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The Western and the Indians sample essay
Over the centuries strong stereotypes of Native American became so well entrenched into our society, that they are still widely used by businesses for commercial advertisements or by universities as their mascots. Generations after generations of Hollywood films and various Wild West shows “created an iconographic Indian modeled on idealized versions of the craggy-featured Northern Plains warrior of the mid-nineteenth century.” (Bordewich). Although many factors contribute to the creation of a stereotype, the role of mass media is the crucial. Native American stereotypes have been deeply rooted into American consciousness by mass media. Even today Westerns continue to run on television and the cartoons from fifties that portray that warlike Indian are being still broadcasted.
Once created, stereotypes begin to live a life of their own. “Many interactions between American Indians and non-Indians serve to affirm stereotypes because people are looking for information to confirm their stereotypes”, argue authors Poupart and Becker. “Non-Indians overlook and abundance of information and interactions that run counter to stereotypes and there is not really an interaction going on.”
Throughout the last decades the image of Native Americans has, beyond doubt, undergone many changes: from uneducated deceitful savages to the dignified and wise race, rich in culture and history. Originally, the creation of mythologized Indian figure, which contributed to the birth of a stereotype, is strongly connected with the building of American Wild West image.
The mythologizing of the American Wild West, however, begins not in film, but with the newspaper serials and dime novels written in the 1860s. Such characters as Buffalo Bill Cody or Jesse James by now have become almost folkloric figures for the American society. From theatrical shows to early films, those and other characters were immortalized in the consciousness of an American public. However, as the Frontier ceased to exist, new technology has contributed a powerful way of channeling the Western myth – the motion picture.
There is no better example then the old Western films portraying Native Americans as savages and thieves. In most Western movies cowboys were the good characters while Indians were always the bad ones. Majority of old Western films portray almost every detail of Native Americans’ lifestyle incorrectly. They were portrayed as hostile savages, uncivilized barbarians frequent to practice treachery, violence, robbery and ruthlessness. Unworthy of compassion, they were literally “chased around and shot” by cowboys. Whites, on the contrary, were portrayed always mentally and morally superior to American Indians. No regard, whatsoever, has been given to the richness and diversity of Native American culture. For example, there existed one general image used to present an American Indian, regardless of the tribe, language he/she spoke or religion he/she practiced.
There are several typical misconceptions about American Indian created by Hollywood movies. One of them is the fact that Apaches are presented as the most common Indian tribe, or the frequent avoidance of the topic of interracial marriage supported by the traditional death of an Indian female character married to a white man.
While American Indians are portrayed as deceivers, no consideration is given to the multiple instances on which the American government has ignored or broken the treaties with Native Americans. “Union Pacific” (1939) is a great example of a film which totally ignores the broken treaties, assurances and promises made by the United States government to the Native American population.
The film tells a story of Union Pacific railroad being pushed across the wilderness to California sanctioned by one of the President Lincoln’s last bills. While the film addresses the struggle of building a railroad and includes interests of such figures as corrupt politicians, the Indians are simply shown to interfere with the white men’s affairs through frequent violent attacks. The white men have no other way but to answer force by using force themselves, which seems to be basic Wild West Show or early Western movie approach to the Indian-American conflict. There is little or no positive features attributed to Native Americans in such films as the one mentioned above.
The 1962 film “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” is not one of the simplistic early Westerns, with their unsophisticated plot based on the usual struggle of Cowboys and Indians. This new film presents an emerging need for law and order in the West, a necessity without which, as the time passes, no progress for civilization is probable. However, it is not possible to impose law and order on Wild West society without using some of its tactics. Curiously, instead of presenting the white men’s world as a superior civilization, film questions the principles on which the West is built and emphasizes the need for civilizing it. Thus, the usual one-way presentation of white men’s superior social order is broken at the root. There is apparently a new conflict, but not the conflict between the ruthless savages and good-natured cowboys – this time the righteousness of white men’s practices among themselves as well as toward the Native American population is put under the question. As the romanticized image of Wild West is bent and the original values are questioned, the viewer is inclined to ask further questions, including those concerning the American Indians, who, nevertheless, are still presented inferior to the whites.
As the time passes, many traditional stereotypes of a warlike savage change, only to give a way to a ‘contemporary stereotype’, this time of a drunken, lazy and uneducated Native American.
While today’s media is cautious in presenting the American Indian, avoiding the topic does not help to erase the outdated images from the mind of an American public, moreover, it only strengthens the negative stereotyping by failing to replace them with more positive images. Although the old Westerns have bestowed Native Americans with a rather unappealing identity, their treatment of other ethnical and racial minorities has been equally arrogant in its simplistic division into whites and non-whites with all the ensuing consequences.
It is clear that in the early Western films the images of Indian civilization were largely negative and unappealing. This was mostly due to the lack of information about Native Americans, their culture and history. As the things began to change and more Americans were receiving education about the American Indians, new generation of film and literary works portraying a more complex Native American identity has emerged. There have been frequent, albeit not always successful, attempts to re-establish this identity in both, films and literature, and to re-integrate the notion of Native American lifestyle and practices into the American society. This has given a spark to numerous movements among both, non-Indian and Native Americans, aimed at recovering and preserving their traditions, and at educating the general public about them.
One of the films that aim to present a contemporary view of an intelligent, non-violent, ethnically and culturally rich Native American living in harmony with nature and in the equally harmonious self-established social order is “Dances With the Wolves”. A 1990 film starring Kevin Costner as a white military man put in charge of a station on the frontier, is called a “revisionist western” as it attempts to revise the traditional Western roles of Cowboys and Indians. As the plot of the movie develops, the main character John Dunbar, played by Costner, gradually develops friendly relations with the neighboring Native American tribe. Dunbar succeeds in learning their language and adopting their lifestyle, slowly familiarizing himself with their practices and traditions.
The film indeed overthrows the traditional images as white American soldiers capture Dunbar for deserting and become the side of the conflict which is portrayed negatively as they treat the main character with brutality equal to the one they regard the Native American population with.
As the viewers familiarize themselves with the tribe’s members and lifestyle, one begins to regard American Indians with sympathy and understanding, while the American soldiers assume the role of savage-like population showing little concern for anyone’s but their own benefit.
However, regardless of the attempts to reverse the traditional roles of the old Western characters, the ”Dances With the Wolves” succeeds only in portraying the Sioux tribe in a positive light (rarely accorded to Native Americans in films as presented above), failing to give a fair view to the every side of conflict. Thus, the enemy tribe of Sioux – Pawnee, adopts the usual features of ruthless barbarians attributed to American Indians in the previous generations of films. The American soldiers, however, are depicted as merely imperfect human beings, genuine in their not always unsuccessful attempts to deal with the frontier situation.
John Dunbar is treated brutally by his fellow military men, and, consequently, chooses the other side of a conflict. Concerned with the well-being of the Sioux tribe he risks his life and, in his attempt to at last separate from his former comrades, becomes the full-rights member of the tribe.
Finding his love among the Sioux, Dunbar marries the Stands With A Fist (played by Mary McDonnell); however, in its attempt to smooth out the sharp corners of the issue, movie fails to address the topic of interracial marriage – Stands With A Fist turns out to be a white woman adopted by the tribe during her childhood.
Without any doubt, “Dances With the Wolves” makes an honest attempt to set the historical record straight; however, the reversal of the roles in film is not complete.
It is no easy task to re-establish a fair image of Native American in the contemporary mass media. First, regardless of the plot, films should treat all Native American tribes with equal fairness, making a genuine attempt to create an overall positive image of an American Indian with regard to the diversity and complexity of their culture. Another attempt which should be made – is eliminating historical and cultural errors in presenting the events which have taken or are currently taking place between the American and Native American population.
It is crucial that the media gives a fair assessment to the historical role which white American pioneers have played in destroying the traditional lifestyle of Native American population and openly addresses and presents the consequences of such actions. There is a danger, as has been mentioned earlier, in substituting the old negative stereotypes with the new ones; therefore, it is crucial for a positive image of contemporary Native American to be formed in the media, perhaps with assistance from the American Indians themselves. In short, just as mass media has played the crucial role in creating the stereotypes it must play the central role in their destruction.
The Western films have established both, pessimistic and optimistic images of civilization. Brutal, uncivilized ways of the Wild West, practiced by the both sides of the conflict and reflected in the old Western films, have been of little help to the creation of a positive image of the civilization. However, they played a central role in producing highly romanticized, almost mythological figures of the Frontier, deeply rooted in the consciousness of almost every American. However, the example of “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance”, addresses the emerging need of civilizing the Wild West society, consequently, giving fair treatment to both, Cowboys and Indians, under the principles of common justice and the rule of law.
The later attempts to revise history, such as the one in the “Dances With Wolves”, consequently, conveys a rather pessimistic views of the white civilization.
References:
Bordewich, Fergus M. “Killing the White Man's Indian: Reinventing Native Americans at the End of the 20th Century.” New York: Doubleday, 1996.
Hoffman, Donald. “Whose Home on the Range? Finding Room for Native Americans, African Americans, and Latino Americans in the Revisionist Western.” MELUS, 22. (1997).
Poupart, John, and Tracy Becker. “Communication and Relationships Between Reservation American Indians and Non-Indians from Neighboring Communities.” 1997. American Indian Research and Policy Institute. July 16, 2006.
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