ipl-logo

Review Of Making The White Man's Indi Native Americans And Hollywood Movies

641 Words3 Pages

In her book Making the White Man’s Indian: Native Americans and Hollywood Movies, Aleiss discusses the history of the portrayal Native Americans in American films. Aleiss shows that Native Americans have not always been portrayed negatively or stereotypically in films, but instead they have been displayed in more complicated ways that have changed over the years. By explaining how the portrayal of Native Americans in film has changed over time, Aleiss provides a way to think about how Native Americans are being represented in films today. The complication of the way Americans presented Native Americans in film is contrasted by how Native Americans were treated in reality. Aleiss explains that even though producer “Young Deer and his contemporaries rarely promoted Indian assimilation into white society,” there were still “attempts to erase cultural differences between Indians and whites and absorb Native Americans into mainstream American society” (Aleiss, 3-4). Yet, Aleiss also goes on to say that Americans were interested in “the “exoticim” …show more content…

Aleiss explains how in the early 90’s, people began to call for actors that were “real Indians,” and although some Native Americans claimed that these new representations were authentic, “Not all Indians agreed” (Aleiss, 9). The conflict between what is authentic to some Native Americans and what is not regarding Native Americans in films also reminds readers that Native Americans cannot be grouped together and that they are made up of different tribes with different cultures. Aleiss also calls attention to a progressive aspect of Native American portrayal in films; one that involves Americans attempting to include a more real representation of Native Americans that shows their true ways of

Show More
Related
2445 Words | 10 Pages

Trudell asks the audience to recount an ugly period in U.S history in order to gain a better understanding of the devastation that took place. For centuries, the Government has built an image of the Native people as one of uncivilized savages and though the years has portrayed them as the cause of the average American’s suffering in order to bring genocide against them with minimal resistance for the public. When a culture or race is villainized based solely on that criteria it create a climate of hate that entrenches itself in the minds of the people and is passed down through the generations. People are no longer driven by facts, but instead feed into the racial rhetoric of which they have become accustomed. The film highlights the need for change to the way the people are treated by their Government.

Read More
1007 Words | 5 Pages

Throughout history, there have been many literary studies that focused on the culture and traditions of Native Americans. Native writers have worked painstakingly on tribal histories, and their works have made us realize that we have not learned the full story of the Native American tribes. Deborah Miranda has written a collective tribal memoir, “Bad Indians”, drawing on ancestral memory that revealed aspects of an indigenous worldview and contributed to update our understanding of the mission system, settler colonialism and histories of American Indians about how they underwent cruel violence and exploitation. Her memoir successfully addressed past grievances of colonialism and also recognized and honored indigenous knowledge and identity.

Read More
1480 Words | 6 Pages

The film, Reel Injun reveals a distortion of the way Hollywood sees Native American life through comedy and the real way Native Americans live which changes according to the current times. Neil Diamond sets out on a journey across America to figure out where the incorrect image of Natives arose from, all signs pointing towards Hollywood. Dozens of films recreate the way Americans believe Natives live as savages and wear costumes and decorated headpieces with feathers, but Hollywood does not show the true spiritual side and the meaning of why they live the way they do as true to their own culture and assimilated to the American culture as well. US history negatively affects Native American live which lead to the image of Natives to be clouded by imagination through film, changed the way Natives viewed themselves and expect to live, and misshaped the view we now have for Natives.

Read More
483 Words | 2 Pages

Sherman Alexie’s “Indian Education” describes his personal experience as a Native American in the American school system while growing up in the 1970s. In this historical period, many white Americans discriminated against those of different races and ethnicities. In this short story, Alexie attempts to open the eyes of white Americans who do not realize what Native Americans and other groups go through to inform them of the hardships he encountered all his life by utilizing stereotyping and the organization of his writing. The intended audience of "Indian Education" is white Americans who either did not realize or were negligent of the troubles Native Americans were enduring.

Read More
644 Words | 3 Pages

Even today, movies and cartoons that depict Native Americans in any way are most often being portrayed in the same fashion as they have been for hundreds of years: through the eyes of the earliest white settlers. When Disney’s Pocahontas came out, the brutal song “Savages!” devastated Native American children.

Read More
142 Words | 1 Pages

Northern Exposure The CBS TV show Northern Exposure was a popular weekly series that followed the urbanite Jewish doctor Joel Fleischman in rural Cicely, Alaska. This show was well known for featuring a cast composed of a few Native American actors/actresses who got plenty of small, bit roles which added tremendously to the ambiance of the setting. Once in a while, Native-based storylines were developed throughout the series’ run. “The presence of another self-made native actress, Elaine Miles (a Pendleton native), gave a distinct sensibility in contrast to the machinations of an otherwise Anglo and neurotic Alaskan community” (Rollins and O’Connor, 1998:19).

Read More
1980 Words | 8 Pages

At the beginning of our course, we watched the 1990 film Dances With Wolves, directed by, produced by and starring Kevin Costner. Set in the 1800’s during the American Civil War, Dances With Wolves follows Lieutenant John Dunbar who, after being posted at a virtually abandoned fort, comes into contact with the Sioux tribe of Native Americans. At first, they are scared of each other, but despite the language barrier, they manage to communicate. The storyline shows how their relationship develops to the point where John is given the name ‘Dances With Wolves’. We had a class discussion about the film, and we all agreed the film showed that the Americans hated the Native Americans because they did not understand them or their culture.

Read More
2319 Words | 10 Pages

In The Searchers, Indigenous American characters lack the development of personalities and positive identifiable traits. The Comanche are only viewed favorably for the laugh track they provide to the white characters harming them. Critically, the Comanche occupy a subservient role to white characters in the film’s racial hierarchy. Throughout history, mass media tends to reinforce the power of the racially dominant group (white people) by arousing the general public with antagonistic images of minority groups. For example, Birth of a Nation utilized white actors in blackface to characterize African Americans as “savage, ignorant, thieves, interlopers and potential rapists” (Luther).

Read More
946 Words | 4 Pages

The invisibility of Native peoples and lack of positive images of Native cultures may not register as a problem for many Americans, but it poses a significant challenge for Native youth who want to maintain a foundation in their culture and language. " - NCAI President Brian Cladoosby (April 2014 - Washington Post

Read More
1494 Words | 6 Pages

Even though America has become quite the diverse place with diverse cultures, the cultural appropriation found within the American society contributes to the loss of multiple minority culture’s identity. Native Americans are one of the minority groups most heavily impacted by cultural appropriation. From offensive sports, many American Indians feel as though their cultural identities are lost in the mass of stereotypes and false representations of them in popular culture. In literature and film, Indians are too often portrayed as some variation of “the Noble or Ignoble Savage” (Gordon, 30), violent and uneducated, and it is easy to imagine how this negative representation inspires resentment in the Native American community, who have no interest in having their cultures and peoples being reduced to mere savages,

Read More
1058 Words | 5 Pages

The media today consists of a huge diversity of different things. This is because the United States is known as the melting pot country and today 's society doesn 't understand the real history of the Native American people. They are easily one of the top most underrepresented cultures and people in the media in today’s world. This is why there are stereotypes of them throughout the media. Native Americans are stereotyped in many ways such as in movies, tv shows, books, etc.

Read More
1942 Words | 8 Pages

Like the representation of Native American’s in film. In early western films, Native American characters were not played by Natives but rather white actors. This gave a false image of what Native Americans looked like. Additionally, they were portrayed as unintelligent savages. Since then, Native Americans have reclaimed their identity because of increased accessibility to filmmaking and the creation of programs like the Native American Initiative by Sundance Film Institute.

Read More
1188 Words | 5 Pages

Racial stereotypes in films has occurred among people of color through characters, especially black. This has made challenges in opportunities, leading to a prevalence of stereotypes and lack of diversity on-screen, and they have also come a long way with many perspectives in the movie industry. The motion industry have had long history and criticism for its racially casting options since it has a significant role in a mass dissemination across the globe to audiences in every generation and have affected people’s belief systems. However, since a development in technologies and people’s perception, several modern filmmakers have already started to change the old stereotypes to be diverse and more positive. Furthermore,x black actors

Read More
718 Words | 3 Pages

‘Dances with the wolves’ is a 1990 American epic western movie that defied norms in Hollywood, revitalized the western genre in filmmaking, challenged and changed the perception of viewers toward native Americans. The movie significantly impacted social, cultural, historical aspects of society. Native American are rarely screened in Hollywood and when they do, they are demonized as the blood thirsty savages and bad guys. According to Beverly R. Singer, "Despite the fact that a diversity of indigenous peoples had a legal and historical significance in the formation of every new country founded in the western hemisphere, in the United States and Canada the term 'Indians' became a hegemonic designation implying that they were all the same in regard to culture, behavior, language, and social organization. The view of 'Indians' as savage and uncivilized was repeated in early films and crystallized the image of 'Indians' as dangerous and unacceptable to the normative lives of European

Read More
975 Words | 4 Pages

Science journalist, Charles C. Mann, had successfully achieved his argumentative purpose about the “Coming of Age in the Dawnland.” Mann’s overall purpose of writing this argumentative was to show readers that there’s more to than just being called or being stereotyped as a savage- a cynical being. These beings are stereotyped into being called Indians, or Native Americans (as they are shorthand names), but they would rather be identified by their own tribe name. Charles Mann had talked about only one person in general but others as well without naming them. Mann had talked about an Indian named Tisquantum, but he, himself, does not want to be recognized as one; to be more recognized as the “first and foremost as a citizen of Patuxet,”(Mann 24).

Read More

More about Review Of Making The White Man's Indi Native Americans And Hollywood Movies

Related Topics

Open Document