Re: The Portrayal of American Indians in Popular Media

ok-

here it is..

I deleted it because I felt it 'rude' and out of place,
but pan .. you are right. I feel this way with most of my being.
And I see it all the time,
Not in a closed mind either..

When I grew up, I wasnt taught -color- i was taught family, friends, neighbors, strangers..

It wasnt until my mother started dating someone who was " all about black power" that I begun to learn a diffrence in skin color.
Strange.. but pretty true.

Quote:

hmm..

what do I know.. ?
Honestly, nothing.

Being black and cherokee.. i SHOULD have something to add to this thread and Snoods.. but ..
I dont.

There is a part of me that blames it on the media (snood's thread) and then there is a part of me that says " get off yer ass and learn about your culture (dianes thread)

Unfortunatly, if I want to learn about my culture, heritage, back ground.. and what have you..
I have to weed through the numerous drunk indians today and try to find some truth.
Tacky statement indeed.
But a very true one.
What few of us are left have been shoved onto reservations with no running water, no electricity and most of the " stores" in and on the reservations are liquor stores.

The media says they are savages

Have you seen how they live?

You would only second the media's opinion if you knew that most of them on reservations still used outhouses, have no running water to really clean their clothes, and can only use blankets and small fires due to no electricity .

( very few reservations have come up from this standard)

But these reservations are a gift from america for stealing thier land.

the other side of me -

As a black woman, I am not accepted into 'black circles'.
According to the media, all black people listen to rap
hip hop
wear baggy clothes
have 'rims' on thier tires
have loud stereos..
and so on and so on..

People have a hard time telling media fantasy from reality.. espically when they turn off the TV and look out their window at the young black kids walking funny down the street because thier pants wont stay up..

I dont fit that description.
Many black people I have met , have made me the butt of their jokes because " I was too white" .

Learning about black heritage ( going back to the original question some what ) is much easier then learning about the Cherokee nation.
People are begining to sympathize with the black persons plight , and it is more PC to accept it and give them a calander day, make E.O.E employment rules to involve them.
Give them a college fund, just for them, and they should be happy.

>sigh<

I have lost my original train of thought here..
But I think the jest of my point is that it is hard to learn about things that are buried in time, blurred by hollywood, and skewed by society.

But, how long do people have to go on apologizing for wrongs done by people 3 or 4 generations ago?

how long does the government have to keep paying out money to people TODAY for wrongs done by others over 150 years ago?
When are we going to be able to look at each other as just humans, and stop defining ourselves and our race by the plights or pains of our ancestors?
Slavery and racisim have gone on since humans were able to identify themselves as a 'seperate' person.

oh boy.. i got off on a tangent.
sorry

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Thank you for bringing back your not-so-tangent tangent, shewolf.

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Quote:

But I think the jest of my point is that it is hard to learn about things that are buried in time, blurred by hollywood, and skewed by society.

I wanted to elaborate on this point-

It wasnt until a few years ago that it was pointed out and PROVEN that there were MILLIONS of indians here in america when the colonists got here.
Do you see that in the movies? no

when you read about the indians, does it EVER tell you how many thousands on thousands of them would day every day? no.

it is usually referred to in small numbers of " out breaks" and small plagues. Rolling Eyes

The BAD part of this..
here we are almost 200 years after.. and we are just NOW learning this?

history is written by the survivors.
Talk about a one sided story...

Imagine if the dead could speak.
Then we could possibly learn the entire truth of the situation.

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Another point on slavery-

Does anyone know WHO built most of new york?

The irish and german

know why?
They were brought here as worker slaves just like the black people.. only... not in the numbers that blacks were.

They were made to live just like 'slaves'. Given next to nothing in wages and looked down on by society.

****.. wheres THEIR calander day? What about their college fund?

( hoping to touch a nerve there .. )

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I have to wonder why Canadian Indians are in so many American movies. This came to mind when I saw the picture of Graham Greene above. He is from the Six Nations Reserve in Ontario, Canada. The same as Jay Silverheels. Chief Dan George is another that comes to mind that is Canadian.
As a Canadian, I am happy that they are. However, where are the American actors?

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Billy Jack.

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good question, Intrepid. the guy i mentioned and misspelled, Adam Beach, is from Manitoba.

shewolf, i'm glad you reconsidered and undeleted your post. i imagine you're well versed in anglo culture, right? so you have the chance to be tricultural, which seems pretty cool to me. i'm only bicultural myself, but gradually becoming involved in Native American culture, although i'll never become immersed in it because there are traditionalists who maintain that ceremonies should be restricted to those who have some Indian ancestry.

McGentrix, there's lots of interesting stuff at billyjack.com, although you won't agree with it unless your political views have shifted 180 degrees, but i don't think Tom Laughlin is Indian.

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McG,
Actually, I meant Indian actors. Not Indian characters played by white actors.

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Maybe it is because the Canadian Indian looks more white then the american indian?

White is a pretty neutral color in hollywood.

( i say this, not really knowing what a Canadian Indian looks like? )

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The same as an American Indian

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not lighter?

Embarrassed

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The story is a portrayal of a strong indian, yes? I wasn't aware this was only about the media presentation of indians playing indians...

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As in all races, there are varying degrees of pigmentation. Some are darker and some are lighter. Our little guy is white and his half sister is dark. I believe that it would also depend on the area and tribe (for some reason, I do not like that word) or tribes that they decend from.

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McGentrix wrote:

The story is a portrayal of a strong indian, yes? I wasn't aware this was only about the media presentation of indians playing indians...

Sorry if I misunderstood, McG. I thought you were posting in answer to my question/comment about Canadian Indians playing the parts of American Indians. Of course, now I realize that I was talking actors but you were talking characters rather than people who played them.

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Most of the Indians in many of the Clint Eastwood cowboy movies were also portrayed as strong characters. Let's also not forget the importanat roll many Indians played in WW2. Windtalkers was a fine film, well Nicholas Cage wasn't that good, but the movie was.

Robert Redford films have also portrayed a positive image for indians. Black Robe was another film with a good portrayal of Indian life.

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shewolfnm wrote:

not lighter?

Generally no.

Though we seem to have a larger Innu group.

Quote:

The Inuit are descendants of the Thule, who came from Asia and lived in the Arctic for thousands of years.

http://atlas.gc.ca/site/english/maps/peopleandsociety/nunavut/people/culturalareas

http://www.collectionscanada.ca/02/0201200110_e.html

http://www.bloorstreet.com/300block/aborcan.htm

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Okay, y'all are trying to stick to portrayal in the media?

Media-wise it is getting better in my area of the world. It should: we have a large population of Native folks! There is also an Aboriginal Peoples Television Network here now. The building is downtown. I've watched it. It's not bad. Some of the programming is in English and some of it is in the native langs. (how many I am not sure). The idea is that anyone from a white girl in the "Peg to an elder further north will be able to watch.

Also, we have brown musicians in all genres of music. I see people stretching out and working hard towards their own ends and that makes me proud.

The topic of anything Ab. can really get folks fired up around here! I think it is because the conflicts are right in our face and they are part of all our very own lives.

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Shewolf, thank you for reconsidering posting again. What you said is totally relevant to this thread and you are indeed one of the many people who have lived in more than one ethnic world. You reminded me of an article I read about checking off your race on government forms etc. There are many mixed race people now who resent having to pick one race when they may be biracial or have many different ethnic groups in their ancestry. That is troublesome to many who rely on "labels" to receive funding for organizations who help even the field for minorities. Personally, i hate labels but understand the need from my work with the mentally retarded--that 'label' is required for federal assistance.

I agree that at some point, there has to be acceptance and the will to continue without special help; but Germans and Irish are white and that is what makes all the difference. Here is an awful example of when Dys was in child protection services. An eighteen year old boy was dating and having sex with a seventeen year old girl. The girl's mother objected because the boy was Mexican and took him to court for violently raping her daughter. At court, the girl tried to testify that their relationship was consensual, but because she was a minor, her testimony was not accepted, only the mother's. He served three years of a five year sentence as a violent child molester and he was registered as a molester for the rest of his life. Color is a MAJOR cause of bigotry.

Bethie, I kept following some of your links and read one saying that Indians weren't even hired as movie Indians--Italians and Spaniards were used instead. Saving on makeup was the reason they stated.

Oh Piffka, you are an almost endless source of information. I'd really love to attend one of your library film nights. Your choices are intelligent and make viewers think and become aware of those who live so near--or so far away that many of us have never had the opportunity to meet an American Indian.

Panzade, here's hoping that Abramoff gets what he deserves. Want to make a bet that he will be treated better than a person of color or someone who doesn't have obscene amounts of money?

Flushd, thanks for posting. From the links provided by Intrepid and ehbeth, it seems that the Canadian Indians have somewhat better representation than those here in the States, but both groups have suffered from discrimination from the beginning of both countries and they haven't been recognized and the violence against them hasn't been acknowledged until the last century.

I hope Snood doesn't resent my borrowing his thread title. This is the first time there has been this much interest in an American Indian thread since a2k started. I think Dys is a little jealous since he has tried so often to start a thread on the history and abuse of American Indians. It is a subject he has studied and cared deeply about for many years.

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I don't mind at all. I think that the story of the American Indian (some I've heard prefer that to 'Native American') is powerful and tragic and proud, and needs telling a lot more. I think that the kinds of replies these threads are getting are extremely revealing about those posting. Its fascinating that some automatically agree that there is a lot to be desired about the depictions of ethnic minorities, some automatically leap in with the "cup is half full, and we've made great progress" spiel, some seem to try to derail the thread, and some struggle to remain neutral. Not many seem to take it on headfirst. That is, I think its self-evident that entertainment media has done gross injustice in their depictions of persons of color, and though time and much struggle has netted some improvement, there is still a long way to go. I'll see progress when a major studio thinks it okay to make a native american the star, and not the sidekick of the heroic white-guy (Cage in Windtalkers, Costner in Dances, John Wayne, Clint Eeastwood, Roy Rogers, etc.)

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The sad part of the media is that , the only people who are able to do the job, have the experience desired to fill the ' movie roles', and are up for the challange are white people.

I would guess.. and this IS just a guess.. that out of all of the available, employable actors/resses , that probally 60-70% are white.
Another 10% for your spanish / mexican / Italian.. and THEN.. your blacks.

White seems to be the neutral color, when it comes to filling ethnic roles.

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Re: The Portrayal of American Indians in Popular Media

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