Ambush Gulch Colonialism

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Colonialism is defined as the process of invading a country and claiming its authority despite others living there. This is a social issue as it only serves the interests of the colonizers due to making the colonized inferior and worthless. In this paper, I will be discussing why colonialism is a problem by looking at The Battle of Elderbush Gulch as a prime example of manipulative media. D.W Griffith utilizes the production element of narration in his film The Battle of Elderbush Gulch to construct a racist pro-colonial ideology by using the classical paradigm narrative structure and the non-diegetic element of text to clearly “other” the First Nations from the Americans. This ideology may have been universally accepted in 1913 but it is currently …show more content…
This film may have been fiction, but it can still be used as propaganda against the First Nations. Despite the First Nations living in America first, their way of life was deemed unacceptable after the Europeans took over. Due to this, many First Nations lost their land, their homes, their families, and were forced to let go of a lot of their traditions since the Europeans started many wars and broke many promises they made to the First Nations. First Nations have been mistreated ever since Europeans invaded their land but not many films depict the Europeans as the evil people, and The Battle of Elderbush Gulch is one of them. It depicts the First Nations as animalistic in nature and uncivilized beings, unlike the Americans who are normal and civilized humans. This ideology is based on prejudice and is very unfair because in the film the Americans killed the Chief’s son first but are still seen as the heroes. It does not make sense to be considered a hero for killing an innocent First Nations …show more content…
Because it is a silent film, the audience pays close attention to the text and the actions of the actors. D.W Griffith takes advantage of this by using certain words that have negative connotations to label the First Nations. For example, instead of labelling the First Nations by their specific tribe name, or First Nations or by even labelling them as Aboriginals, the director labels them as “Indians” which is inappropriate, racist and based on a misconception. Wrongly labelling them as “Indians” further proves the director wants to portray their culture as unimportant to the audience because he does not care to address them by their actual name. Furthermore, the audience knows the names of some of the American characters such as the Cameron brothers, Sally, and Melissa, but the director does not name any of the First Nations. In doing so, the director wants to further show that First Nations peoples are not as important as Americans because the audience is not even allowed to get to know something so basic about them such as their name. The First Nations are also vilified in the film when the director states they have a “war-dance” therefore constructing the ideology that Aboriginals peoples are a dangerous group. The director further states that the First

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