Native American Women Of Hollywood Movies - Essay Example

Native American Women Of Order No. 165323 Hollywood movies INTRODUCTION From the time movie was invented till now,about 2000 movies have been made on the Native Americans or "Indians" as they are commonly known. Hollywood while making movies on Native American women is influenced to a great extent by the images of savagery of the European colonisation. Because of the sheer volume of films made the portrayal of Native Americans has become stereotyped. Now for over hundred years Hollywood movies have formed a stereotype of the Native. Some images like the drunk of Tom Sawyer; the wise elder man of Little Big Man, the Indian Princess of Pocahontas, etc. will remain in the memory of the public for a long time to come. The women were usually portrayed as savages who have to be tamed and conquered. Native American Women were shown as helpless women, almost a burden on society or as a property a man owned. They were used as sex objects. A woman always needed support. They were shown as minor characters and had small roles. It was the hero who was the main character as these movies were action movies. "...Westerns encapsulate a mythic moment in American History when manhood, modernity, and progress, as represented by the white male frontiersman unite with the vanishing purity and savagery of Americas past as represented by the Native woman..."( Marubbio M,(2006),Killing the Indian Maiden pg 71) The stereotype American Native woman portrayed was of no consequence to the movie and the character was not true to the real Native woman. The European society gave very little importance to the Native women and considered them as only child bearers. They saw them with prejudiced eyes and did not see the place they occupied in Native American culture. The purpose of this paper is to explain how untrue those images were, and to try and represent the true nature of the Native American woman. Portrayal of Native American Women Most of the time one finds women being depicted as inferior or even sometimes as sex objects. Such stereotypes are all the more evident when Native American women are being depicted in movies. They were portrayed as scantily clad uncivilised women unable to adjust to the world of the white. This concept totally disregards the true culture of the Native American women. It is likely that the women were portrayed in this manner to make the film interesting and commercially successful. People who are not aware of the true culture may be influenced by these portrayals and this misrepresentation of the nature of the Native women may remain in the consciousness of the viewer. The Native American Women have always been portrayed as primitives or have been romanticised or some myth is woven around them. Either they are cast in the stereotyped image of a subservient, meek, wild and lustful squaw or that of a Princess who is a protector, guide, rescuer and lover of the white man. She is ready to change her religion, defy her people and if need be even die for the white man who she loves. But is there any truth in these assumptions? If you read the autobiography of some Native American women you will know that is far from truth. Lucille Winnie in her autobiography (Sah-Gan-De-Oh: The Chiefs Daughter) says, "It is my hope that those of you who read this will better understand us. We are not refugees from another world, feathered and warlike as the TV and movies depict us, but a proud race who love our heritage and are striving to keep alive our own culture" (quoted in Bataille and Sands, 1984: 23). Autobiographies like this prove that Native American women are not like how they are presented in movies. Movies of the Seventies In the beginning of the century the theme of the Westerns was always a struggle for land. The women always were savage and needed the support of men. In the 1970s the themes of the films were not based on fights over land. It was more of a struggle between men who belonged to different nationalities. Men fought for power over other men. In these movies too men dominated women but not to such an extent as depicted in the earlier movies. The men in these movies are sketched quite honourably and the women too show some character and are not savages. The men too treat their woman with some understanding. For instance in Little Big Man whites are portrayed in shades of grey and as being dishonest whereas the Cheyenne come forth as honourable men and women. Their characters are developed fully. The women are also portrayed more honourably. Here we see Sunshine giving birth bravely during the Sand Creek Massacre. The hero marries her after this. Sunshine displays warmth and she is given some poignant moments when she asks Crabb to take care of her sisters. "Little Big Man presents Sunshine as a hippie-like child/woman of nature enmeshed in the landscape around her..."( Marubbio M,(2006) Killing the Indian Maiden, pg 180). She is also the central figure in most critical scene of the movie when she is killed. Here the white woman Ms Pendrake is shown as being greedy and deceitful. The other character Caroline is an individualistic, self-respecting woman. In another movie Jeremiah Johnson (1972) too the Native Americans are sketched quite honourably. The men do not conquer or tame their women. There are some tender moments between Swan (the Chiefs daughter he is forced to marry) and Johnson the hero and their relationship builds up slowly. But in A Man Called Horse, we have again a stereotyped Native American Woman, whose name is Running Deer. She is portrayed as a typical faithful native woman. She is nothing else but a romantic person, who does not speak English and is the love interest of this man called Horse. Then there is the old woman Buffalo Cow Head, again a character with a stereotype name and character who makes Horse her slave and torments and degrades him. In all these movies we see a fascinating, at times disturbing, picture of the Native American women. M. Elise Marubbio in her book Killing the Indian Maiden has brought out this aspect beautifully by discussing thirty-four films of this genre. She terms the stereotyped Native woman as the "Celluloid Maiden" who plays a sacrificial role by falling in love with a white man and finally dying for him. Marubbio feels that this kind of depiction is a result of American Expansionism and the belief that the Native American woman is a threat to the white. It is because of this psyche and fear and the desire to dominate that the Native American women are sexualised. In conclusion one can say that the promiscuous image of the Native American women came about because these women were objects of desire for the white men. The colour of their skin, their physique attracted men. This is what Amerigo Vespucci (1505)had to say about the first natives he encountered in the New World": First then as to the people. We found in those parts such a multitude of people as nobody could enumerate . . . All of both sexes go about naked, covering no part of their bodies. . . They have no cloth either of wool, linen or cotton, since they need it not; neither do they have goods of their own, but all things are held in common. They live together without king, without government, and each is his own master. . .They dissolve their marriages as often as they please, and observe no sort of law with respect to them. Beyond the fact that they have no church, no religion and are not idolaters, what more can I say? (1505). This was the perception of many of the whites. From this grew the image of the Native woman as being promiscuous. "...actions, sensual and shy at one moment and overtly sexual at another, creates an image that elevates her from a woman to a object of desire..."( M. Elise Marubbio (2006) Killing the Indian Maiden pg100) But history has proved that in reality Native American women are anything but this. The have always been faithful to their husbands, and are devoted to their families. As Meldan T. says in Squaws and Princesses or Corn Maidens: Misconceptions and Truths about Native American Women " Their autobiographies are proof of the individuality of Indian women, yet they do share certain characteristics that stand out as central to the identity of Indian women. They do not bear the attributes of the Squaws or the Princesses. They are neither subservient, nor lustful. They are devoted to their families and faithful to their husbands, they work for the well-being of their families and tribes. Unlike the Princess, they are not comforters and protectors of the white man, but of their own people. Like the Corn Maiden in Indian mythology, they are life-givers and the sustainers of life." References 1. Marubbio M,(2006) Killing the Indian Maiden, University Press of Kentucky (December 2006) 2. Meldan T. Squaws and Princesses or Corn Maidens: Misconceptions and Truths retrieved on 21st April from http://members.tripod.com/~warlight/MELDAN.html 3. Vespucci M(1505) Retrieved on 21st April from www.georgetown.edu/bassr/borders/chap1.html 4. Winnie Lucille Sah-Gan-De-Oh: The Chiefs Daughter ,quoted in Bataille and Sands, 1984: 23 Read More