Throughout United States History, the film industry has misrepresented many Indigenous nations by degrading them with stereotypes. However, there have been films that reshape Indigenous images on film by representing Indigenous epistemologies. Three significant films are The Business of Fancy Dancing, Smoke Signals, and Rabbit Proof Fence. All of these films engage in Native Tradition of storytelling and the understandings of family and community. The film Smoke Signals was written by Sherman Alexie, who is a Native American film maker. Over the years, most films involving Native people were written by non-natives which lead to the misrepresentation of Native Americans in films, they based their Native characters off just stereotypes and
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There are a lot of things that I did not know about Native American culture and lifestyle. I never knew that Indians were sent to boarding schools because the government believed they were savages and that storytelling was a big Native American tradition. Being a minority with an immigrant mother and grandmother, I related to most of the Indian epistemologies. However, it is nowhere near what Native Americans went through and still go through in society today. The Indigenous epistemologies also made me realize how misrepresented Native people and races were in the film industry. In the media they were seen mainly as blood thirsty savages, which made me believe that they were however, now I know the truth and how Native Americans are and always were humans like everyone else. Therefore learning all of this made me not trust everything the media says and puts out …show more content…
Most films that involved Native Americans were mostly all directed by non-native film makers. Native American characters in films were also always played by non-native actors. However, Smoke Signals was directed, produced, written, and acted by all Native American people. This film gave the Native American people hope and joy knowing that their culture and living ways were not being tarnished by people who knew nothing of the Native American ways or background. In This is What it Means to Say Smoke Signals, Amanda J. Cobb states that “Hollywood has threatened Native sovereignty time and time again by creating dehumanizing stereotypical images that turn Natives into things being to be consumed by popular culture… Native Americans are people, not objects.”(pg.207) The film Smoke signals does the opposite of what Hollywood has been doing to Native Americans over the years, it gives Native Americans cultural sovereignty. This film is also significant because it could teach people that Indians are humans like everyone else, unlike how they were being depicted in earlier
There are a lot of things that I did not know about Native American culture and lifestyle. I never knew that Indians were sent to boarding schools because the government believed they were savages and that storytelling was a big Native American tradition. Being a minority with an immigrant mother and grandmother, I related to most of the Indian epistemologies. However, it is nowhere near what Native Americans went through and still go through in society today. The Indigenous epistemologies also made me realize how misrepresented Native people and races were in the film industry. In the media they were seen mainly as blood thirsty savages, which made me believe that they were however, now I know the truth and how Native Americans are and always were humans like everyone else. Therefore learning all of this made me not trust everything the media says and puts out …show more content…
Most films that involved Native Americans were mostly all directed by non-native film makers. Native American characters in films were also always played by non-native actors. However, Smoke Signals was directed, produced, written, and acted by all Native American people. This film gave the Native American people hope and joy knowing that their culture and living ways were not being tarnished by people who knew nothing of the Native American ways or background. In This is What it Means to Say Smoke Signals, Amanda J. Cobb states that “Hollywood has threatened Native sovereignty time and time again by creating dehumanizing stereotypical images that turn Natives into things being to be consumed by popular culture… Native Americans are people, not objects.”(pg.207) The film Smoke signals does the opposite of what Hollywood has been doing to Native Americans over the years, it gives Native Americans cultural sovereignty. This film is also significant because it could teach people that Indians are humans like everyone else, unlike how they were being depicted in earlier