The movie Broken Arrow (1950) builds strongly upon the stereotyping Indians of being noble savages. The scenes in which Tom Jeffords makes contact with the group of Apache Indians in Broken Arrow manipulates the viewer's perspective of the Apache, enforcing a noble savage stereotype to the Apache tribe. These scenes at the start of the movie can easily change the attitude of the viewers. Jefford’s first encounter with the Apache group has a greater presence on how savage and wild the Apache can be, where as there is a greater emphasis on nobility with Cochise’s character.
When Jefford first encounters the group of Apaches they fire arrows at both him and the young Apache boy from outside of the the camera shot and remain hidden creating tension in the scene. As the scene continues, the Apache decide to let Jefford go even though they have complete power over Jefford as shown as when they slowly close in on him, the camera changes to a low angle past the ridge, and Jefford has nowhere to go as he is at the edge of a ridge that viewer can’t see the bottom. Having the first contact with adults from the tribe be one of hostility as well as keeping them hidden until Jefford surrenders then having them let
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The Apache laughing at Jefford’s statement is quick event but greatly adds the their wildness as they do not value gold similarly as the rest of the word does. The background for this exchange also fits the wildness of the Apache well because it is mostly green and brightly lit along with the many birds that are heard around them. The whole conversation greatly builds into the noble savage
The Apache Indians of North America prospered for years throughout Kansas, New Mexico, and Arizona. They were a religious society who believed in a “giver of life';. As any complex society today, The Apache had many inter-tribal differences, although the tribe as a whole was able to see through these conflicts. Women and the extended family played an important role in the society and also in the lives of young children. Groups of different extended families, called bands, often lived together and functioned democratically. The Apache also evolved as the coming of the white man changed their lives. These Indians became adept at using horses and guns, both introduced to them by the coming settlers. As with most Indian tribes in North America the lives of the Apache were destroyed as their life-blood, the buffalo were slaughtered by the whites. The Apache were forced into surrender after years of struggle. One leader, Geronimo, was especially hard for the whites to capture. After years of evading white soldiers Geronimo was taken to Florida and treated as a prisoner of war. Government sponsored assimilation saw English forced upon the Apache robbing them of their culture. In 1934 The Indian Recognition Act helped establish the Indian culture as a recognized way of life. This act gave the Apache land, which the Apache in turn used for ranching. The destruction of the Apache culture was not recoverable and saw the Apache lose much of their language.
Not all of the apache are satisphied with this new life and yearned for the old ways. When the residence perform a ritualistic dance to summon a great warrior the "dreamer" or medicine man is shot.in turn the apache troop shot said general and so begun the
Language, when used correctly, can be an immensely powerful weapon. Roman’s knowledge of sophisticated language is one of his strongest attributes, as he makes it immediately known that “he wanted to be the first one to use a word actually found in Webster’s Dictionary, Ninth Edition” after Mr. Williams mutters “’Hmmm’ as if the guttural were an important part of his vocabulary.” Roman is proud of the irony that, although both of his parents are deceased and his grandmother does not speak English, the Indian appears to be more sophisticated than the white man. Roman further uses his strong language to express his awareness of the victimization of his ethnicity. For example, when Mr. Williams “compliments” Roman on his near-perfect score on the math section of the CAT by saying that it is “the second-highest score ever for a Native American,” Roman responds with “Normally, I’d say thank you, sir, but I don’t think that was a sincere compliment was it?...
Sometimes in life we are quick to judge a book by its cover, but once we begin to read, we sometimes often discover that the book we once judged, was something special after all. This is exactly what was demonstrated in The Blind Side. Many people saw Michael and was so bothered by his appearance that they did not bother to figure out who he truly was. It wasn’t until they were forced to deal with him, that people saw him for who he really was. Michael was not just some bad kid from the hood, he was a child with a lost spirit that came from a broken home and a bad situation that needed someone to guide him and show him the true meaning of love. As Christians we are taught to love our neighbors, but stereotyping often gets in the way of that. Stereotyping can compel negative results on a person’s character, but in this case, it opens ones heart to mother someone who needs mothering.
“I could not call back my loved ones, I could not bring back the dead Apaches, but I could rejoice in this revenge.” (Geronimo) This quote by Geronimo perfectly sums up his feelings and actions. Revenge was, without doubt, a prime factor in the fight for the Apache people. The quote means that Geronimo could do nothing to bring back his family and fellow Apaches. The only thing he was able to do was fight.
...how the American Indian joker views themselves in comparison to the Whiteman (Basso pg. 4). The Whiteman created in their jokes is not an actual person, but a negative reflection of the American Indian participating in the joke. These funny and dangerous jokes are actually cultural statements.
As a result, both films represent Natives Americans under the point of view of non-Native directors. Despite the fact that they made use of the fabricated stereotypes in their illustrations of the indigenous people, their portrayal was revolutionary in its own times. Each of the films add in their own way a new approach to the representation of indigenous people, their stories unfold partly unlike. These differences make one look at the indigenous not only as one dimensional beings but as multifaceted beings, as Dunbar say, “they are just like us.” This is finally a sense of fairness and respect by the non-native populations to the Native Indians.
In his novel, Thomas King plays on stereotypes and expectations that occur in our society on the portrayal of Native Americans. He show us the bias image that we have of them by describing what is an indian from a colonizers point of view, how the genre of western movies has an effect on our perception in society. In the novel, Nasty Bumppo, who represents modern society, explains that :
The film “A League of Their Own,” depicts a fictionalized tale of the All American Girls Professional Baseball League. This league was started during World War II when many of the Major Leagues Biggest stars were drafted to the war. MLB owners decided to start this league with hopes of making money while the men were overseas fighting. Traditional stereotypes of women in sports were already in force before the league even begins. One of the scouts letts Dottie, one of the films main characters she is the perfect combination of looks as well as talent. The scout even rejects one potential player because she is not as pretty as the league is looking for even though she is a great baseball player. The player, Marla’s father said if she was a boy she would be playing for the Yankee’s. Eventually Mara’s father is able to convince the scout to take Marla to try outs because he raised her on his own after her mother died. Her father says it is his fault his daughter is a tomboy. In this case the film reinforces the traditional stereotype that mothers are in charge of raising their daughters and teaching them to be a lady, where fathers are incapable of raising girls to be anything other than a tomboy. The focus on beauty also reinforces the traditional stereotype that men will only be interested in women’s sports when the females participating in
(4) Conventional is easy. Whenever an idea is generally perceived by society as standard or traditional it becomes very easy to display to the public without the raise of an eyebrow. This is the basis on which stereotypes appear in films. You’d think in the 21st century where what once were radical notions like same sex marriage and recreational drug use are being legalized that something uncalled for like the constant portrayal of character stereotyping would come to an end. Alas, stereotypical characters continue to emerge in film and unfortunately have become a staple of Hollywood because they’re simple and straightforward, requiring little effort on the part of the writers or thinking from the audience.
In Drew Hayden Taylor’s essays, he creates and manipulates various tones that each appeal to a different reader, which allows for his writings to be accepted and related to by various people. Through his use of shifting tones in “What’s an Indian worth These Days” and “Why did the Indian Block the Road”, from humorous to informative to sarcasm, Drew Hayden Taylor challenges stereotypes about First Nations people.
“The sitcom is a jumble of mixed metaphors: the repetition compulsion of eternal sameness conjoined to a desire to overturn the established order; a profound aesthetic conservatism bundled with an ingrained desire to shock. Every sitcom possess not just a routine that it perpetually seeks to overturn but also a particular style of fomenting that chaos.”
The movie starts by showing the Indians as “bad” when Johnson finds a note of another mountain man who has “savagely” been killed by the Indians. This view changes as the movie points out tribes instead of Indians as just one group. Some of the tribes are shown dangerous and not to be messed with while others are friendly, still each tribe treats Johnson as “outsider.” Indians are not portrayed as greater than “...
A reader of Sherman Alexie’s novel Reservation Blues enters the text with similar assumptions of Native American life, unless of course, he or she is of that particular community. If he or she is not, however, there is the likelihood that the ‘typical’ reader has images of Native Americans based upon long-held social stereotypes of the Lone Ranger’s Tonto and Kevin Costner’s “Dances With Wolves,” possibly chastened with some positive, homey images of the First Thanksgiving as well. However, Alexie’s prose forces one to apprehend Native American life anew, and to see Native Americans as fully-fledged individual characters, with wants and needs and desires, not as those who are simply stoic and ‘other.’
It can be compared to a simple interaction between a child and her parents. The Apache being the kid and the United States government being the parents. The child is tries to understand what the parent wants and wants a happy peaceful relationship. In this analogy, the parent turns evil and takes over the child’s room, starves them and makes them relocate to a closet. This is a shocking analogy but yet still works.