Stereotypes In The Film 'Dances With Wolves'

People know about the conflict between the Indian's cultures and the settler's cultures during the westward expansion. Many people know the fierce battles and melees between the Indians and the settlers that were born from this cultural conflict. In spite of this, many people may not know about the systematic and deliberate means employed by the U.S. government to permanently rid their new land of the Indians who had lived their own lives peacefully for many years. There are many strong and chilling reasons and causes as to why the settlers started all of this perplexity in the first place. There was also a very strong and threatening impact on the Native Americans

It has been 186 years since the Indian Removal Act was passed by Congress during Andrew Jackson’s presidency. The way other people view Native Americans, particularly the Choctaws and Chickasaws, has changed drastically over time; but how has that changed the way Native Americans view themselves. I plan to explore what it meant to be Native American at the time of Indian Removal and compare it to what it is believed to mean to be Native American today. I plan to look at the cultural attitude that was in place at the time of removal and how the Native Americans reacted and compare it to modern day opinion.

The movie does not harm the native’s picture to the world because they were the ones who were weak and hurt in the movie it gave people something to think about like how the English and French could do this to the natives and what are the consequences of the actions that were taken by the French or the British. The movie also gives the feeling of sympathy towards the natives and fills you up with hatred towards the Europeans who invaded the natives land. The movie also shows us the way the natives dressed which were just long pieces of cloths and leather pants which were cut off at the crouch for a relaxed fit, also the way they ate which was hunting deer and elk and gathering berries and vegetables, it also showed their language and a little spiritual scenes when they shot an elk. It gave me anal

It held many struggles and disagreements, which lead to many retaliations, from both the Indians and the settlers. The Indians had been alliances with the white men until the massacre, which stated the settlers betrayal to all tribes.

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.

Through out the whole book Indians were judged wrongly. To the white people, they were of no value to anybody. They assumed that all Indians were uneducated, unintelligent, and useless. In the end, Wesley’s foolish choice to not arrest his brother in the beginning caused Marie to be murdered. When Frank admits his crime to Wesley they agree that he can be kept prisoner in the Hayden’s basement. After a few days as a prisoner Frank commits suicide. Wesley is haunted by his decisions for the rest of his life. The moral of the book, is to treat everyone as an equal. Holding a grudge again one race is not going to get you anywhere, if anything it will work out for the worst. Montana 1948 is the perfect example of racism unleashing horrible truths and devastating

considered to be ignorant and hostiles by the “White” settlers, forced to live on reservations, lost

Looking throughout the overwhelming events the American Revolution had on everyone involved, allows us to examine how the governments’ policies toward the Indians changed over time. It shows how the policy changes effected the Indians as well as the Americans’, their attitudes toward each other as the American’s pushed westward and the Indians resisted. Then the actions on both sides which lead up to the final removal of all Indians to west of the Mississippi in 1830’s.

The book “Lakota Woman,” is an autobiography that depicts Mary Crow Dog and Indians’ Lives. Because I only had a limited knowledge on Indians, the book was full of surprising incidents. Moreover, she starts out her story by describing how her Indian friends died in miserable and unjustifiable ways. After reading first few pages, I was able to tell that Indians were mistreated in the same manners as African-Americans by whites. The only facts that make it look worse are, Indians got their land stolen and prejudice and inequality for them still exists.

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.

The Indians are finally presented in the movie by the screen scanning across a wide-open desert very peaceful and deserted. In the middle of all this silence the camera fell upon a skeleton of a human that we assume the Indians killed. This is how the movie sets the tone for how we are going to think about the Indians. They play with the stereotype that all us Americans think are true about the Indians. At first we think that we were right, but the story does not end there.

Many Indians went crazy, and they killed with no mercy. They scalped everyman they killed to show their pride. Many women and children were killed by the whites, as were the white women and children killed. On both sides, women and children were raped, or tortured to

Would changing to the side of who was just trying to survive, be a crime? Imagine being apart of the “good” team only to find out that the “bad” team was not so bad after all. Imagine finding out that maybe what seemed to be good was actually bad and what seemed bad was actually good. In Dances with Wolves by Michael Blake, John Dunbar experienced that. The whole novel is about an American lieutenant fighting in the civil war, learning all the stereotypes and rumors he hears about Native American are not completely. And he ends up becoming one of them. Is this a punishable offense? If John Dunbar is found and captured, he should not be found guilty of treason. It could have been a way to survive or get intel. Not to mention, he only killed the

The involvement of Native Americans in American history is an important component of the history of the United States. All too often little is taught about Native Americans in U.S. history classes in different time periods and misconceptions run abound. A common place to see blatantly incorrect depictions of Native Americans are in American films about the West. Often in these films Native Americans are of anonymous tribes or display characteristics of completely different tribes, are thirsty for white blood and scalps, and quickly fall down dead with white cowboys’ weapons. Both The Last of the Mohicans and Dances with Wolves, while maybe not Westerns, are feature length films who depict Native Americans and from different time periods,

Understandably, American Indians soon began to distrust and resent their white oppressors. Simon Pokagon put it nicely in his speech The Red Man's Greeting :