Red and White on the Silver Screen: the Shifting Meaning and Use of American Indians in Hollywood Films from the 1930S to the 1970S
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RED AND WHITE ON THE SILVER SCREEN: THE SHIFTING MEANING AND USE OF AMERICAN INDIANS IN HOLLYWOOD FILMS FROM THE 1930s TO THE 1970s a dissertation submitted to Kent State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Bryan W. Kvet May, 2016 (c) Copyright All rights reserved Except for previously published materials Dissertation Written by Bryan W. Kvet B.A., Grove City College, 1994 M.A., Kent State University, 1998 Ph.D., Kent State University, 2015 Approved by ___Kenneth Bindas_______________, Chair, Doctoral Dissertation Committee Dr. Kenneth Bindas ___Clarence Wunderlin ___________, Members, Doctoral Dissertation Committee Dr. Clarence Wunderlin ___James Seelye_________________, Dr. James Seelye ___Bob Batchelor________________, Dr. Bob Batchelor ___Paul Haridakis________________, Dr. Paul Haridakis Accepted by ___Kenneth Bindas_______________, Chair, Department of History Dr. Kenneth Bindas ___James L. Blank________________, Dean, College of Arts and Sciences Dr. James L. Blank TABLE OF CONTENTS…………………………………………………………………iv LIST OF FIGURES………………………………………………………………………v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……………………………………………………………...vii CHAPTERS Introduction………………………………………………………………………1 Part I: 1930 - 1945 1. "You Haven't Seen Any Indians Yet:" Hollywood's Bloodthirsty Savages……………………………………….26 2. "Don't You Realize this Is a New Empire?" Hollywood's Noble Savages……………………………………………...72 Epilogue for Part I………………………………………………………………..121 Part II: 1945 - 1960 3. "Small Warrior Should Have Father:" The Cold War Family in American Indian Films………………………...136 4. "In a Hundred Years it Might've Worked:" American Indian Films and Civil Rights………………………………....185 Epilogue for Part II……………………………………………………………….244 Part III, 1960 - 1970 5. "If Things Keep Trying to Live, the White Man Will Rub Them Out:" The American Indian Film and the Counterculture………………………260 6. "Good Brave Lads Coming Out Here to Kill a Real Live Injun:" The American Indian Film and the Vietnam War………………………...305 Epilogue for Part III and Conclusion……………………………………………..348 Works Cited……………………………………………………………………....376 iii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Custer and Hickok in The Plainsman……………………………….…...……..41 Figure 2. The opening shot of Union Pacific………………………………….…...……..42 Figure 3. A grotesque Indian in The Plainsman……………………………….…...….…45 Figure 4. The stagecoach in Stagecoach……………………………………….…...….…54 Figure 5. The Apache threat in Stagecoach…………………………………….…...…....54 Figure 6. Ruby Big Elk in Cimarron…………………………………………….…...…..85 Figure 7. The statue of Yancey and an Indian in Cimarron…………………….…...…...87 Figure 8. The contrast between Thunderhorse's appearance in Massacre……….……….95 Figure 9. The Capitol Building and the NRA blue eagle in Massacre…………….…......98 Figure 10. Rioting Indians in Massacre………………………………………….……….99 Figure 11. Magazine advertisement for Massacre…………………………………....…..101 Figure 12. An Indian in They Died with Their Boots On...……………………………....107 Figure 13. Cochise in Fort Apache……………………………………………………….147 Figure 14. Indian savagery in She Wore a Yellow Ribbon………...………………....…..150 Figure 15. The O'Rourke family in Fort Apache…………………………………...........153 Figure 16. Capt. Brittles at his family's graves in She Wore a Yellow Ribbon……..........155 Figure 17. The wreckage of Mrs. Bell's wagon in Rio Grande…………………………..162 Figure 18. Jeff's youthful appearance in Rio Grande…………………………………….165 Figure 19. "I call him Small Warrior," Hondo…………………………………………...172 Figure 20. An Apache performs for Angie in Hondo…………………………………….173 Figure 21. Cochise in Broken Arrow……………………………………………………..198 Figure 22. Sonseeahray and Jeffords in Broken Arrow…………………………………..200 iv Figure 23. Lance's transformation in Devil's Doorway………………………........……..211 Figure 24. Weddle poses with Massai and Geronimo in Apache………………………...221 Figure 25. Massai and Nalinle in Apache………………………………………………...224 Figure 26. Ethan outside the Jorgenson's cabin in The Searchers………………………..247 Figure 27. Black Eagle and Balam in Kings of the Sun…………………………………..268 Figure 28. Black Eagle's death in Kings of the Sun………………………………………270 Figure 29. Custer's first appearance in Little Big Man…………………………………...284 Figure 30. Indian spirituality in Billy Jack……………………………………………….291 Figure 31. Bernard makes Indians "white" in Billy Jack…………………………………293 Figure 32. Cresta and Spotted Wolf in Soldier Blue……………………………………...317 Figure 33. White soldiers rape an Indian woman in Soldier Blue………………………..318 Figure 34. The victim of Apache torture in Ulzana's Raid……………………………….329 Figure 35. Cavalry troopers mutilate an Apache corpse in Ulzana's Raid……………….332 Figure 36. The Indian as a part of nature in Jeremiah Johnson…………………………..338 Figure 37. Buddy as a Cheyenne warrior in Powwow Highway…………………………364 Figure 38. Ray's transformation in Thunderheart………………………………………...367 v Acknowledgements As with any project that takes as long to complete as this dissertation—and it took quite a long time, indeed—I have quite the list of people to thank for their help along the way. For the sake of brevity, however, something I often struggle to achieve as evidenced by the length of this work, I shall endeavor to do so as quickly as possible. First, I owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to my dissertation director, Dr. Ken Bindas, who pulled the project through some very rough points and helped me mold it into a finished product of which I am extremely proud. Likewise, I offer my sincere thanks to Dr. Clarence Wunderlin, my Ph.D. advisor, who was a wonderful mentor through my graduate career in general, and the dissertation process0 in particular. I also must thank the other members of my dissertation committee—Dr. James Seelye of the Kent State History Department, Dr. Paul Haridakis of the Kent State Communications Department, Dr. Bob Batchelor of Miami University, and Dr. Mark Bracher of the Kent State English Department—who were all gracious enough to step in on short notice late in the project's development and provide their expertise. I am also extremely grateful to Drs. Ann Heiss and Becky Pulju of the KSU History Department, both of whom always had time to provide advice, support and friendly ears throughout my time at Kent State. Beyond the university, itself, I would like to thank the incredibly helpful staffs at the archives I visited during this project, including the John Ford Papers at the University of Indiana- Bloomington, the Warner Bros. Archive and the USC Film and Cinema Archive at the University of Southern California, the UCLA Special Collections archive, and the Margaret Herrick Library at the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills, vi California. It never fails to impress me how remarkably friendly and helpful archivists are toward the strangers who visit their collections. On a personal note, I extend thanks to all of my friends at Kent State and beyond who helped me all through the dissertation process. At risk of leaving anyone out, I will not name names, with the exception of Dr. Monika Flaschka, who served as a reader for many of my chapters and, despite her own heavy workload, never failed to turn them around quickly and with loads of good advice. Lastly, and most importantly, I must thank my family, including my sister Stacy, brother- in-law Ryan and nephew Quinn, my mother, Rosalind, without whose unwavering support I would not have made it through the most difficult stretches of what was, in itself, the most difficult challenge I've ever faced, and my late father, Bill, who played no small part in instilling a love of movies (especially Jeremiah Johnson) in me. Thank you all for your love and encouragement and for always believing I could finish this monstrosity, even when I doubted I would, myself. vii Red and White on the Silver Screen: The Shifting Meaning and Use of American Indians in Hollywood Films from the 1930s to the 1970s Introduction In 1940's Northwest Passage (MGM), Roger's Rangers trek into the forests of 1750s' Vermont in order to destroy an Abenaki Indian village. These Abenakis are a brutal and savage lot, having committed horrifying atrocities against white settlers, including torture, mutilation and murder. When the Rangers finally arrive at the village, they show the Indians no mercy, burning their lodges and slaughtering them to the last man. The film presents this as an act of justified retribution, providing no sympathy for the Abenakis and suggesting that their annihilation is essential if the white man is to make the frontier safe for civilization. Thirty years later, Soldier Blue (AVCO Embassy, 1970), presents a very different picture of conflict between whites and Indians. Its Cheyenne are a beautiful, loving people whose chief proudly flies the American flag. Nevertheless, a racist white colonel and his degenerate cavalrymen attack the Cheyennes' village in a sequence of ghastly carnage. As in Northwest Passage, the army massacres its Indian foes without mercy, but while the earlier picture presents such an action as a feat of great courage and skill, the latter sees it as indicative of the corruption inherent in white society.1 As these two films reveal, Hollywood's presentation of American Indians underwent significant changes over the four decades between 1930 and 1970. Whereas earlier films 1 regularly portrayed Indians as savages, either bloodthirsty or noble, and whites as justified in their conquest of the frontier, later movies altered this paradigm, using Indians to confront national concerns such as the Cold War, the civil rights movement,