Reel Injun, The Shackles Of Tradition By Neil Diamond

For over 80 years, Americans have been entertained by Hollywood productions on the big screen. Movies and films have always been a favorite pass time of the country. As a result of the fact that so many Americans turn to the big screen for fun, there is a lot of influence potential carried with the films or the movies that Hollywood produced. With increased ability to disseminate information comes the responsibility of presenting images that are accurate and factual. The influence and perception that Hollywood created was not always positive. There were multiple groups that were marginalized in film through stereotypes. Native Americans were one of the groups that were negatively

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

Popular culture has shaped our understanding and perception of Native American culture. From Disney to literature has given the picture of the “blood thirsty savage” of the beginning colonialism in the new world to the “Noble Savage,” a trait painted by non-native the West (Landsman and Lewis 184) and this has influenced many non native perceptions. What many outsiders do not see is the struggle Native American have on day to day bases. Each generation of Native American is on a struggle to keep their traditions alive, but to function in school and ultimately graduate.

Pocahontas is a Walt Disney Pictures animation released in 1995 following the Disney Princess franchise. The movie is about Pocahontas, a native American lady whose home is invaded by Englishmen who wishes to exploit the land’s resources and to “civilize” the people living there. However, one of the Englishmen, John Smith, fell in love with Pocahontas. This essay studies the stereotypes of native American and them being essentialized in the media as being savages, sexism and also over romanticization, as represented in the movie.

“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.

These stereotypical binaries of the childlike and savage Indian are directly linked to the narratives of white settler society and colonization. Essentially, by classifying all First Nation cultures under a monolith of a few stereotypes the white setter society claimed dominance over the First Nation peoples as they created the lens through which the First Nation’s history and identity would be read. The influence of the press and government policies lead to the acceptance of these stereotypes as defining truths about First Nations people which aided the settler societies in solving the Indian problem by destroying what it meant to be Indian. In this way, the stereotypes not only developed the idea of assimilation to save the Indian, but they

Thomas King’s The Inconvenient Indian tells the story of Indigenous people in Canada and the United States, it challenges the narrative on how Indigenous history is taught and explains why Indigenous people continue to feel frustrated. King’s seeks to educate the reader as he provides a detailed accounts of the horrific massacres Indigenous people endured, yet he simultaneously inserts humorous moments which balances out the depressing content and enhances his story. The books highlights the neglect and assimilation that Indigenous were subjected to and how their survival was seen as an inconvenience to western culture. King directs his message at a Euro-centric audience to offer an accurate explanation of Indigenous culture and

Native Americans make up less than .9% of the United States population. With this trivial number, it is difficult to keep its culture and traditions alive as generations progress. In the short story “War Dances,” author Sherman Alexie morns the loss of Native American identity through a deprecating tone which illustrate a divide between generations.

In Amanda J. Cobb’s article titled “This is What It Means to Say Smoke Signals,” the author elucidates the significance of this film by showcasing the uniqueness of its story, creators, and contemporary representation of Native Americans in Hollywood film. Cobb brings to light the idea that this film was not only the first film to be written and directed by Native artists, but that it was the first to exercise the idea of self-definition and cultural sovereignty (207). The paper goes on to compare Smoke Signals to other films such as Powwow Highway (1989) as well as how its story either breaks old stereotypes or reinforces others in an uncommonly humorous and relaxing tone. Alongside these topics, Cobb’s piece also touches on critical questions

The movies will also be evaluated in how they portray the Native American culture, including clothing, housing, and language. The films 1492, Christopher Columbus and Christopher Columbus: The Discovery are unique in that they all cover the same time period, the same Native Americans and the same general story, which should be common to nearly everyone in North America. Due to this, it is easy to compare and contrast the Tainos, who have the dubious distinction of being the first to come in contact with the white man during the Age of Discovery. It would be quite easy to construct a paper simply contrasting the historical stories that are told within these three films. Not only do the stories vary, and the relationships between certain characters change, but the portrayal of the Native Americans also varies. The first meeting of the Spaniards and the Indians was shown differently in all three of the movies.

Throughout world history, it is evident that Native Americans have struggled in society ever since the landing of Christopher Columbus in North America. Ever since the film industry began in the 1890s, Native Americans have been depicted in many negative ways by film makers. One particular way film makers degrade Native Americans by making their white characters convert into Indians or “go Native” and eventually they always become better than the original Indians in the film. This notion has been repeated in many films, three significant films were it is evident is in The Searchers, Little Big Man, and Dances with Wolves.

Putting it All Together: Representing Indians America was once consumed by the myth of the “Vanishing Indians”. The myth has dominated so many individuals and has also perpetuated Americans’ imagination of Indians. Noble or ignoble, Indians had little hope for success and were viewed as forlorn and futile. The myth of the Indians “vanishing” occurred because of their evolutionary inferiority to the “White man”; however, in modern society, there are still people who believe there are no more “true” Indians, or that the Indian culture has been degraded to the limiting spaces of reservations. Even though Indians are not being portrayed as how they used to be, they have certainly not died off; alternately, they have acclimated

Reel Injun is an award wining documentary by film director Neil Diamond that focuses on exploring the portrayal of Native Americans through the use of stereotypes created by Hollywood films. The documentary specifically focuses on three prominent stereotypes that tend to culturally define Native Americans as either noble people, brutal savages or spiritual wise men. Throughout the documentary, the director is observed visiting sacred Native American locations such as the Navajo Indian Reservation and the Lakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation where approximately 300 Native Indians were massacred by a detachment of the U.S. 7th Cavalry regiment. This is an important message of the documentary because it begins to illustrate the true Native American

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.