Written by: Jaylin Emond-Hardin | Entertainment Editor
During the last decade of the 19th century, Native Americans began to take part in public entertainment. Buffalo Bill employed Native Americans in his “Wild West” shows, bringing them, along with buffalo and horses, to Europe to act in romanticized depictions of cowboys, Plains Natives and outlaws.
As the movie industry evolved, Native Americans were presented as a documentary subject — inventor Thomas Edison captured Lakota ghost dancers on early forms of cameras. The “hostile savage” stereotype first appeared on camera in the 1914 film “The Battle of Elderbush Gulch,” and became synonymous with the Western genre. In the 1950s, John Wayne was at his most macho when he was “finishing the job,” or shooting a Native who was already in their grave. Even the 1953 animated film “Peter Pan” portrays a romanticized stereotype of Natives.
These films hide the true story of what Natives endured, instead pushing “manifest destiny,” or the idea that white settlers were ordained to move west and control North America. In the post-war period, Natives were forced to live on reservations, struggled for rights and political influence and couldn’t own businesses or property outside of reservations. When the 1965 Voting Rights Act was passed — more commonly associated with the breakthrough for African American civil rights — Native Americans were given the right to vote in every state. The more defined Indian Civil Rights Act of 1968 allowed them to push for more historical and realistic media representation without fear.
The 1970 film “Soldier Blue” was a more empathetic and realistic view of Natives, as they were involved in the filmmaking process. The movie is an allegory for the Vietnam War, wherein a soldier is enlisted to hunt Native Americans but realizes the horror of an invader army killing people on the land they are from.
Cree activist Buffy Sainte-Marie, who wrote the title track for the movie, had said, “No one knows Soldier Blue in North America. I can guarantee you won’t find three people in the U.S. who know it. It was taken out of the theaters after a few days. … Why? What year did Soldier Blue come out? 1970? Oh, that’ll be Richard Nixon.” Sainte-Marie was also blacklisted in the United States for her political activism by J. Edgar Hoover and the Federal Bureau of Investigation during this time.
Of course, Native American representation in the media has evolved since the days of John Wayne and Richard Nixon. The comedy-drama show “Reservation Dogs” — fondly called “Rez Dogs” by fans — follows four Native American teenagers growing up on a reservation in eastern Oklahoma. The 2021 show features an almost entirely Native American cast and crew, marking a breakthrough for Indigenous representation in the media.
The 2023 movie “Killers of the Flower Moon” details the 1920 murders of members of the Osage Tribe, when oil was found on Osage tribal land and local political bosses sought to take control. “Killers of the Flower Moon” was nominated for 10 Academy Awards and seven Golden Globe Awards, where lead actress Lily Gladstone won Best Actress in a Motion Picture.
“I’m excited to see more Native people actually get representation,” said Western junior Morgan Pemberton. Pemberton is Mi’kmaq and Algonquin from the Kopit Clan and the social media manager for Western’s Native Indigenous Culture Club.
“I think for a long time, even in the 2010s they were still just painting people,” she added, referencing Johnny Depp’s role as Tonto in “The Lone Ranger.”
“I see a lot of (Natives) online talk about how people in interviews will try to get them (to) talk in the traditional Native accent, which is not always accurate. I think even in having just one Native character, they’re a one-dimensional version of what Native people look like when I don’t always think that’s the case.”
Pemberton also talked about how a majority of people who watch shows like “Reservation Dogs” are not likely to be white people, but rather other Natives. The show, after all, is a love letter to Natives, from Natives.
“Not that we have to make everything to teach white people about what (it is) to be Native, but I feel like when they want to include Native people, they want to include a stereotypical Native person, which I think does a service and a disservice. It’s an only good or bad thing.”
Pemberton also spoke about how, growing up, she watched the Disney movies “Pocahontas” and “The Lone Ranger,” considering them less-than-perfect representations of Native Americans. Depp’s role in the latter was a big deal in her house.
“Pocahontas” is considered perhaps the worst modern representation of Natives and Native history. A romanticized retelling of when the first white colonists arrived in the Americas, the titular figure’s story has little historical accuracy. Pocahontas, whose true name was Matoaka, was around 10 or 11 when the Virginia Company came to North America and did not save John Smith’s life. A few years after the colonists’ arrival, she was taken captive and converted to Christianity. When Matoaka was 18, she married John Rolfe, who was 10 years her senior and had a son named Thomas a year later.
Matoaka was then taken to England and paraded around as a celebrity, presented as an example of a “civilized savage.” In 1617, the family set sail with the intent to return to Virginia, but the voyage was halted as Matoaka and Thomas both fell ill, and both mother and son died in Gravesend, Kent, England. The location of their bodies is unknown, and Matoaka is considered the first Missing and Murdered Indigenous Woman, or MMIW.
“It’s really good that we have Native representation because brown Native people are more discriminated against, so having them highlighted is something I really enjoy. I do hope that there is a future in which there is nuance in talking about Natives and I think that starts in classrooms making sure teachers understand what Native identities are,” Pemberton said.
Contact the author at howlentertainment@wou.edu
