Dances with Stereotypes

As I was reading a chapter on Native Americans in film from the book America on Film, I was disturbed, though not shocked by the treatment of Native Americans in Hollywood films.  I say “not shocked” because the treatment of Native Americans since the earliest settlers and founding of the country is certainly disturbing.  

According to the book, European explorers considered the native people to be “less than human” and “godless heathens.”  They stripped them of their land and forced them to live in unfamiliar and undesired territories.  The Manifest Destiny allowed early settlers to justify the stealing of Native American land and the murdering of the Native American people.  These settlers created stereotypes of the natives as being “ blood-thirsty savages” and portrayed them as “aggressive, violent and demonic, bent on destroying white settlers, including women and children.”  These stereotypes were created to stir up fear and justify the cold-blooded murdering of the natives--simply because they stood in the way of the settlers acquiring the land. The other stereotype given to the natives was “”benign and noble savages”, merely a minor upgrade from the “blood-thirsty savage.”  It was, and is still derogatory because it suggests that although the natives were noble and helpful, they were still savages who would not assimilate to the early settler’s demands.

It is throughout the nation’s and Hollywood filmmaking history to glorify white people while oppressing and stereotyping people of color. The early settlers didn’t care for the Native American’s dignity--why should Hollywood?  Many of Hollywood’s early films were racist, so why would they do anything but reinforce the stereotypical “less than human” Native American?  According to the book, Hollywood has a formula for creating heroic, white male, super hero role models.  Well, every super hero needs a villain.  Since it was the Native Americans who got in the white settlers way and tried to prevent them from obtaining their destiny, it only made sense to portray them as the villain.   What better way to instill the ideology that white represents good and color represents evil than through using Native Americans as the antagonists?  Film was meant to entertain its audience and, because Hollywood companies were large corporations only interested in making lots of money, the films were ultimately meant to entertain the wealthy.  Who made up the majority of the wealthy class throughout the early part of the 20^th century?  White people.  

Hence, the rise of the great American Western movie, the genre that notoriously glorified the white, male super hero stereotype, while portraying the Native American as either being violent and savage or noble and savage. These films purposefully had close up shots of the white, male protagonist, in contrast to far shots of the Native Americans, signifying whom the  “good guys” and “bad guys” are. They also misrepresented and over exaggerated the customs and culture of Native Americans for exotic appeal and entertainment value. The films often would not even have Native American actors in them. Whites would wear make up in order to have the appearance of Native Americans. Sometimes films would cast Latinos to play the roles of Native Americans.  Eventually when Native Americans had roles in these Westerns, they would exemplify the “noble savage” role and were always supporting, not lead roles.

 It wasn’t until much later in films like Dances with Wolves, would we begin to see more accurate depictions of historical events and attempts to change the “bad guy” Native American image that Hollywood had painted throughout most of the first half of the 20^th century. Even though this film caused the audience to contemplate who the “bad guy” really is, the hero is still played by a white, male actor, once again underlining and adhering to Hollywood’s golden rule. 

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Pageshubpages.com/hub/The-Interpretation-of-Native-American-Indians-in-Hollywood, www.manataka.org, wikimedia.org, foodcourtlunch.com, freemoviesonline.com