v.s 
Film has always been a reflection of society at the time, it mirrors and guides the beliefs, values, and views of the audience, documenting the history of humanity as it evolves. When done inaccurately, it is powerful enough to blindly stereotype and depict false images of people and cultures as a whole. Something Native Americans are far too familiar with: their authenticity overshadowed and defined by the "white hollywood" cinema culture. A culture of native fetish emerged when Buffalo Chance Long Lance became the ultimate Indian warrior in the public eye for the film The Silent Enemy, it was a drastic change of representation of the the native people in the film industry, they were played by actual natives and seen for more than just savages. What the public didn't know, was that Buffalo Child Long Lance came from a tri-racial background: Indian, Black, and White. Melinda Micco said, "He would show up, his hair slicked back, dark skin, in this beautiful tuxedo; and everybody's looking for the Indian to appear." (Reel Injun) People were so obsessed with the Indian image that they couldn't see Long Lance for the person he really is, they could not see him beyond the character of a mystic warrior dressed in animal skin saving his people; once he showed up in a suit instead of native clothing, it broke people's fantasy of the iconic Indian hero. They couldn't comprehend that he was a normal human being, just like the rest of them. Native culture is different, it was mythical, and this unfamiliarity is what fuels the fantasies about native people; who they are v.s. who they suppose to be. Jesse Wente described, "I was lucky enough to grow up in a time where native people were the cool thing to be, and I would remember going to parties where white people would come to me and wanna touch my hair and describe themselves getting and Indian name from an elder at some ceremony somewhere."(Reel Injun) The native fetish extends from just movies to every aspect of native life, what they wear, what they look like, and their culture. Which sounds like a good thing, except rather than being educated about the culture the White population so "interested" in, they simply only mimic what is presented on the surface by films without any deeper understanding or connection. Thereby taking away from the authenticity of the culture itself, discrediting it's social and historic significance and treating as as some sort of hobby or trend. In some places, this trend has become a favorite pass time for children: "native" summer camps to teach boys to get in touch with nature and educate them about the native culture. One of the camp leader summarized his knowledge of the native culture as, "Through these movies I think I pretty much got the whole mentality of the native."(Reel Injun) This is incridubily disrespectful and ironic in that that is the mentailty of the greater population of believing what the films portray is what the reality is, that a whole culture can
be understood and connect through a couple of movies. The whole idea of the camp is intended to educate and honor the native culture with the young generation, but because of the lack of real understanding of the culture, it's only teaching a false stereotypes and ignorance. It really isn't a native camp at all, just a group of ignorant people using native culture to justify their acts of savagery and violence. The problem with the native fetish is that although it often begins with good intentions of outsiders getting to know a different culture, it always results in the ignorance that people think they understand it based off of one perspective and they believe that that's all there is to that culture.
Since the beginning of films, native people have been portrayed through many different lenses, whether it's the savage Indian, the groovy Indian, the mean Indian, or the cool Indian. They all had one thing in common, they were all told in the idea of portray the Indian, overlooking the realness of these people. In the film
Flags of Our Fathers, actor Adam Beach played a young solider turning to alcohol to face his fears of leaving his family behind to go to war, his character finally puts a face on the stereotype of a drunken Indian. Adam Beach himself described his character as, "shredding human emotion, no stereotypes, no Indians, just a young boy that wants to see his mom."(
Reel Injun) This film finally shined light to address issues that exist in every group of people rather than just Indians. It recognizes the humanity life, that everyone is human with raw human emotions, and that the young boy drank because that's how people deal with the pain of being separated from his family in order to fight for his country, not because he was Indian. In 2001, a film called
Atarjuat, otherwise known as
The Fast Runner was released. It tells the tales of an ancient story passed down in the native tribe generation by generation, captured and documented with film, preserving the vanishing culture. What set's this film apart from the previous native films is that it's the first film to tell a story from the native perspective, not trying to prove anything to the rest of the world. Zachary Kunak said, "It's just culture, storytelling in it's purest form possible, capturing human experience in the rawest way."(
Reel Injun) As a film maker, his intention was only to document a story passed down fro the grandparents of grandparents that's never been written down, to hold on to the stories that shaped the native culture. It tells the story without stereotypes, stripped of fancy plots and native "hype", not trying to present an argument. His targeted audience isn't particularly white people or native people, but people as a whole; everyone has stories that molded their culture, stories that give insight to who they are as human beings, Zachary simply told his through cinema. When dealing with unfamiliar things, people often are quick to jump to conclusions, putting a label on things they may or may or understand yet; that is exactly what happened with the native culture, jumping from one label to another. Fortunately, it's a time of change and real understanding, people are finding their voices to help the rest of the world understand better. Chris Eyre said," We're not asking to be noble, good, or righteous all the time. We're only asking to be human."(
Reel Injun) Real, authentic native films are finally emerging, presenting to the rest of the world that they are only human, that just like everyone else, there's always the good, the bad and the evil. There is just no way of grouping an entire culture as a single label without misrepresentation and reducing the culture as a whole. It finally speaks out that native people are in fact, real people with real and raw human emotions. After 4000 films representing native people, there's finally progress being made. Native people are no longer only being misrepresented as one thing alone, they are seen as human beings, not a savage, not a warrior, especially not some sort of mythical creature, they are just human.
Since the beginning of films, native people have been portrayed through many different lenses, whether it's the savage Indian, the groovy Indian, the mean Indian, or the cool Indian. They all had one thing in common, they were all told in the idea of portray the Indian, overlooking the realness of these people. In the film Flags of Our Fathers, actor Adam Beach played a young solider turning to alcohol to face his fears of leaving his family behind to go to war, his character finally puts a face on the stereotype of a drunken Indian. Adam Beach himself described his character as, "shredding human emotion, no stereotypes, no Indians, just a young boy that wants to see his mom."(Reel Injun) This film finally shined light to address issues that exist in every group of people rather than just Indians. It recognizes the humanity life, that everyone is human with raw human emotions, and that the young boy drank because that's how people deal with the pain of being separated from his family in order to fight for his country, not because he was Indian. In 2001, a film called Atarjuat, otherwise known as The Fast Runner was released. It tells the tales of an ancient story passed down in the native tribe generation by generation, captured and documented with film, preserving the vanishing culture. What set's this film apart from the previous native films is that it's the first film to tell a story from the native perspective, not trying to prove anything to the rest of the world. Zachary Kunak said, "It's just culture, storytelling in it's purest form possible, capturing human experience in the rawest way."(Reel Injun) As a film maker, his intention was only to document a story passed down fro the grandparents of grandparents that's never been written down, to hold on to the stories that shaped the native culture. It tells the story without stereotypes, stripped of fancy plots and native "hype", not trying to present an argument. His targeted audience isn't particularly white people or native people, but people as a whole; everyone has stories that molded their culture, stories that give insight to who they are as human beings, Zachary simply told his through cinema. When dealing with unfamiliar things, people often are quick to jump to conclusions, putting a label on things they may or may or understand yet; that is exactly what happened with the native culture, jumping from one label to another. Fortunately, it's a time of change and real understanding, people are finding their voices to help the rest of the world understand better. Chris Eyre said," We're not asking to be noble, good, or righteous all the time. We're only asking to be human."(Reel Injun) Real, authentic native films are finally emerging, presenting to the rest of the world that they are only human, that just like everyone else, there's always the good, the bad and the evil. There is just no way of grouping an entire culture as a single label without misrepresentation and reducing the culture as a whole. It finally speaks out that native people are in fact, real people with real and raw human emotions. After 4000 films representing native people, there's finally progress being made. Native people are no longer only being misrepresented as one thing alone, they are seen as human beings, not a savage, not a warrior, especially not some sort of mythical creature, they are just human.
