Thunderheart: A Tale of Native American Struggles

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In 1775 North America was mostly owned and settled by Native Americans. Native Americans were the first settlers on North America, but slowly, when the Americans no longer needed the help of the Native Americans, they started to view them as savages and outsiders. They then began to weed out the traditionalists and have them assimilate to the American culture. “Thunderheart” is a incredible heartfelt film based on cultural identity, the mistreatment of indians over years of U.S. history, and factual events that took place in the 1970’s on the Oglala Sioux Reservation. The film is a loosely based fictional portrayal of events relating to the Wounded Knee incident in 1973. Followers of the American Indian Movement seized the South Dakota town of Wounded Knee in protest against federal government policy regarding Native Americans. As well as the turmoil within their own people on the American Indian …show more content…

Ray is sent to the badlands by the Federal Bureau of Investigation to help smooth over the confrontation between the government and the native americans. By being “himself” and assisting in solving a murder that took place on the reservation. However, Ray has no idea who he is and to make matters worse what he thinks is just another case turns out to be a complex chain of corruption starting and ending with the FBI which, he thought were “the good guys” due to the power struggles within the Sioux reservation. In “Thunderheart”, Ray Levoi goes through a series of changes while on the reservation all in regards to his identity. Ray is stripped of his former social identity of being a F.B.I. Agent, which is then replaced with his cultural identity of being part Sioux Indian. During the course of the film Ray Levoi’s life transitions take place if stages displayed by objects that serve as cultural misunderstandings. These objects include his sunglasses, necktie, and his

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