"The Cross-Heart People": Indigenous narratives,cinema, and the Western Item Type text; Dissertation-Reproduction (electronic) Authors Hearne, Joanna Megan Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 10/10/2021 17:56:11 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/290072 •THE CROSS-HEART PEOPLE": INDIGENOLJS NARRATIVES, CINEMA, AND THE WESTERN By Joanna Megan Heame Copyright © Joanna Megan Heame 2004 A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 2004 UMI Number: 3132226 Copyright 2004 by Hearne, Joanna Megan All rights reserved. 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MegaB Heaxne entitled Cross-Heart People"; Indigenous Narratives, Cinema, and the Western and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy /./ y1 Bji..idrrY Evers Date/ - TZT ia-/X- 03 Dr. Barbara Babcock Date Dr. Susan White Dat" ^ Date Dat: Final approval and acceptance of this dissertation is contingent upon the candidate's submission of the final copy of the dissertation to the Graduate College. I hereby certify chat I have read this dissertation prepared under my direction and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement. - Dissertation Directoi Larry Evers Datt / 3 STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This dissertation has been submitted in partial folfillment of requirements for an advanced degree at The University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this dissertation are allowable without special permission, provided that accurate acknowledgment of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the copyright holder. 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Many, many people have contributed to this project. My committee members have been extraordinary—Larry Evers helped me grow intellectually with his steady support and advice, Susan WMte changed my career and my life, and Barbara Babcock shaped my thinking at each step. They are brilliant and inspiring scholars, and I could not have asked for better teachers, mentors and friends. I am also grateful to the University of Arizona for supporting my travel and archival work through grants from the Department of English, the American Indian Studies Program, the Women's Studies Advisory Council, and the Graduate College. The David L. Patrick Dissertation Fellowship provided invaluable writing time. Oberlin College funded my archival work at the Margaret Herri ck Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and at the University of Southern California film archives; Barbara Hall and Ned Comstock helped me find the right files, and Frank and Cheryl White kindly housed me during the trip. Claire Brandt at Eddie Brandt's Saturday Matinee located the stills for Devil's Doorway, and Madeline Matz facilitated my research on silent Westerns at the Library of Congress and helped me obtain the images. And I give thanks many times over to the Amazon Foundation for yearly scholarships that helped me to complete my degree. Barrc Toelken, a great scholar and teacher, started me on this path many years ago, and Susan Aiken saw me through, just as she promised she would. Armando Prats became a good friend while I was on the job market, and Greg Jackson and Daniel Cooper-Alarcon provided outstanding guidance during that process. Susie Fair read sections of my final chapter, and I wish she were still here to continue our conversations. I spent a terrific year at the Arizona Quarterly and learned much about writing, editing, and publishing from Ed Dryden and Maja-Lisa von Sneidem. Maja-Lisa earned my everlasting love and loyalty for helping me to get the summer issue out after my son was bom on April Fools' Day, 2001, and Ed provided expert and valuable feedback on my first chapter. Lourdes Canto, Marcia Marma, Stephanie Pearmain. and Chris Kiesel made coming to the department office a treat. N. Scott Momaday, Larry Littlebird, and Richardson Morse generously shared their time and experiences with me during interviews—Larry in particular has helped to expand my vision for the project. Many friends lent support, including Ann Brigham, Wendy Buck, Daphne Desser, Andy Doolen, Deborah Gregerman, Elise Marubbio, Darin Payne, Linda Pierce, Maureen Salzer, Ron Scott, Diane Wiener, and Debra White-Stanley—and there are many more who I could thank, including members of POG and the staff at ArtsReach. From my earliest years, my family has been my mainstay. My father Ted Heame kept my spirits up, as did my brothers Teddy Heame, MicMic Claffey and Cyras Claffey. My stepfather Michael Claffey provided the news clippings, while my sister Lizzie pitched in with cheers and childcare during the homestretch in summer 2003. My mother, Betsy Heame, stayed in daily contact and read countless drafts—she introduced me to the world and to the profession, and continues to sustain us all. And my new family—Chris and Desmond—gave me both the time to write and a life beyond writing. Their love makes everything possible. For Chris who backed me up all the way 6 TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS......................... 8 ABSTRACT... 9 INTRODUCTION: 'THE CROSS-HEART PEOPLE": INDIGENOUS NARRATIVES, CINEMA, AND THE WESTERN 11 Discourses of Indian Blood 15 Myth, History and the Western... 17 Institutional Interventions, Memory, and Activist Gazes 22 Chapter Summary 27 CHAPTER ONE: FAMILY CLAIMS: LANDSCAPE, LINEAGE AND DISGUISE IN THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS 33 Cooper's "Lovely Pictures" 36 Race and Language 46 Broken and Reconfigured Families: The Pioneers and The Last of the Mohicans ....... 48 "Tell-Tale Blood" in The Last of the Mohicans 56 CHAPTER TWO: "SOMETHING OF THE OTHER": FOUR CINEMATIC VERSIONS OF THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS, 1909-1992 82 D.W. Griffith, 1909 86 Maurice Toumeur and Clarence Brown, 1920 93 George Seitz, 1936 105 Michael Mann, 1992 115 CHAPTER THREE: "THE CROSS-HEART PEOPLE": RACE AND INHERITANCE IN THE SILENT WESTERN. 132 Manifest Families 136 Literary Contexts 141 Racial Surfaces 146 Racial Discourses 151 The Films: Crossing and Mixing in the Silent Western 154 Diverging Constmcts..... 171 CHAPTER FOUR: THE "ACHE FOR HOME" IN ANTHONY MANN'S DEVIL 'S DOORWAY (1950) 184 The Drifter 185 Dis-Integrating Indian Nations 189 The Warrior's Return.. 195 Terms of Circulation 197 CHAPTER FIVE: RELOCATING CINEMATIC ETHNICITY IN HOUSE MADE OF DAWN AMD BILLY JACK.............. 223 Activist Contexts 228 Violence, Hollywood Westerns, and Tribal Narratives 233 Acting Indian in Billy Jack............ 241 Indian Actors mid House Made of Dawn..... 249 Indian Actors/Acting Indian 264 7 CHAPTER SIX; TELLING AND RETELLING IN THE "INK OF LIGHT": DOCUMENTARY CINEMA, ORAL NARRATIVES, AND NATIVE IDENTITIES 275 "Art Science": Melodrama and the Documentary Image........................ 278 Viewing and Telling: Cinematic Dramatization and Indigenous Oral Performance... 294 WORKS CITED 315 8 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FIGURE 2.1, Poster advertising The Last of the Mohicans (1936) to a juveniie audiencc 114 FIGURE 3.1, "Group of Indian Young Men Before Education." Harper's New Monthly Magazine, 1881, p. 660. Ink etching based on a photograph...... 149 FIGURE 3.2, "Group of Indian Young Men After Education." Harper's New Monthly Magazine, 1881, p. 660. Ink etching based on a photograph................... 150 FIGURE 3.3, Still from Maya, Just an Indian. Maya in western clothes holds an Indian dress as her father angrily points offscreen 158 FIGURE 3.4, Still from Maya, Just an Indian. Maya's courtship..... 159 FIGURE 3.5, Still from Maya, Just an Indian. Maya cradles the bag of gold.............. 160 FIGURE 3.6. Still from White Fawn's Devotion. White Fawn refuses to let her husband Combs take their child away 172 FIGURE 4.1, Still from Devil's Doorway. Broken Lance (Robert Taylor) meets Orrie Masters (Paula Raymond) 200 FIGURE 4.2, Still from Devil's Doorway. Sheep and cattle crowd the streets of Medicine Bow, Wyoming 205 FIGURE 4.3, Still from Devil's Doorway. Lance comforts his father 208 FIGURE 4.4, Still from Devil's Doorway. The Shoshones defend Lance's ranch 209 FIGURE 4.5, Still from Devil's Doorway. Lance fights with Ike, the gunslinger........ 212 FIGURE 5.1, Photograph of Sitting Bull by D.F. Barry, circa 1885 255 9 ABSTRACT '"The Cross-Heart People': Indigenous Narratives, Cinema, and the Western" examines cycles of cinematic and literary production, public interest, and Federal Indian policy, redirects critical considerations of the "frontier myth" in the Western, and calls attention to indigenous participation and activism in the genre from the silent era onward.