Films are developed to serve different purposes, and one of them may be to convey the truth about society.

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Introduction

Films are developed to serve different purposes, and one of them may be to convey the truth about society. Even though sharing cultural experience and information of specific cultures may be essential in enriching the understanding of its ancestry and heritage, basing the film exclusively on images acquired from the media poses a great risk when the individuals belonging to the culture are represented inaccurately. This essay will present a discussion of how Native people have been represented in twentieth-century films. Additionally, a discussion of how their representation in film changed from the start of the twentieth century and how the representations serve as an instrument of social and cultural instruction in the U.S will also be discussed.

Representation of Native People in Film During the Twentieth Century

One of the key takeaways from the twentieth-century films is that Native Americans and their culture are underrepresented in the films. These movies aim to enrich the audience about the Native people, but still, these people are not represented well enough when it comes to the characters. This is evident in the film The Searchers, where the reviewers indicate that only one male character can be identified as an Indian character while the other men getting killed by the Whites while on their horses are faceless. In this case, even the identifiable Indian character Scar was played by a German, which means he was a White man. The same is evident in the film Broken Arrow which many commentators indicate has flaws such as Native Americans using English and Whites taking the roles of Indians. Therefore, it is evident that in twentieth-century films, there is an element of whitewashing which refers to the situation that occurs when producers actively seek and cast actors who are white for the roles that are meant for people of a certain race or ethnicity (Starling, 1).

In 20th century films, the Native Americans are not only underrepresented, but they are also represented inaccurately. One of the ways this has been done is the overgeneralization of the different Native American groups, as evident in the film The searchers. The reviewers wonder why Comanches in the film are permitted to speak Navajo while Comanche and Navajo are from two diverse language groups which are not mutually comprehensible. From the film, it is apparent that the multiple language groups are represented as one flat image of the Native Americans.

Additionally, in the film Broken Arrow, the relation between the Whites and the Native Americans is introduced inaccurately through the omission of some crucial events. This is marked at the start of the film when Tom Jeffords talks about the story of the land and Cochise, the Indian leader of the Chiricahua Apache tribe. There are two essential omissions from the narrator, which allows for the exclusion of the inconvenient fact that the Native Americans had fought the Spaniards, Mexicans, and Euro-Americans for sixty years. The narrator traveling alone is also inaccurate since laws encouraging the slaughter of buffalos and mining of gold and silver on Native American reservations had led to the migration of whites to the West. Furthermore, introducing Cochise as the leader of the Chiricahua Apaches indicates that the film represents the tribal government similar to that of the United States government, which is inaccurate. A council representing every tribe made the decision on what the collective tribe would do and not Cochise. From the film, it is clear that there is an element of revisionism where events that are inconvenient to the whites are omitted.

Lastly, the popular stories and films in the 20th century represent Native Americans as barbaric and savage. The Pocahontas Perplex indicates that in the songs written by the whites, it is normally told that Pocahontas rescues her white lover from her own “barbarous” people since, as a Christian, she could not withstand seeing a fellow Christian getting slain by “savages” (704). This is also consistent in the film Broken Arrow where the Cochise is represented as a noble savage who is all-wise and knowing instead of an individual who is tired, weary, and willing to make peace since he understands that the whites are strong and numerous for his people to triumph. Therefore, the films in the 20th century develop stereotypes that represent Native Americans as savage and barbaric.

Change in Native People Representations from the Early Twentieth Century

A few changes are evident in terms of the representation of Native Americans from the early twentieth century. One of these changes is that there is some sort of representation of the Native Americans and their culture in the films later on in the century when compared to the beginning of the century. For instance, the film Broken Arrow which was released in 1950, has a major flaw in representing the Native American culture by having the Native Americans speak English. A change is evident in the 1956 film The searchers, where the reviewers state that they should be thankful that a real Indian language has been spoken by the Native Americans in the film “instead of just gibberish” (340).

Another change in Native representation in the twentieth century is that true stories that are inconvenient to the whites are included in the films. In Broken Arrow, there are a lot of omissions that seem to be awkward for the whites, but in The searchers, some of the scenes are true and inconvenient to the whites. In the film, Debbie, who is a white woman, is shown to be perfectly calm and well taken care of as well as respected and not degraded while she is at the Comanches. In this film, the audience is also informed that Scar’s attacks are not motivated by an utter sense of cruelty and brutality, but they are based on the fact that whites had killed his sons. Therefore, as the century progresses, the films represent some truth about the Native Americans by representing them as caring when Debbie is not degraded by the Native Americans. Furthermore, Scar’s actions are portrayed as a product of physical and emotional results of the murder of his sons by the whites and not as a result of being savage and barbaric.

Themes that Persisted During the Century

Even though true stories are being shown and Native American representation in films are evident during the twentieth century, some themes manifested earlier in the century are still persistent. One of the persistent themes is that even though the Indian language is spoken by Indians in the film, the generalizations of the Native American language groups is still present; for example, in The Searchers, Native Americans are represented as generic Indians where the Comachos are allowed to speak Navajo, and yet they belong to different groups. Besides, even though more Indians are involved in the films, they are employed as “extras” in movies that would represent them in a negative manner.

Moreover, even though true stories about Native Americans and their culture are represented later in the century, revisionism and omissions are still persistent. For instance, in the film The Searchers, even though Scar’s actions are linked to the murder of his sons by the whites, the physical and emotional results caused by the whites are omitted in the film. On the other hand, the results of the killings committed by Scar are included in the film. Therefore, the events that may inconvenience the whites are still omitted in the film. Furthermore, the story of Debbie is revised when you consider the tale of Cynthia Ann Parker, the historical woman on whom she is based on. The historical woman never intended to leave the Comanches, unlike Debbie in the film, who indicates that she won’t leave the Comanches since they are her people but later changes her mind and returns to white civilization happily. According to the legend, Cynthia was recaptured by the whites, and her relatives mistreated her such that she even attempted to escape to the Comanches, but she later committed suicide. The son she left behind in the Comanches used attorneys to gain custody of Cynthia’s body, and this is different from what the film presents. According to the film, Debby indicates that the graves had been moved when the Army confiscated the Comanche cemetery to utilize it as a weapons testing field. Therefore, even though the story presented in the film is true, the details are not accurate enough.

During the century, there is evidence that revisionism and the omission of events that are awkward to the whites are still persistent. Even though true stories have been included in these films, the film directors are still using the traditional and fictional approaches to revise important events. The persistence of these themes during the century may be attributed to different factors such as the fear of the directors that presenting the entire truth would not make the film marketable and the lack of detailed understanding of the stories, which made the directors go as far as they are able to.

Representation of Natives as an Instrument of Social and Cultural Instruction

The representation of the Natives in the film has been a major contributor to how people in the U.S view the Native Americans. Majorly, the films have contributed to the stereotyping of Native Americans, which is centered on savagery. However, producers have applied this representation as an instrument of cultural criticism. Films and documentaries that entail accurate indigenous perspectives and which explore the complexities of how Native groups have consistently been naively misrepresented in the film have been created (Stoddard et al. 13). The directors aim to challenge the representations made about Native people through simplistic presentation of Native culture, customs, and rituals in order to change the existing stereotypes.

Works Cited

Starling, Clair. “Whitewashing in the US Film Industry.” Continuum 7 (2020): 01-09.

Stoddard, Jeremy, Alan Marcus, and David Hicks. “The burden of historical representation: The case of/for Indigenous film.” The History Teacher 48.1 (2014): 9-36.