“In
over 4000 films, Hollywood has shaped the image of Native Americans. Classic
Westerns like They Died With Their Boots
On created stereotypes. Later Blockbusters like Little Big Man, One Flew Over
the Cuckoos Nest and Dances With
Wolves began to dispel them. Not until a renaissance in Native cinema did
films like Once Were Warriors and Smoke Signals portray Native people as
human beings.” In bold, white letters this statement sets the tone for the 2009
Canadian documentary film Reel Injun,
directed by Neil Diamond of the Cree nation, Catherine Brainbridge, and
Jeremiah Hayes. In the film we follow Diamond himself, as he travels across the
North American continent, documenting not only the long-standing and marred
relationship of the Native American to cinema, but also detailing these
stereotypes that the medium has engendered in common consciousness. In this
“typing” of people, the Native American Indians have been lumped into one
homogenous group, and suffered a great cultural genocide, stripping them of the
rich individual history of each Native American’s respective nation and
creating the façade of a mythical figure that no longer exists in the present
day.
The
image of the “Savage Injun,” unified under the common guise of the Plains
Indian, complete with headdress, buckskin, and headband (all attire that these
people would not have even worn in reality) was perverted into that of the
“noble savage,” meant to serve the dominant hegemonic social structure of
American society. By denying the basic human rights of these native people and
creating a common caricature to rally against, Hollywood helped erase and
justify the seizure of these indigenous peoples land and culture through the
Imperialistic practice of Westward Expansion. Westerns developed with heroic
cowboys always fighting against and attempting to quell these backwards
invaders, more homogenized than ever under extremely negative stereotypes. It
really was not until a renaissance in the mid-70’s that Native Americans began
to gain some sense of humanity through their roles in film. Reel keys in on Will Samson’s
performance in One Flew Over the Cuckoos
Nest as being a real turning point in cinema, where the actor was able to
work with a stereotype and reclaim it for a new purpose, giving it a grace that
it never had before. During this time filmmakers began to return to Native
American characters the humanity that had been denied them through the cultural
genocide Western film had enacted and flesh out a bit more who each of these
individuals actually are. Throughout the 1990’s American society began a kind
of revival of Native American culture, focusing more on the human aspect of
these people in films like Dances With
Wolves, The Last of the Mohicans, and Dead Man. I found Chief Dan George’s
performance alongside Dustin Hoffman Little
Big Man to be particularly heartwarming, conveying the spirit of not only
the individual but also the people he represents.
One
idea that I found particularly interesting from the end of the film was that in
order for Native Americans to deal with these stereotypes and
misrepresentations many have turned to humor. By recognizing where Native
Americans have come from as well as working to reorient the mainstream
understanding of where these myriad of differing individuals fit within our
contemporary society, this kind of filmmaking is at times meant more so for the
Native American community itself as well as the larger mainstream audience.
While I was watching the film I found myself relating this idea to the work of
the Navajo nation’s reservation doctor and artist. I was lucky enough to
actually hear Mr. Thomas speak last semester in my Artist Lecture Series course
at UWM. In his lecture he explains how Native American peoples all over North
America have a kind of “soul wound” which is inexplicably linked to the
oppressive history this group of people has faced since the first colonization
of the continent so long ago and has been perpetuated by the American
government since its inception. In order to combat the extreme depression and
multitude of social issues these peoples face, and to bring a positive
representation of members of the Navajo nation to their people Mr. Thomas
creates large-scale street art style wheat paste portraits of the members of
the Navajo he serves and then places them on buildings and other public spaces.
By celebrating the individual character of these people and presenting them in
a positive light in public space, Chip Thomas is attempting to reorient not
only the outside world’s understanding of who these people are but also their
own. For more information on Chip Thomas and his work with the Navajo nation
visit:
speakingloudandsayingnothing.blogspot.com
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