According to the Native American historian Ward Churchill, who analyzed Native Americans in film around the 1930s, there were three typical patterns in which Native Americans were depicted in the era preceding WWII. Churchill contended that the three themes consistently implied that Native Americans are primitive beings, that they lack significant history, and that all Native Americans were the same. Although these stereotypes were common for Native Americans in the 1930s, these patterns were not in the movie Broken Arrow (1950). This film is considered the starting point of a new era in the film industry where Hollywood sought to be more considerate of the social implications on the portrayal of Native American culture.
The status quo
The status quo