Arrowhead Movie Analysis

In the mid 19th century, America, through treaties and war, was expanding to the across the plains to the west coast. This created a world where whites and Native Americans lived in near proximity of each other often causing a great deal of controversy. Arrowhead(1953), directed by Charles Marquis Warren and based on the novel Adobe Walls by W.R. Burnett, depicts a world in the 19th century, where American soldiers have to interact and confront the Native Americans of the region. Based in Fort Clark, Texas, Chief of Scouts Ed Bannon helps avoid an ambush by the neighboring tribe, the Apache, while stationed at Fort Clark. The US army wants to make peace with the tribe, however, Bannon’s hatred and distrust of the Apache distrust the peacemaking …show more content…
The movie starts with a scene where Bannon sneaks up on a group of Native Americans, killing them and apparently saving the US troops ahead. When the troops are angered due to the stalling of peacemaking attempts, Bannon quickly shows hidden marks of war paint hinting that the Natives where not interested in peace treaties. This reinforced the perceptions that all Native Americans are savages no matter the tribe or territory. The noble savage was a native American who had assimilated into the community, while the ignoble save was considered a brute and uncivilized. Tammany, a mascot created for the Tree Rioters of the 17th century was a noble savage. The rioters created Tammany as an ideal Native figure in which all Natives were to be compared to. In Arrowhead, by assuming that these Natives minding their own business were savages, the movie reinforces the ideology that all Natives are ignoble savages. A study CES phycology analysts proved that even today “Native American stereotypes are characterized by both noble and ignoble subgroups” that have been reinforced by media such as this movie. This shows that racial perceptions that were created in the 17th century still linger in our society hundreds of years …show more content…
“Assimilation required the dashing out of indigenous ways of life”…by teaching Natives the American way of farming to create a profit and abandon vast hunting grounds. In Arrowhead, this is shown when Torinada first returns from Eastern schooling. He is dressed in civilized attire and looks like the ideal noble Native. This section of the movie presents the ideology of whites wanting natives to slowly become part of the white civilization. Americans viewed natives as white, but have different skin color due to their cultural way of farming in the sun. This is why they believed that Natives could integrate with white culture unlike many other races at the time. However, it was not easy to convince mass groups to forget generations of traditions and simply start new