Windrunner Film Analysis

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

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

Wind River is a film released in August 7, 2017 in the United States, the director of this film is Taylor Sheridan. This film is about an FBI and a hunter trying to find out the killer of the 18 year old tenager that was found on a American Indian reservation in the snow. It is a crazy and surprising film because there is an interesting background of what happened to the 18 year old young women. This film does contain violence, a little blood going on and raped. Wind River is a great film it is new, which makes the screen more clear and it seem like this film has natural lighting through the film. This film also take place in a cold snowing time.

In a majority of cases, this view is even endorsed by the tribes themselves (Morrison). They argue that the restriction and ultimate elimination of the Native American mascot would also abolish the nation’s historic view of this cultural entity as characters of strength, determination, boldness, resourcefulness and courage. They contend that these same positive attributes are not only required by athletes, but are held expectations of the sporting community. The pursuant argument entails that there is an inherent oddity in the suggestion that naming a team after an Indian tribe is a calculated insult.

The American Indian occupies a unique place in the White American imaginary. Indians, one is told, are cordial, wise, poor in the “humble poverty” sort of way, brown, there assist whites with either mystic knowledge or humorous ignorance. Figures such as Squanto, Tonto and Disney’s Pocahontas along with a large smattering of Westerns and cartoonish depictions have created this image of the Native American – an image which rarely translates into the present day. In contrast to this, Sherman Alexie’s novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is a Native American coming-of-age story centered around the first-person point of view of the Native protagonist Arnold “Junior” Spirit, Jr. and his dual life on the Spokane Indian Reservation and his time off the reservation at an all-white public school in the town of Reardan, Washington. The novel revolves around themes like race, identity formation and mortality and details life on Indian reservations as it attempts to give a realistic account of contemporary Native American life, each which shape the novel in unique ways.

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

Sherman Alexie, a well known Indigenous American author, developed the poem, “How to Write the Great American Novel,” which emphasizes on the stereotypes of Native Americans by white people in literature. When he uses the words such as “always,” “must,” and “should,” Alexie exposes how our writers develop the “ideal” story with unlikely scenarios. His sardonic tone implies that all the following inclusions to create such a novel, is inaccurate (Alexie). And with inaccuracy comes distorted images. Richard King, a Masters degree holder in cultural anthropology and devoted to indigenous issues, wrote the book “ Team Spirits; Native American Mascots Controversy,” where King explains that the media has the power to “miseducate and create false representations,” which he believes roots from stereotypical mascots. These “Native” school mascots encourage war paint and feathers and not in the appropriate cultural way, it's an act of cultural appropriation, and he sheds light onto the idea of how something so “innocent” can result in negativity (King). Even in the Disney movie Pocahontas, Cornel Pewewardy, a Comanche-Kiowa, describes how Hollywood miseducated their viewers by portraying Pocahontas as a princess when Native Americans don’t even have a label as such. Secondly, he explains that the Disney movie

The first section, will talk about the history and meaning of Native American dance and cultures from the various tribes in North America. The second section will talk about in great detail of Anishinaabe culture and the Hoop Dance, a story that i found very interesting. The last section will be my conclusion of how I perceive the Native Americans differently and a great understanding of not only their singing and dancing, but of their unique culture and their image that have portrayed on me. This will also include my citations that I have used to help me write this

How the West was Won, Dances with Wolves, and Avatar can be looked at the same. The focus of this assignment is to examine how their storylines of love and racial conflict does change the media attitude towards the groups from 1960-2010. In order to fully analyze the media’s portrayal of racial conflict between Native Americans and Whites let’s start with a brief synopsis about each film. During the Civil Rights Movement, we are introduced to How the West Was Won, a movie about western expansian.

Media, in its many forms, controls how individuals learn about different issues going on around the world. Many of these media outlets tend to have some sort of bias to lead the individual to be either for or against the issue at hand. This essay will discuss how Indigenous peoples are portrayed in the media, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, and compare how these different sources portray Indigenous people. This essay will focus on one topic that has surfaced recently, the court case regarding the use of the name and logo of the major league baseball team, the Cleveland Indians. This case has been brought into focus by an Indigenous architect, Douglas Cardinal. Cardinal finds the name and symbol of the team, a character with red skin wearing a feather headband, to be offensive to the Indigenous people and is seeking legal aid to ban the logo and regular season jerseys from being used at Blue Jays games.

Because my analysis is limited to a single film, the specific discursive elements I observed are not generalizable to all representations of Native American identity in film. However, they do reveal explicit themes present in American culture respecting the relationship between Native American groups and the Anglo-American population beyond the realm of Lilo and Stitch. To better explore these themes, I have transcribed interviews from Native Americans regarding their views of the stereotypes surrounding their cultures. Alongside the examination of HIE in Disney movies, these interviews will allow me to further investigate the implications of nonstandard HIE in film and assist my synthesis of the modern perception of indigenous American culture. Each transcription can be found in

"Instead of progress in depicting Native Americans, this film takes a step backwards – a very dangerous step because it is so carefully glossed as 'authentic' and 'respectful.' " – Jacquelyn Kilpatrick

What if you were a young Native American who was unacquainted with the American society, and you are introduced to the culture through the skills of a rodeo.”If you are not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary” the quote by Jim Rohn encapsulates the mindset of Thomas Black who is willing to risk the Native American lifestyle he already achieved, to do something unordinary and succeed at it. In the book, When the Legends Die by Hal Borland, the journalism graduate from Columbia University and past writer for The New York Times describes the determination and struggle of youngster who shows his tremendous passion in something not so ordinary for someone of his descent.

Native American Culture needs to be portrayed authentically. In order to respect Native American traditions and practices the media needs to provide a sense of teaching through humor and a circular perception of time. In order to do so instead of the classic scene of a Native American dancing around a fire speaking “tanto”, allow for the mocking by an elder of a child who was misbehaving around the fire instead. In many tribes this is how the children are taught what behaviors are acceptable. The problem is as a viewer that kind of reinforcement has never been represented on screen. As Rod Rondeaux said from Reel Injun “we are starting to not recognize ourselves.” The protection of authentic native american traditions through film is not only

The American frontier is an era of great pride and taming of the nature with the will to conquer. American society is taught to never give up and peruse one’s dream, to value that dream and do whatever it takes in order to achieve it. Although this provides a double edged sword for society as it can be the will on one side, but also be the downfall on another. For if any person is supposed to truly resemble the American frontier, then Buffalo Bill would be that image. Yet, in a Native American perspective, his double edged sword is a continually growing downfall for the culture.