The Indian and the White Communites in Dances with Wolves and Machimanito
The film Dances with Wolves shares a lot of its content with the story Machimanito. In Dances with Wolves, two nations come to interact with each other. While the white man is dominating the land, the Indians are trying to protect both their land and themselves. In Machimanito, the story describes the epidemic and its effects on the Indians, while describing the ongoing conflict between Indians and the white man. There is a huge cultural difference between the white man and the Indians, which is reflected on their ways of life and communities; each lives a different life style including their interaction with nature and themselves, their authority within this
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The Indians establish their roots in the land and start extracting their needs passively and in rational amounts that are enough for their survival.
The setting of each of the two communities in Dances with Wolves reflects their personality. The Indians live as whole and on a piece of land where all the tents are near each other. This stresses that Indians live collectively rather than individually like the white man. The first time Dunbar rides to the Indians with Stands with a Fist, the camera shows Dunbar as being on the top of the hill; the camera is looking up on Dunbar. Then it moves upwards to give the viewer a panorama of the surroundings of the community. This sight includes: trees, land, mountains and a river. These are the basic elements of nature and the Indians live within these elements. This resembles the bond which the Indians have with nature.
When the camera gives a view of the soldiers’ fort, it is noticeable that there is almost no trees presents, and a logical reason is that the tree have been used to build the post. The buildings in the post emphasize the separation of the white man, as they are built within a considerable distance between each other. These walls separate people from each other; thus emphasizes and explains the individuality of the white man. Also Dunbar builds a fence for his horse to stay in, while in the Indian community all the horses are left to their will.
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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.
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.
Despite the different eras in US history the movies Glory and Dances with Wolves are more alike than they are different. The two men share similarities in their character development, the main issue they face, and how they overcome it throughout their stories.
One extreme change for the Indians was the arrival of Anglo-Europeans. Native peoples’ lives were changed at the blink of an eye while new ideas, practices and beliefs were shown to them. The arrival of the Europeans changed the way the Indians viewed their world and manipulated their resources. This new change could be viewed as positive as well as negative, for while some tribes entered into trade relations with the Anglos, others were used as slave labor and all were subject to disease brought on by the European newcomers. However, despite all the advantages and disadvantages, no other introduction changed the lives of the Indians more than firearms and horses. West outlines one of the most important evolutions for Native life and how it represented a new way to harness resources and gain power. In just a few chapters, we are able to see the great advancements the Indians made in hunting and trade due to these new technologies and how they allowed the Cheyennes to rise to a new purpose as the Called Out People.
Beginning in the sixteenth century, Europeans made the voyage to a “new world” in order to achieve dreams of opportunity and riches. In this other world the Europeans came upon another people, which naturally led to a cultural exchange between different groups of people. Although we commonly refer to European and Indian relations as being between just two very different groups of people, it is important to recognize this is not entirely true. Although the settlers of the new world are singularly referred to as Europeans, each group of people came from a different nation and with different motives and expectations of the new world. Similarly, the Indians were neither a united group nor necessarily friendly with each other. Due to the
and passed it on to his left. This left pass routine was continued until the
One on Hernandez’s most famous creations was named, ' 'Deer Dance of the Yaqui Indians”. This dance was associated from a Mexican tribe. It resembled a hunter hunting a deer. In the act, a male artist wore antlers, resembling the deer the hunter was after. The text stated, “The Times in 1976, Anna Kisselgoff called the dance ' 'a deeply moving testimony to the empathy of the hunters for the hunted. ' ' The message she was trying to get across was that this is the way one must live to survive. Also quoting, ' 'Man must kill his prey, but he respects that prey and endows it with noble qualities. ' '
Though today, the Blackfoot territory is defined by reserve/reservation boundaries and divided by the United States-Canadian border, their homeland, Nitawahsinnanni (“our land”), continues to be defined by topographical features using their language (The Blackfoot Gallery Committee, 2013, 12). This traditional homeland spans from the North Saskatchewan River (Ponokasisahta, the Elk River) as far south as the Yellowstone River, Montana (Otahkoitahtayi) and from the Rocky Mountains as far East as the “Great Sand Hills
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
The Native American culture is something that is cherished by their people. “Perhaps no other group of people has quite the rich and storied culture as those of the Native Americans. They have a history rich in struggle, strife, and triumph (Native American Culture).” Dances with Wolves, directed by Kevin Costner in 1990, is about a white man who becomes interested in the Native American culture and decides to befriend fellow an Indian tribe (Dances with Wolves). The Searchers by John Ford in 1956 is about a white man who is on a journey to find his niece who was kidnapped by an Indian tribe (The Searchers). These films do have a few differences but many similarities. Dances with Wolves and
Most of the men of the tribe sent out one day trying to make peace with another tribe. Dances with Wolves was assigned to watch the chief’s family. While the men were gone, the tribe was attacked me other Indian’s. Dances with wolves provided rifles to the Indians who were there and they defeated the other Indians.
“Film is more than the instrument of a representation; it is also the object of representation. It is not a reflection or a refraction of the ‘real’; instead, it is like a photograph of the mirrored reflection of a painted image.” (Kilpatrick) Although films have found a place in society for about a century, the labels they possess, such as stereotypes which Natives American are recognized for, have their roots from many centuries ago (Kilpatrick). The Searchers, a movie directed by John Ford and starred by John Wayne, tells the story of a veteran of the American Civil War and how after his return home he would go after the maligned Indians who killed his family and kidnapped his younger niece. After struggling for five years to recover
In this movie, one may observe the different attitudes that Americans had towards Indians. The Indians were those unconquered people to the west and the almighty brave, Mountain Man went there, “forgetting all the troubles he knew,” and away from civilization. The mountain man is going in search of adventure but as this “adventure” starts he finds that his survival skills are not helping him since he cant even fish and as he is seen by an Indian, who watches him at his attempt to fish, he start respecting them. The view that civilization had given him of the west changes and so does he. Civilization soon becomes just something that exists “down there.”
"Dances with Wolves" tells us the story of a white man who gets acquainted with the Sioux, who learns to love and respect them as valuable people with a culture and who discovers how wrong white people's preconceived ideas about Native Americans are.