attitudes have changed. But the American public as a whole is still very ignorant of what it means to be a Native American-today, or historically.

#1) Westerns have been a major genre in the American film industry and culture. The legendary fight against the Indians has been reconstructed for decades. Neil Diamond, a Cree filmmaker, directed Reel Injun, a documentary that sheds some light on the Native American perspective on the Western film. The main concern that Diamond and other Native American artists have is that western films give the public a misconception of who Indians are. Filmmakers have altered the true identity of the Indian through changes of historic events, props and generalizations. The lack of Native Americans in cinema at the time shows in the lack of knowledge that the films show in regard of the Indians beliefs, dress and life.

Misrepresentation of Natives on screen throughout the 20th century has had an adverse effect on them. Whether it was positive or negative stereotypes, Natives felt the effect of Hollywood and began to lose their self-identity, their honour, and their pride. Reel Injun takes a look at how movies have defined an entire race and also documents the rebirth of the Native identity after decades of destructive Hollywood movies by interviewing notable Native actors, actresses, and activists. By doing so, director Neil Diamond hopes to silence Hollywood stereotypes and get Hollywood to properly represent the Native people.

Asian American actors and actresses are portrayed in Hollywood movies as always being the silent and yielding foreign victims to social injustice and prejudice. Whether or not these depictions are true, they are nonetheless stereotypes that Hollywood producers have come up with. According to the US Census in the year 2000, Asian Americans make up 4.2% of the entire American population, and knowing that most Asian Americans live on the west and east coast of the United States, many Americans living in central parts of this country have not really been exposed to any Asian Americans. Because of this fact, it is highly probable that most Americans get their exposure to the Asian American lifestyle only through television and movies. Even if

“Dear John Wayne” by Louise Erdrich is about the stereotype of the Native American, being a savage race on film and how the Native Americans watching the film react to those stereotypes.

The Native Americans lived on millions of acres of land in Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina and Florida, they inherited all of these lands from their ancestors who cultivated for generations. According to Elias Boudinot the natives considered themselves to be just as equal as the Whites, he states, “What is an Indian? Is he not formed of the same materials with yourself?” (Boudinot, 1826) The natives saw themselves to be no different from the Whites, in fact they cared for one another as a whole, they lived in kinships, where there was never an Indian left alone without a family. They followed a society based off of the concept of interdependence, they had in their mind that everything is dependent of something. The Indians were very advanced, and were able to prosper in their society, although the Whites believed otherwise, and believed that the natives were uncivilized.

Represented as a minority in America, Native Americans are underrepresented in many ways in media. Like any other ethnic group, they are stereotyped, and portrayed in a certain way that makes them look a way. Historically marginalized so that many aren’t aware of the pressure that they are putting on the underrepresented in America. Statistically shown, Native Americans respectively have proven that compared to other American groups, they feel relatively invisible. One of the great ironies in life is how America is so proud to become a melting pot to those who are willing to be a part of the contribution to American life. Does this even include the various groups that represents American society?

Native Americans express their voice in films by incorporating their history, culture and traditions for Indigenous purpose. These independent cinema efforts are produced by filmmakers who want to tell a story about their tribes around the world and educate the younger generations. Zacharias Kunuk, filmmaker of Antantarjuat; The Fast Runner and Journals of Knud Rasmussen, “compels non-Inuit spectators to think differently, not only about what constitutes indigenous content in films and more conventional representations of Native Americans in cinematic history, but also about indigenous visual Aesthetics” (Raheji 1168).

There were many American Indian tribes living in the Americas before Europeans “discovered” the continents; some of these tribes had very distinguishing cultures unique to their tribe. A few of these cultures are those of the Aztec, Mayan, and Inca empires and of the Pueblo people of the Southwest. These cultures are very unique and recognizable by their way of life. The Aztec, Mayan, and Inca empires and the Pueblo peoples; with their geographic location and architecture, their religion and governments, and their notable innovations became some of the most recognizable American Indian tribes to date.

Better late than never, this is how indigenous people feel as they people have finally begun to see what they are going through. Indigenous people have had their culture, beliefs, and tradition all taken away from them. They have been disrespected and their culture has become a source of humor for some. The evolution of media has further developed this problem and if we do not take action immediately, there is a possibility the problem will continue to grow and get worse. The movie "Peter Pan" is one of many examples of how the media misrepresents indigenous people and their culture. What made this movie standout from the dozens of other films that misrepresent indigenous people, "Peter Pan' is a children's. Instead of children learning about the history of indigenous people, they were taught about stereotypical indigenous characters in the movie.

Before the "Black Plague" of America the natives had a very different lifestyle. The native population was much more massive with number in the millions, but then these number dropped as a majority of them died from diseases and wars. Many people have a stereotypical view of the people of the "New world." The warped perspective many non-native people share is that the "Indians" are savage barbarians who roam the landmass known as North America. However, most of the natives had families which they went to great lengths to feed, clothe, and shelter. Additionally many people group all the indigenous tribes into one general category labeled "Indians." But the truth could not be more contrasting, they all live in extremely diverse ecosystems that they all adapt to in different ways .Their entire culture was based off of their local milieu. Two interesting tribes in specific are the Cheyenne and the Powhatan.

The principal influences on my understanding of Native American history is rather vague other than the events of the War of 1812 as being from northwest Ohio and living not far from Fort Meigs my local history is rooted deep in Native American history as many tribes joined forces with the British to fight western expansion as during the months of May and July combined forces of Native Americans and British regulars laid siege to the fort. However, both times the American army forces were able to defend the fort and won victories over the British/Native American forces. Something that I found quite interesting is that during the second siege of Fort Meigs a Native American under the name Tecumseh convinced the British forces that instead of

Native American representation in the major film industry is very scarce, and when they do depict Indigenous People it’s usually in a stereotypical fashion. Though this is the norm Native movies are able to move past it and teach a lesson through graphic media without showing the audience outright what they intend, this is as I believe it to be a very cultural thing of Natives to do. By taking back their identity with art, in such directions like that of “Rhymes For Young Ghouls” by Jeff Barnaby and “Dreamkeeper” by John Fusco there are different ways of instilling the lessons they teach and take very different approaches in showing said lessons. Throughout the movie “Rhymes For Young Ghouls” the main character Aila deals with a stereotypical Native struggle but based on the

Typically referred to as ‘Indians’ in popular culture, Native Americans were traditionally seen in Westerns as the antagonists. The Western genre typically tells the story of the colonisation and discovery of America, which saw the major Hollywood studios revive the interest in the Western. Westerns draw on “historical actuality, a romantic philosophy of nature, and the concept of the […] savage” (Saunders, 2001, p. 3). Westerns often split the “depiction of the Indian, with the cruel and treacherous [Indian] balanced by the faithful [Indian]” (Saunders, 2001, p. 3) which resulted in the portrayals of Native Americans witnessed in films today.

　What is problems of Hollywood movies now? “Whitewashing a ghost,” an essay in The Student Times of 31 March 2017, states the following issues. Although Hollywood needs Asian and Native American actors, it tends to use major white actors in order to sell movies. As a result, it cannot train actors of other races to play