Native Americans Within Mid-Twentieth Century American Film and Consumerism
by Molly Pierson
Native Americans achieved a great deal of exposure through the early twentieth century as a portion of the popular Western myth. Playing upon the archetypes of the good and the bad, as well as the lone hero’s quest for either retribution or the expansion of civilization, the Western genre until the 1970’s represented a fundamental aspect of American culture. The portrayal of Native Americans remained consistent and was a part of almost every Western film, to some extent. Whether they were the antithesis of John Wayne in 1956’s The Searchers, or presented more sympathetically in John Ford’s 1948 Fort Apache, Native Americans became ingrained in the public psyche as a an active participant of the Wild West. This made their image, not their actuality more marketable. Becoming a prominent theme in advertising, the Native American way of life, or at least a romanticized past version, became profitable. In the early 1960’s the Alabama-Coushatta would utilize these shifting public views on the Indian ideal and appeal for a multimillion dollar increase in funds in order to expand their tourism industry. Alabama-Coushatta tourism expansion can, in part, be attributed to the growing presence of Native Americans in mid twentieth century media, regardless of the negative stereotypes that media may have portrayed
Native Americans in Film
Perhaps the strongest indicator of the representation of Native Americans in mid twentieth century consumerism is the film industry. As early as 1894 Native Americans have been represented as objects of entertainment on film. Thomas Edisons Sioux Ghost Dance, a short film lasting less than a minute, showed a troupe of Natives in full tribal regalia performing a circle dance called “the Ghost Dance."[1] Filmed at Black Maria Studios, the natives were not even performing an accurate version of the Ghost Dance. Profiting off of the growing interest in native mysticism, along with the easily identifiable circle formation of various other tribal dances, Edison unknowingly established a precedent for formulating a calculated vision of what should be Native American rather than truth that would be mirrored for the next century in film.[2]
The first years of the twentieth century are marked by white actors playing the role of Native Americans. Characterized by an “audience fascination with Indian subjects in early cinema was animated by a desire to become and behave like something else,"[3] early Indian based silent films became a profitable market with 1908’s The Call of the Wild. Fairly rudimentary in nature and plot line, these early Native characters would contribute to preconceived stereotypes of Natives that had been established in nineteenth century literature.
As the film industry developed, as did the role of Native Americans within the Western film genre. Hitting a stride by the late 1930’s and early 1940’s, the Hollywood Westerns of the time “relied almost entirely on the figure of the bloodthirsty warrior whose hostile actions threatened and impeded the great westward expansion."[4] Natives were almost never portrayed in a positive light, save for John Ford’s Fort Apache in 1948. A staunch believer in keeping Indians and Whites separate, John Ford’s Fort Apache only portrays the Natives positively when compared to the bloodthirsty nature of the military.[5] As the cinema became more accessible and more popular among youth and suburban culture the bloodthirsty stereotype became ingrained into the public psyche as fact.
The 1950’s are considered to be the beginning of the next phase of Western film. The expanding film industry allowed for more movies to be made, and as a result more B-Western films were produced during this time frame than any before.[6] Accompanying the increased number of Westerns was an undeniable shift in variation. Native Americans benefited from this shift, as for the first time it was portrayed on film of the white man’s greed towards Indians. In 1952’s The Half-Breed director Sam Gilmore portrayed white traders who tricked and swindled Native Americans into giving them resources.[7] An era that marked the beginning of Clint Eastwood, and the height of John Wayne, the Western and it’s stereotypical portrayal of Native Americans reached a kitschy high.
In light of the civil rights movement and the subsequent social shifts that would accompany it, the 1960’s brought even more sympathetic views on Native Americans. However, stereotypes were still reinforced[8]. John Ford’s 1964 Cheyenne Autumn displayed the heroism of the Cheyenne.[9] Still profiting off the native image, it became clearly evident that the Indian Ideal was both marketable and profitable.[10] Throughout the 1960’s Native Americans would maintain a foothold in the cinema, though the popularity of the movies decreased as revisionist histories for WW2 became more popular. At this point in time the Native American image had become an accepted false fact. Founded in stereotypical barbarity, the native, alternative lifestyle became a facet of the Western kitsch revival of the mid-twentieth century.
As the twentieth century progressed, the film industry changed. The Space Race would spawn countless science fiction, as space was deemed the final frontier. Classic westerns and their Native American co stars fell from relevance until a revisionist revival in the early 1990’s. However, in the forty years that Westerns with Native American stereotypes remained popular they ingrained false notions of Native culture into the public psyche.[11] The Alabama-Coushatta, among several other tribes, would utilize this resurgence in interest, however stereotypical it may have been, and develop tourism industries. Fairly successful through the seventies, shifting interest in the media would allow for those to become irrelevant, much as the Western has become in modern film.
The first years of the twentieth century are marked by white actors playing the role of Native Americans. Characterized by an “audience fascination with Indian subjects in early cinema was animated by a desire to become and behave like something else,"[3] early Indian based silent films became a profitable market with 1908’s The Call of the Wild. Fairly rudimentary in nature and plot line, these early Native characters would contribute to preconceived stereotypes of Natives that had been established in nineteenth century literature.
As the film industry developed, as did the role of Native Americans within the Western film genre. Hitting a stride by the late 1930’s and early 1940’s, the Hollywood Westerns of the time “relied almost entirely on the figure of the bloodthirsty warrior whose hostile actions threatened and impeded the great westward expansion."[4] Natives were almost never portrayed in a positive light, save for John Ford’s Fort Apache in 1948. A staunch believer in keeping Indians and Whites separate, John Ford’s Fort Apache only portrays the Natives positively when compared to the bloodthirsty nature of the military.[5] As the cinema became more accessible and more popular among youth and suburban culture the bloodthirsty stereotype became ingrained into the public psyche as fact.
The 1950’s are considered to be the beginning of the next phase of Western film. The expanding film industry allowed for more movies to be made, and as a result more B-Western films were produced during this time frame than any before.[6] Accompanying the increased number of Westerns was an undeniable shift in variation. Native Americans benefited from this shift, as for the first time it was portrayed on film of the white man’s greed towards Indians. In 1952’s The Half-Breed director Sam Gilmore portrayed white traders who tricked and swindled Native Americans into giving them resources.[7] An era that marked the beginning of Clint Eastwood, and the height of John Wayne, the Western and it’s stereotypical portrayal of Native Americans reached a kitschy high.
In light of the civil rights movement and the subsequent social shifts that would accompany it, the 1960’s brought even more sympathetic views on Native Americans. However, stereotypes were still reinforced[8]. John Ford’s 1964 Cheyenne Autumn displayed the heroism of the Cheyenne.[9] Still profiting off the native image, it became clearly evident that the Indian Ideal was both marketable and profitable.[10] Throughout the 1960’s Native Americans would maintain a foothold in the cinema, though the popularity of the movies decreased as revisionist histories for WW2 became more popular. At this point in time the Native American image had become an accepted false fact. Founded in stereotypical barbarity, the native, alternative lifestyle became a facet of the Western kitsch revival of the mid-twentieth century.
As the twentieth century progressed, the film industry changed. The Space Race would spawn countless science fiction, as space was deemed the final frontier. Classic westerns and their Native American co stars fell from relevance until a revisionist revival in the early 1990’s. However, in the forty years that Westerns with Native American stereotypes remained popular they ingrained false notions of Native culture into the public psyche.[11] The Alabama-Coushatta, among several other tribes, would utilize this resurgence in interest, however stereotypical it may have been, and develop tourism industries. Fairly successful through the seventies, shifting interest in the media would allow for those to become irrelevant, much as the Western has become in modern film.
Native Americans in Advertisement A popular advertisement
tool of the twentieth century, the image of Native Americans would come to be
synonymous with products that were striving to be identified as natural and
holistic.[12] Objectifying Native
Americans and presenting them within a capitalist American consumer context,
advertisers would profit off of pre-conceived notions of Native Americans.
All three images of the
Native American can be witnessed in mid-twentieth century advertisement. The
Brutal Savage dominated the iconic Native American representation in sports.
“Reinforcing the teams as a bloodthirsty group of warriors,”[13] sports teams such as the
Atlanta Braves and the Washington Redskins appealed to the accepted, underlying
conception of Natives as inherently savage. The Enlightened Savage would appear
in both medical and educational advertisements throughout the 50’s and 60’s.
Advertised as “an individual saved by the supposed superior knowledge and ways
of a dominant culture,”[14] this image would become
associated with such businesses as Hartwick College and Luden’s Cough Drops.
The Noble Savage, however, would remain the strongest element of Native
American’s in popular advertisement. Gaining popularity throughout the ecology
movement of the late 60’s and early 70’s, the Noble Savage was intended to
harken audience’s back to a time of ecological pristineness[15]. Less degrading, but
nonetheless objectifying, this image still remains in popular advertisements to
the modern day.
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Native American Tropes
Utilizing Native
Americans in American advertising allowed for popular tropes and stereotypes to
become ingrained within the public psyche. Allowing an additional medium for
potentially negative Native American imagery to be portrayed, the advertising
media of the mid twentieth century perpetuated stereotypical characterization
of Indian culture.Used as a unifying theme through over seventy years of Western film history, the various tropes of Native Americans have come to define their perception among the public sphere. There has typically been three common Native American characters that can be perceived in nineteenth and twentieth century film, literature, and advertising. The Noble Savage, appears to be the most popular ideological representation of Native Americans. Kickstarted by the writings of eighteenth century European Romantics, this would portray Native Americans as “living in an unspoiled wilderness, spiritually pure, and uncorrupted by civilization and at one with nature.”[16] This representation would be best portrayed in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s 1855 poem The Song of Hiawatha. Portrayed more frequently through literature than film, which would predominantly rely on the savagery and terror procured by Indians, this established a very specific view of native culture.
This was followed by the brutal savage, which relied upon Natives as bloodthirsty and inherently savage. Presenting direct opposition to both the protagonist and ultimately the Puritan based American society, this was the image most advertised by film. The hostile actions of the Brutal Savage threatened the westward expansion, and progression of civilization, of American society. John Ford’s 1939 film Stagecoach “reduces Indians to civilization's obstacles and settler’s nightmares.”[17] Perhaps perpetuating the most destructive, and degrading, of stereotypes, the Brutal Savage came to define Native American tropes from the 20’s to the mid 50’s.
The Enlightened Savage is not as well known, nor portrayed as frequently. The savage who becomes learned in the ways of the white man, and adopts said ways is most clearly channeled through the portrayal of half breeds. Half Indian, half white these characters came to represent a chance of assimilation for the Savage. Elvis Presley's role as a half breed in Flaming Star in 1960 would channel this trope best.[18]
Harmless on a surface level, these tropes came to define the public’s interpretation of Native American culture throughout the twentieth century. This allowed for the image of the Native American to become profitable in various forms of media. Many Native Americans, including the Alabama-Coushatta, would witness this increased rise in cultural prominence and jump to utilize it in order to ensure self sufficiency.
This was followed by the brutal savage, which relied upon Natives as bloodthirsty and inherently savage. Presenting direct opposition to both the protagonist and ultimately the Puritan based American society, this was the image most advertised by film. The hostile actions of the Brutal Savage threatened the westward expansion, and progression of civilization, of American society. John Ford’s 1939 film Stagecoach “reduces Indians to civilization's obstacles and settler’s nightmares.”[17] Perhaps perpetuating the most destructive, and degrading, of stereotypes, the Brutal Savage came to define Native American tropes from the 20’s to the mid 50’s.
The Enlightened Savage is not as well known, nor portrayed as frequently. The savage who becomes learned in the ways of the white man, and adopts said ways is most clearly channeled through the portrayal of half breeds. Half Indian, half white these characters came to represent a chance of assimilation for the Savage. Elvis Presley's role as a half breed in Flaming Star in 1960 would channel this trope best.[18]
Harmless on a surface level, these tropes came to define the public’s interpretation of Native American culture throughout the twentieth century. This allowed for the image of the Native American to become profitable in various forms of media. Many Native Americans, including the Alabama-Coushatta, would witness this increased rise in cultural prominence and jump to utilize it in order to ensure self sufficiency.
Alabama-Coushatta Tourism The Alabama-Coushatta, like several other Indian tribes throughout the latter half of the twentieth century come to play off of the stereotypes that they so adamantly disputed. Desperately requiring new profitable ways in order to ensure self sufficiency,the Alabama- Coushatta developed a blooming tourism industry in the early 1960’s. Witnessing a marked increase in profit, in 1973 the tribe would appeal for a multimillion dollar increase in federal funding in order to vastly expand their tourism opportunities. Believing that they would attract millions of tourists to the state, the Alabama-Coushatta offered the “real Indian experience” to the public.[19] A craft and artifact museum, a train ride through Indian country, and a theatrical production were their main selling points. Presumably fueled by the tropes of Native Americans that had been portrayed in film for over 20 years, the Alabama-Coushatta offered a romanticized, sympathetic history of their involvement in the Texas Revolution. While not inherently degrading in nature, the Alabama-Coushatta nonetheless utilized preconceived notions of Native Americans as objects of entertainment fueled by the media in order to turn a profit. Presented with limited opportunities to fund self sufficiency
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Endnotes
[1] Alison Griffiths, "PLAYING AT BEING INDIAN: SPECTATORSHIP AND THE EARLY WESTERN." Journal Of Popular Film & Television 29, no. 3 (Fall, 2001), 100, 102.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Peter Rollins, Hollywood's Indian : The Portrayal of the Native American in Film (Lexington : The University Press of Kentucky, 2011), 124.
[5] Frank S. Nugent, Fort Apache, directed by John Ford (1948).
[6] Rollins,124.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Ibid., 126.
[9] Mari Sandoz, Cheyenne Autumn, directed by John Ford (1964).
[10] Angela Aleiss, "A RACE DIVIDED: THE INDIAN WESTERNS OF JOHN FORD," American Indian Culture & Research Journal 18, no. 3 (Oct., 1994), 173.
[11] Pat Dowell, "The mythology of the Western." Cineaste 21, no. 1/2 (Feb., 1995), 5.
[12] Michael K. Green, "Images of Native Americans in Advertising: Some Moral Issues," Journal Of Business Ethics 12, no. 4 (Apr., 1993).
[13] Ibid., 324.
[14] Ibid., 323.
[15] Ibid.
[16] Rollins, 122.
[17] Aleiss, 169.
[18] Clair Huffaker, Flaming Star. Directed by Don Siegel (1958).
[19] Kermit Hunter, "Beyond the Sundown: A Drama of the Alabama-Coushatta," (Livingston, TX: Alabama-Coushatta Tribes of Texas, 1977), 2.
Title Image: Cheyenne Autumn film still from dvdbeaver.com
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Peter Rollins, Hollywood's Indian : The Portrayal of the Native American in Film (Lexington : The University Press of Kentucky, 2011), 124.
[5] Frank S. Nugent, Fort Apache, directed by John Ford (1948).
[6] Rollins,124.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Ibid., 126.
[9] Mari Sandoz, Cheyenne Autumn, directed by John Ford (1964).
[10] Angela Aleiss, "A RACE DIVIDED: THE INDIAN WESTERNS OF JOHN FORD," American Indian Culture & Research Journal 18, no. 3 (Oct., 1994), 173.
[11] Pat Dowell, "The mythology of the Western." Cineaste 21, no. 1/2 (Feb., 1995), 5.
[12] Michael K. Green, "Images of Native Americans in Advertising: Some Moral Issues," Journal Of Business Ethics 12, no. 4 (Apr., 1993).
[13] Ibid., 324.
[14] Ibid., 323.
[15] Ibid.
[16] Rollins, 122.
[17] Aleiss, 169.
[18] Clair Huffaker, Flaming Star. Directed by Don Siegel (1958).
[19] Kermit Hunter, "Beyond the Sundown: A Drama of the Alabama-Coushatta," (Livingston, TX: Alabama-Coushatta Tribes of Texas, 1977), 2.
Title Image: Cheyenne Autumn film still from dvdbeaver.com