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The representation of Native Americans, as not civilized and violent has…
The representation of Native Americans, as not civilized and violent has been used as justification for the removal of Native Americans and expansion westward and the continued mistreatment of Native Americans.
The film Stagecoach, 1939, is a western that follows a group of white people on their journey in the U.S. Throughout the film their biggest threat is depicted as the Apache tribe.
The violence toward the Native Americans is justified by the fact that the Native Americans were violent first, however like other films in this western category they do not acknowledge why the Native Americans are attacking them in the first place.
It does not acknowledge the genocide of the Native Americans caused by white people and as a result, caused the distrust on the side of the Native Americans. Instead, it paints them as villains that are naturally violent and that makes it okay for John Wayne to murder them and be cruel to them.
Although these treaties and resevarations were established long before western films, these films certainly shaped the way Americans felt about Native Americans and if there were any empathy towards them it was gone after these films were established.
During the 1930s, Americans were in a great depression and those who lived in Oklahamo began to move westward as a way to help their families and this film helped justify pushing Native Americans out for their own gain.
Today the fact that Native Americans are seen as uncivilized as a result of westerns that justified expansion even more for financial gain a lot of coorpirations take advantage of this ideology toward Natives.They assume no one will notice if treaties are broken, if the build things that can harm Native Americans on reservations.
The first example of this would be the Dakota Access Pipeline. The Dakota Access Pipeline is an underground oil pipline that goes through the United States. It was orignally not to approve to go under a piece land that would put water resources in danger, however it was later to be place near Standing Rock Indian Reservation, which is in North Dakota and South Dakota. There were no consideration of the impact on the Natives so protest to stop the pipeline erupted.
During the protests the U.S. Government sent police and the military to clear the people who refused to leave. the same violent tactics used in the late 19th century and early 20th century were used. Police used tear gas, water cannons (in very cold weather, and other inhumane tactics to remove them from their land.
In these western movies cruelty towards Native Americans are always justified due to the fact that they are protrayed as the violent enemy that needs to be stopped.
In the film The Searchers John Wayne is seen ruining the grave of a Native American, and making fun of Native Americans culture and beliefs. This is all allowed because the Native Americans are depicted as the enemy the entire movie.
Today that same cruelty and disrespect is aimed toward Native Americans. Students who are Trump supporters were filmed yelling and mocking Native Americans in D.C.
Within days of these events the initial story began to change and there were more articles about there being two sides of the story. The main boy was even allowed to go on the news and tell his side, even though it is very clear that it was racist what they were doing. They even claimed to be "attacked" first.
A result of these films depicting Native Americans as being more violent is police violence toward Native Americans. Go to this website to see a bigger, clearer version. https://www.cnn.com/2017/11/10/us/native-lives-matter/index.html
Paul Castaway is one person in 2015 who's case went viral. The police showed up after his mother called the police because he was behaving in an unsual way. When she called she said that "My son, he pulled a knife on me. He's mentally ill and he's drunk." After chasing him, they shot him three times. He was clearly mentally unstable but they killed him instead of helped him. (There is a video of the shooting but I thought it would be triggering to watch, here's the link if you would like to watch
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This is a picture of Castaway holding flowers to the sky and a picture of her son.
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