Department of English and American Studies English Language And

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Masaryk University Faculty of Arts

Department of English and American Studies

English Language and Literature

Tomáš Lesa

Stereotyped Depictions of Native American Women in Hollywood Film Bachelor’s Diploma Thesis

Supervisor: Jeffrey Alan Vanderziel, B.A.

2014

I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography.

…………………………………………….. Tomáš Lesa

Acknowledgement I would like to thank my research supervisor, Mr. Jeffrey Alan Vanderziel, first for his lectures, which arouse my interest in this topic, and second for his guidance during the process of my writing. I would also like to thank my family and my girlfriend for their patience. Table of Contents

Introduction ______2

The Origin and the Definition of the Stereotype ______4

Analysis of the Selected Films ______14

The Silent Era ______15

The Golden Age of the Western ______16

The Revisionist Western ______27

The Modern Western ______30

Conclusion ______38

Appendix ______42

Bibliography ______55

English Résumé ______60

Czech Résumé ______61

Introduction

The first European discoverers of and settlers to America did not understand the cultures of various Native American groups and they thought of themselves as being more civilized than Native Americans (see for example The Journal of Christopher

Columbus). Because of this superior position and owing to their ignorance and misunderstanding Europeans made many assumptions about Native Americans. Plenty of these assumptions were wrong or inaccurate and thus various stereotypes developed.

Generally, when we think of the stereotypes in films and television, there has not been much attention given to Native Americans, as it has been, for example, to African

Americans (cf. Sambo tu již nebydlí?). Even though some stereotypes connected with

Native Americans have been dealt with and there has been an effort not to perpetuate them (as may be seen in some of the films in this thesis), still the stereotypes concerning

Native American women are often ignored and not dealt with sufficiently. Not many people have focused on the stereotype of Native American women being sexually available to white men and so I would like to describe how the stereotype was used in various historical periods in Hollywood, compare these usages and show how it is employed now. To show historical context I am going to browse into history and present when the stereotype appeared and then I am going to analyze the nature of this stereotype. I would like to look into this issue from a more topical view.

What I am going to argue is that the situation concerning the stereotype of sexually available Native American women has stayed preserved in many films throughout the history of Hollywood film – from the Silent Era, through the Golden

Age of the Western and the Revisionist Western up until the Modern Western. The films I am analyzing in this thesis were chosen to demonstrate the point I am making and they had to meet the condition of having the ability to address masses. This was

2 fulfilled by the fact that overwhelming majority of the films were high-grossing, they were given mass-media attention, some of them became cult films and/or they were directed by star directors such as Cecil B. DeMille, John Ford, Terrence Malick and others. Naturally, they also featured star actors such as Kirk Douglas, Clark Gable,

Charlton Heston, John Wayne, Dustin Hoffman, Colin Farell and others. Since film is a visual medium, I decided to demonstrate my statements concerning the analyzed films more visually in the picture appendix.

In general, perpetuating of any stereotypes is at least uncomfortable, but mostly detrimental and dangerous. There may be negative consequences of perpetuating the stereotype in real life, and it is without doubts that it has a very negative impact on the

Native American community. It is, therefore, important not to underestimate the role of mass media and it is necessary not to perpetuate the stereotypes in these media, particularly in film and television.

The Origin and the Definition of the Stereotype

The stereotype dealt with in this thesis did not appear in the last century and its origin is not related to the invention of film. This stereotype dates back to the arrival of

Columbus in America. Before film, there were other art forms, in which the stereotype was either present or at least some of these art forms negatively contributed to the formation of the stereotype. Most frequently, these were written records such as journals, short stories, novels, and articles, or forms of fine art, for example paintings.

These works of art often showed Native American women as inferior in comparison with the whites and presented them as women who are lustful and who cannot help themselves from trying to seduce white men on every occasion. The stereotype developed only because all these above mentioned records were very inaccurate or wrong. With the invention of film the stereotype was heavily used in various

Hollywood films; they all shared the same genre – the western. Hollywood created various models of how Native American women behave and what their personalities are like, and started to employ these models in films. The roles of Native American women were structured in the way to fit in Hollywood categories.

The oldest artwork, that we know of, showing the nature of the Native

Americans as seen by whites, is a woodcut called The People and Island Which Have

Been Discovered (circa 1505) (see Fig. 1), which shows how supposedly savage the

Native Americans are. In this woodcut the author depicts cannibalism and ―open love making‖ (Berkhofer Plate 2). Johann Grüninger depicted an event of killing one of the men of Vespucci‘s crew in an engraving, which was part of the German edition of The

Letters of Amerigo Vespucci to Piero Soderini, called Clubbing Member of Vespucci's

Crew (1509) (see Fig. 2). The engraving depicts several naked Native American women around a white man. Three of them are standing in front of the white man and they are

4 touching him. It is apparent that the women are smiling at the white man and are quite pleased by his presence; they don‘t have a problem with physical contact. The painting by William Blake Europe Supported by Africa and America (1796) (see Fig. 3) shows a

Native American woman supporting a white woman, but at the same time she is held on a rope or a leash and it is clearly understood from the picture that the Native American woman is under control by the white woman. You can see that this picture works as a metaphor for expressing the superiority of Europe over America as well as of the whites over Native Americans.

The most influential medium before film, however, was the literature. When you take into consideration the available sources from the time of the first contact Europeans made with Native Americans, it is clear that Native Americans and more concretely

Native American women were depicted inaccurately, uncomprehendingly and subjectively. This depiction was at the root of the emergence of the stereotype dealt with in this thesis. Robert Berkhofer in his well-known book dealing with the stereotypes connected with Native Americans, The White Man’s Indian, cites

Vespucci‘s Mundus Novus, a journal published circa 1503. Vespucci describes Native

American women having ―bodies which are tolerably beautiful and cleanly‖, but at the same time the women being ―very libidinous‖. Vespucci also claims about the women that ―when they had the opportunity of copulating with Christians, urged by excessive lust, they defiled and prostituted themselves‖ (Berkhofer 9) thus claiming that Native

American women took the first chance they had to have sex with white men and that they couldn‘t have helped themselves, because they were so lustful. Vespucci is not the only man who mentions Native American women at that period of time and in that manner. Deborah Small and Maggie Jaffe created a publication, which is skeptic towards the discovery of America by Europeans in 1492, and this skepticism is nicely

5 illustrated and supported by quotes from various sources. According to Small‘s and

Jaffe‘s 1492: What Is It Like to be Discovered? Peter Martyr, Spanish historian of

Columbus era, wrote in Decades de Orbe Novo VII (1530) this: ―In accordance with the general Nature of women, who prefer the things of others to things of their own, these women love CHRISTIANS most of all‖ (Small, Jaffe). In another instance ―In his official history, Oviedo tells us about the sexual predilections of the native women of

Hispaniola: ‗[They] were restrained with the native men, but they gladly gave themselves to the Christians. Anaceona, in particular, was ‗very indecent in the veneral act with the Christians‘ and ‗the most dissolute woman of her rank or any other to be found in the island‘‖ (Small, Jaffe). You can see how heavily subjective the sources can be, since Las Casas, one of the few people who probably truly cared for the Native

Americans, in his Brief Account of the Devastation of the Indies (1542) contradicts

Oviedo‘s depiction of Anaceona, a Native American ruler, by claiming: ―So noble and fine a lady, so gracious to the Christians and long suffering of their insults‖ (Small,

Jaffe).

Mainly at the time of the first contact of Europeans with Native Americans there was little information about various cultures of Native Americans and so people could depend only on the records such as mentioned above. Even in the following centuries

Europeans did not show much interest in cultures of Native Americans and if someone was interested in a specific group of Native Americans, they often failed to understand them. Another example of this type of misunderstanding or simplification can be seen in the writings of John Lawson, who wrote in 1709, that ―those American Indian girls that have conversed with the English and other Europeans, never care for the conversation of their own Countrymen afterwards‖ and that white traders ―find these American

Indian girls very serviceable to them‖ (Bird 73). Further the stereotype of sexually

6 available Native American women can be found in the journals of The Lewis and

Clarke Expedition, which explored the western United States from 1804 to 1806. On one occasion, for example, they write that ―The Sioux had offered us squaws, but while we remained there having declined, they followed us with offers of females for two days. The Ricaras had been equally accommodating; we had equally withstood their temptation; but such was their desire to oblige that two very handsome young squaws were sent on board this evening, and persecuted us with civilities‖ (Lewis, Clarke 105).

In their view, the women were so eager to please the men of the expedition that they persisted in offering up themselves for two days.

Probably the most influential and persistent story concerning this stereotype of

Native American women as easily accessible by and lusting for white men is the story of Pocahontas. As the story of Pocahontas is very well-known and the details of it are not strictly relevant to this thesis, it is not necessary for me to write here about the story in much detail. However, what is important is the fact that Pocahontas was a Native

American girl who supposedly fell in love with the white soldier of fortune, John Smith.

It is not exactly clear what the nature of the relationship between Smith and Pocahontas was, because the only record of this is Smith‘s journal. Interestingly, Smith did not write about Pocahontas in 1607 when he arrived in Jamestown and supposedly met

Pocahontas. He mentions Pocahontas much later in his life, in his Generall Historie of

Virginia, in which he claims that he was supposed to be killed by Pocahontas‘ father, the powerful chief Powhatan, but Pocahontas saved him by laying her head on his chest

(J. Smith 49). The fact is that most scholars today think ―the famous rescue was part of an elaborate adoption ritual that Smith simply misunderstood‖ (Edwards 150). Later in the Generall Historie of Virginia Smith describes some kind of celebration or entertainment. He declares ―Pocahontas and her women‖ were very compliant and fully

7 sexually available to him (67). According to Smith, at first, about thirty naked women came from a forest to the fire by which Smith resided and they entertained him. Later, he was invited to ―to their lodgings, where […] all these Nymphes more tormented him then ever, with crowding, pressing, and hanging about him, most tediously crying, Loue you not me? loue you not me?‖ (67). Similarly to what John Lawson wrote about Native

American women, according to Smith, Pocahontas was not interested in Native

American men at all; she fell in love with Smith and after Smith‘s departure with another white man, John Rolfe.

The story of Pocahontas has become a ubiquitous theme of hundreds of art pieces, or, for example, advertising, and in most cases these representations have only served to perpetuate the stereotype. Native American scholar, Rayna Green, explores the images of American Indian women in American culture. In her work The

Pocahontas Perplex: The Image of Indian Women in American Culture she focuses on the image of Pocahontas and on how and in what art forms the image is employed.

Literature pieces like ―James Nelson Barber's La Belle Sauvage (1808) and George

Washington Custis' The Settlers of Virginia (1827), as well as […] traditional American ballads like ‗Jonathan Smith‘ retold the thrilling story; schoolbook histories included it in the first pages of every text; nineteenth century commercial products like cigars, perfume and even flour used Pocahontas's name as come-on― (Green 700). Betty Louise

Bell, a Cherokee scholar, in her article about Pocahontas and about the depiction of

Pocahontas over time, asserts, that ―Pocahontas, the nude prepubescent Indian girl […] was translated by the colonists as ‗Little Wanton‘ or ‗Little Mischief.‘ In Powhatan culture children wore no clothing, except during the winter, but Pocahontas's nudity and playfulness was interpreted as frivolous and licentious behavior‖ (Bell 67). Bell continues by asserting that ―From first contact, Pocahontas was an object of the male

8 colonial gaze. […] Just over the age of ten, Pocahontas is identified as the promiscuous female body, as fecund and wild and seductive as the land‖ (67-68) and Bell characterizes the stereotype by the fact how ―her bronze nubile body‖ yields ―to the white settler‘s touch‖ (68). Once again the misinterpretation of the behavior of

Pocahontas can be seen in the words: ―Her nakedness is seen as wantonness; her playfulness is known as seduction‖ (68). As was mentioned before, this was the way in which the stereotypes developed. Europeans had no concept of the cultures of Native

Americans, and compared them to their own. The problem is that this comparison should not have been made in this way. Anthropologist, Elizabeth Bird, sums up this fact thusly: ―The inescapable fact about this dual imagery of American Indian woman Is that it is entirely White defined‖ (Bird 74).

The ―golden era‖ of the stereotype of easy Native American women in literature came in the nineteenth century when you could choose from hundreds of adventure novels with various plots about detectives, soldiers, agents, cowboys, and Indian fighters. The stereotype was frequently used in these kinds of novels, which were inexpensive and for this reason they were called ―dime novels‖; they could be bought for few cents. According to Bird, another reason why the stereotype was so living in the nineteenth century was the fact that it was becoming more normal for the society to see, hear and read about sexual references, such as naked breasts at women. There was for example the tradition of half-naked Native American women posing at photographs (72-

73). The relationship between a white male and a Native American female was dealt with in numerous dime novels and plays. For instance a play called The Squaw Man

(1905) is a story about Native American woman Nat-u-ritch who falls in love with white English man. She saves his life and they have a son, but at the end of the play she kills herself. Ann S. Stephens‘ dime novel Malaeska: The American Indian Wife of the

White Hunter (1861) is the story of a Native American woman named Malaeska, who marries a White man and gives birth to a son, who later kills himself because of his parents ―unnatural marriage‖ (73). Edward Willett's Silver-spur (1870) tells a story of

Dove-Eye, a half-breed Native American woman, who at first attacks the main hero,

Fred Wilder, but ―this initial misunderstanding is soon overcome and the two are betrothed‖ (H. Smith 127-28).

With the invention of film these kinds of stories appeared on the silver screen.

Films shot at the end of the nineteenth century and at least in the first three decades of the twentieth century almost never employed Native American actors and actresses and

―because the Native Americans were the ‗savages‘, they have often been portrayed by stars of horror films like Bela Lugosi and Lon Chaney‖ (Vrasidas 66). If Native

Americans appeared in a movie they had only minor roles and even casting Native

American in a minor role was not usual until the 1930s. Still, even during the Golden

Age of the Western movies, from 1930s to 1960s, the leading roles in Hollywood movies were never given to Native Americans.

As was said before, Hollywood created categories in which the roles of Native

American women fit. Most of the roles of Native American women in Hollywood cinema could be put into four or rather three main categories, but as we can gather from the history of the stereotype these stereotypical images are much older. The original image is that of the Indian Queen, which inspired many other stereotypical depictions.

Then there is the Indian Princess, ―the Sexualized Maiden‖ (Marubbio 7), and, as the

Native American scholar Kim Anderson calls her, ―the Squaw drudge‖ (Anderson 231) or simply a Squaw. Despite the fact these stereotypical images differ in their characteristics, all of them, more or less, share the element of Native American woman sexually available to white men.

The Indian Queen image is in most cases a depiction linked to the arrival of

Europeans to America. The Indian Queen was frequently depicted as a strong and powerful woman. Rayna Green describes the imagery of The Indian Queen in the centuries following the arrival of Europeans to America thusly: ―bare-breasted, […] draped in leaves, feathers, and animal skins, […], she appeared aggressive, militant, and armed with spears and arrows. Often, she rode on an armadillo, and stood with her foot on the slain body of an animal or human enemy. She was the familiar Mother-Goddess figure full-bodied, powerful‖ (Green 702). Such an image is also depicted on the engraving by Adriaen Collaert America (circa 1589) (see Fig. 4). The stereotypical image of Indian Queen began to fade away during the centuries after the settlement of

Americas, because it did not come useful for the Europeans when they were claiming new land. The Indian Queen was too powerful, too aggressive and dangerous to white men, while not so easily subdued by them. At the same time she was promiscuous. The stereotype of the Indian Queen is not used in Hollywood films, because it was replaced by the Sexualized Maiden image.

Out of the Indian Queen image the stereotype of the Sexualized Maiden developed and has been used in many Hollywood films. In films she is often of mixed- blood, thus referred to as a half-breed. Sexualized Maiden is dangerous and often causes troubles to white hero of a movie. She is very skilled at riding a horse; she can throw knives or shoot a rifle expertly; she can take care of her. M. Elise Marubbio, whose field of expertise is Native Americans in film, in her book on the role of Native American women in film, Killing The Indian Maiden: Images Of Native American Women In

Film, asserts that Hollywood film heightens the image of the Sexualized Maiden, while the Indian Queen image is suppressed. Hollywood also highlights The Sexualized

Maiden‘s sexuality and ―her potential for physically harming white male characters,

11 using it as evidence of her immorality, innate savagery, and potential to destroy

American society. As a result, she becomes the female representation of the ignoble savage‖ (Marubbio 7). Because of her sexuality the Sexualized Maiden is similar to the

Squaw but isn‘t so passive.

The Squaw is the most sexualized figure of all the stereotypical depictions of

Native American women in film. She offers herself to white men, she is lewd; she has both white and native sexual partners, often she has many children. The squaw is sexually promiscuous and so she does not hold the same position as the Indian Princess, who supposed to be virginal. Kim Anderson, whose writings deal mainly with indigenous feminism, writes about the Squaw figure or the Squaw drudge figure in this manner: ―While the princess held erotic appeal for the covetous imperial male wishing to claim the ‗new territory‘, the squaw drudge justified the conquest of an uncivilized terrain‖ (Anderson 231). The Squaw image was useful to the new settlers, because it justified the measurements taken against the Native Americans and as Anderson adds:

―She eased the conscience of those who wished to sexually abuse without consequence‖

(229).

Indian Princess is different from the three images already mentioned regarding the sexual availability, because she is not promiscuous. On the other hand it is a white man she desires and frequently it is her, who expresses her desire to him, not the other way around. She has been depicted as naïve, pure virgin waiting for a white knight in shining armor. The Indian Princess is a representation of noble savage; she ―embodies the unspoiled essence of a ‗virgin‘ land‖ and ―unlike the Queen, the Princess poses no physical or military threat‖ (Marubbio 11). Indian Princess is an image that has been used out of the four stereotypical images mentioned above most frequently. Beside the factors aforesaid, Indian Princess is characteristic by her desire to help white man

(despite the fact she sometimes has to betray her own people) and by her ability to become adapted to white man‘s culture and society. I agree with Marubbio‘s other qualifiers that constitute the Princess character; these include ―her connection to nature and the American landscape, her innocence and purity, her link to nobility, her exotic culture and beauty, […], and her tragic death. In all the Celluloid Princess films, the maiden‘s death frees the hero to fulfill his destiny as the American Adam—the icon of

American progress, exceptionalism, and the American nation‖ (Marubbio 6) and I would also add to this that the Indian Princess character is often the daughter of the chief, that is why the connection to the nobility.

It is not surprising that the stereotype of sexually available women became so deeply rooted in the new medium of film, given that the stereotype was thriving in the nineteenth century. At the time film was invented and Hollywood studios began to produce hundreds of films it was only natural the stereotype would be perpetuated. Film added a new dimension to the dime novels, journals and paintings. Because it was becoming acceptable for the society to perceive various sexual references in art, it was easy for film studios, for the producers, directors and scriptwriters to fully exploit this old stereotype, while at the same time to enrich and diversify it in a bad way. Some of the stereotypical images of Native American women were known before film, but had to be modified in order to suit the new medium, while there were new stereotypical images developing with the new medium.

Analysis of the Selected Films

An overwhelming majority of the Silent Era Hollywood films depicted Native

Americans in completely stereotypical way. Native American characters were savage, men often brutal and dangerous to white women, and women, of course, stereotyped in the way I indicated in the previous chapter. From the beginning of Hollywood film era

Native American female characters were almost always portrayed by white actresses and this, with some exceptions, did not change until 1990s. The stereotypes connected to Native American women were most heavily used in 1940s, 50s and 60s, during the

Golden Age of the Western, because Hollywood studios produced hundreds of western movies. In 1970s came the era of the Revisionist Western, probably also because of what the civil rights situation was in the United States, but it, in fact, did not positively affect the stereotype of sexual availability of Native American women. Quite the opposite, it made female characters more sexualized. With the 1990s appeared an effort to show Native Americans in more positive and realistic light, even more than in 1970s, and this effort has been present in Hollywood films until nowadays. I decided to refer to this period in this thesis as Modern Western. Although many stereotypes ceased to exist and the stereotypes connected to Native American women are less visible in films, they are still there. Also, Hollywood produces incomparably less westerns than it used to

(between 1910 and 1960 westerns comprised from a fifth to quarter of all Hollywood feature films produced (Buscombe, "Injuns" 23)) and in many of the films Native

American women have only minor roles or are not present at all. Thus it is logical the stereotype has not thrived in recent years, but despite low number of westerns produced it has not disappeared.

The Silent Era

In Hollywood silent era we can find many films dealing with miscegenation and we commonly encounter the stereotype of Native American women sexually available to white men. One of the usual film scenarios is that of a white hero, who marries

Native American woman, but really loves another – a white woman. Native American female character dies, so the white hero can be with his white lover. The following are examples of those films that correspond to this kind of scenario: The Kentuckian (1908),

The Indian Squaw’s Sacrifice (1910), The Indian Maiden’s Lesson (1911); or The Flight of Red Wing (1910), which is a story about Native American woman, who is offered

Native American suitor, but she rejects him and flees, meeting a cowboy with whom she falls in love. Another such film is D.W. Griffith‘s The Chief’s Daughter (1911), which tells a story of chief‘s daughter who falls in love with a white man, who later rejects her; also Cecil B. DeMille‘s The Squaw Man (1914), which was based on a play

I mentioned in the previous chapter. Interestingly DeMille shot the film again in 1918 and 1931. Marubbio asserts that ―films such as Scarlet and Gold (1925), Frozen Justice

(1929), The Squaw Man (1931), and Laughing Boys (1934) illustrate the rise of the more sexual Celluloid Maiden type in the silent period and early 1930s‖ (Marubbio 16).

The tendency of more sexualized female characters became even more visible in the films of 1940s and later.

The Golden Age of the Western

The Golden Age of the Western represents a period of time in Hollywood film that is the richest in number of western films made. Due to this high number of films made, we can observe how often and to what extent the filmmakers employ the stereotypes connected with Native American women. The films analyzed in this chapter feature in most cases either Indian Princess stereotype or Sexualized Maiden stereotype. The

Squaw stereotype is also present, but generally is not used so frequently in this period.

Probably the most popular stereotype in this period is that of the Indian Princess.

Marubbio asserts that the ―Princess figure disappears during the mid-1930s and 1940s but reappears in the 1950s in pro-Indian westerns such as Broken Arrow‖ (Marubbio 15) and I would also add Across the Wide Missouri. Despite the fact Broken Arrow is seen as more pro-Indian western and it, in fact, depicts Native Americans more positively than it was usual at that period of time, still, as far as Native American women are concerned nothing changed much. The name of the Indian Princess in this film is

Sonseeahray and the main white male character‘s name is Tom. Of course, the two fall in love, they get married, and in order to obey the pattern of the Indian Princess stereotype, Sonseeahray dies in the end. Her death ―put a seal on the peace‖ says Tom

Jeffords (Broken Arrow) and so it seems she did not die in vain, that her death is not meaningless. The fact is, though, that a death of the Indian Princess is one of this figure‘s typical features and it allows the white male hero to give himself to higher purposes. Although Sonseehray does not meet all of the criteria I described in previous chapter, she meets lot of them. She, for example, gives the impression of being very innocent, almost child-like, naïve, virginal, she is beautiful, and she has a soft spot for white men.

Across the Wide Missouri has much in common with Broken Arrow. Film presents

Indian Princess character called Kamiah, who is, as the narrator says: ―proud and beautiful‖ (Across the Wide Missouri). The moment she is introduced to the story she is already interested in the main male character, Flint Mitchell, played by Clark Gable.

She gazes at him and smiles. She asks him whether he buys horses to trade for a wife or whether he already has a wife (Across the Wide Missouri), and the whole situation implies she likes him. Kamiah, in fact, initiates the relationship between her and Flint; she plays the active role, while he is quite passive. He decides to marry her and trade for her, because she is useful to him, but he does not know he will fall in love with her.

When she is traded to him and they are married, he comes to her tent to spend a night with her. At first, when he is drunk, Kamiah throws frying pans and saucepans on him, but when he returns after a while, quite sober, she is so amazed by him, that she faints.

When she comes to herself she kisses Flint affectionately and passionately. In this very quick chain of events we can see how sexually available to him she is. As it oftentimes happens in films with Princess character, and similarly to Broken Arrow, Kamiah dies in the end. Kamiah, however, is not depicted in the film only as Indian Princess, but there are also some hints at the characteristics of the Squaw figure. For example when Flint is leaving home for a hunting trip he says to Kamiah: ―You will stay right here and keep your shirt on‖ (Across the Wide Missouri). This implies he thinks of her as easy woman.

Even though the roles of other Native American women in the film are minor, we can see already at the beginning of the film that they are interested in white men. There is a scene, when four Native American women giggle and enjoy themselves in the presence of Captain Lyon (see Fig. 5). They fit the Squaw stereotype, since, among other things, one of the women is so interested in Captain Lyon that with the aid of a translator she arranges a meeting with Captain in willows.

With The Indian Fighter and White Feather, the Princess character becomes even more characteristic of the stereotype. The Indian Fighter in its main Native American female character features almost ―perfect‖ Indian Princess. The first frame of this film, right after the subtitles, is that of Native American woman, Onahti, undressing. She is bathing in a river, as the main character, Hawks, passes by. Her connection to the nature is thus demonstrated. In fact, it is not the only time she spends time at or by the river.

What cannot be missed is also her beauty and so she lives up to the expectations of the

Indian Princess. Hawks likes Onahti from the first moment, he sees her in the camp. He looks at her flirtatiously; he follows her to the river, where he firmly grabs her and kisses her. Hawks treats her quite violently and he would probably not dare treat a white woman this way. Onahti is resisting Hawks‘ kissing, but it is not so persuasive on her side. When Hawks lets go off her and comes back to the camp, she inconspicuously watches him. From this moment onward she looks at Hawks as lustfully as Hawks looks at her. So much is needed for Onahti to begin to openly show her desire for a white man.

After some time Hawks returns to the camp and meets Onahti by the river. He chases her to the river and violently grabs her hair from behind (see Fig. 6). Then they fall to the river and passionately kiss. If it was not for their smiling during their chasing, it would look like Hawks wants to hurt Onahti. As they are lying in the water, Onahti returns Hawks‘ kisses and apparently likes such rough treating. The scene implies that it is normal to be violent to Native American women and that Native American women probably like this kind of behavior. After a cut from a different location, we can see

Onahti and Hawks lying under a tree. They were sleeping and it is not excluded they had sex. Be that as it may, Onahti is easily accessible by Hawks. As I stated above,

Onahti represents one of the most fitting Indian Princess characters and so it is not

18 surprising she is the daughter of the chief and that she, in the end, betrays her father and her people, in order to help Hawks – the white man.

Appearing Day, the main Native American character of White Feather, represents the most accurate example of Indian Princess discussed in this subchapter.

Appearing Day likes Tanner, the main white hero, from the first moment. She smiles at him and looks at him flirtatiously. There is also again a scene by water, so often present in Indian Princess movies. In this scene Appearing Day wants Tanner to kiss her, and when he kisses her, she wants him to kiss her again. Later, Appearing Day leaves her people, she appears at Tanner‘s place, naked, under a blanket and she wants to stay with him (see Fig. 7). Only few days passed from the moment they met and she wishes to marry him already. In sum, Appearing Day is beautiful, naïve, she is the daughter of the chief, she is attracted to white men and she is also able to adapt to white man‘s culture as she talks about how Indians could enter the white man‘s world and that it would be the best if they did (White Feather).

Before I focus on films featuring the Sexualized Maiden, I would like to pay attention to a film, which presents a character that best fits the category of the Squaw. I mentioned the Squaw image in connection with Kamiah in Across the Wide Missouri, but she met the criteria for the Squaw only partly. Wild Goose Flying in the Night Sky, the Native American female character of The Searchers, on the other hand, fits that category more accurately.

The Searchers is not a film occupied so much with Native American women; the story does not focus on an example of miscegenation or a love story about white man and Native American woman, there are, however, some negatively memorable scenes because of which the film gives very negative impression. For my purposes the most important sequence of scenes in The Searchers deals with, as Lynn Gregor summarizes

19 in her dissertation work on American popular narrative forms ―the female Indian character of Wild Goose Flying in the Night Sky or Look,‖ whom ―Martin inadvertently marries‖ and who ―plays an understated but highly central and disturbing role in the film‖ (Lynn Gregor 99). The term ―squaw‖ has very negative connotation in the film; the squaw is viewed as inferior. For example Martin‘s ―girlfriend‖ Laurie is truly upset when she is reading the letter from Martin, where he describes his marriage to the

Native American woman. ―Little Comanche squaw,‖ she exclaims, ―squaw?!?‖ (The

Searchers).

The whole situation concerning the marriage starts with a scene, where Martin trades for a blanket. At least he believes that it is for the blanket, but, in fact, he trades for a woman. From the first moment he is trading in the camp, the Native American woman, Wild Goose Flying in the Night Sky, looks at him with interest, she smiles and she ogles him. She is small, round and not beautiful, thus she does not fit the Princess image, on the other side she is very sexually available to Martin, which along with other characteristics, makes her a squaw. When she follows Martin and Ethan and they stop to rest, she is very eager to please Martin. Martin feels ashamed of having Native

American wife and as Ethan makes fun of him, he gets frustrated and goes to sleep.

Wild Goose Flying in the Night Sky, acting the role of a good wife lies next to Martin.

The next scene is very brutal, because Martin angrily kicks Wild Goose Flying in the

Night Sky down the hillside they were lying on. Ethan just laughs and neither he nor

Martin feels the kicking was something inappropriate, they find it normal. Lynn Gregor comments on the role of Wild Goose Flying in the Night Sky, or Look, in the film, as follows: ―On the surface, Look‘s role in the film is exactly what American audiences would expect, even desire, to see in the image of an Indian woman in a 1950‘s film. She is a ‗squaw‘ who speaks Pidgin English and desires to marry a white man. She is

20 submissive—so much so that she answers to whatever name Martin calls her‖ (Lynn

Gregor 99). In comparison with the Princess figure and Sexualized Maiden figure I spent much less time analyzing the Squaw stereotype in this subchapter, because this stereotypical image would play more important part in the Revisionist and Modern

Westerns. Sexualized Maiden, on the other side, is typical of the Golden Age of the

Western the same way the Indian Princess is.

In three of the following films featuring the Sexualized Maiden stereotype, the

Sexualized Maiden characters each have one characteristic that is more dominant than the rest of their characteristics.

In Arrowhead the Sexualized Maiden is not so distinct, but, still, she fits the category quite good. On the whole, the depiction of Native Americans in this film is very negative; Native Americans are depicted as savages, who are the aggressors and even when they receive education from whites, as the character Torino did, they are not able to get rid of their savage ways. It is not surprising then, that basically the only

Native American woman that appears in the film is stereotyped.

Nita, the female Native American in the film, is half Apache and half Mexican, thus she is referred to as a half-breed. There is also an aura of dangerousness around her, since she informs against Bannon at Native American leader, Toriano. When we first meet Nita she is excited about seeing Bannon, the white hero of the film, and comes to greet him. She says she did laundry for him, but it is apparent the situation is not about the laundry. Bannon does not pay much attention to her at that moment. As other scenes well document, Nita is fully sexually available to Bannon and Bannon uses her in that way. Nita seduces Bannon while he is shaving in his room, she serves him a drink and is amiable in other ways. Bannon, on the other hand, does not express any affection towards her and treats her pretty badly (see Fig. 8). Bannon knows he can do

21 whatever he wants to Nita, because he views her as inferior. He says she is just doing laundry for him, thus she is not important for him. At the same time, however, he gladly uses her sexual services. Bannon‘s indifference toward Nita is clearly expressed in his words, when Nita dies: ―There‘s a dead Apache in here. Get it out‖ (Arrowhead).

In Mackenna’s Gold the dominant feature of the Sexualized Maiden is her dangerousness and deadliness. The film introduces the Native American woman, Hesh-

Ke, and the first scene she appears in the movie she already expresses her dangerousness in the way she handles her knife (see fig. 9). Many more examples proving her dangerousness, instability and deadliness appear later in the movie.

Apparently Hesh-Ke had an affair with the main male character - Mackenna – and, as

Colorado says, she still likes him (Mackenna’s Gold). Hesh-Ke starts to be jealous of the white captive woman, Inga, because evidently Mackenna likes her. In the swimming scene by the lake Hesh-Ke, swimming naked under water, grabs Mackenna and is violently kissing him. When he is finally able to free himself, Hesh-Ke chooses another target – Inga, but this time she is trying to drown Inga. Mackenna steps in and saves

Inga. What‘s interesting about this sequence of scenes is something Marubbio talks about. While white characters are dressed and even swim dressed in clothes, Hesh-Ke is naked. All of this shows the stereotype of Native Americans being sexually more aggressive and available (Marubbio 148). The group continues on their journey to a canyon and after Inga is sent away, to safety, Hesh-Ke thinks Mackenna will be interested in her instead. She behaves very seductively; she attends to Mackenna, looks lustfully at him, and clearly makes herself sexually available (see fig. 10). Inga, however, comes back and so things go back the way they were. All things considered,

Hesh-Ke is a very good example of Sexualized Maiden – she is presented as the ignoble

22 savage, she is dangerous and deadly, fully sexually available to a white man and skillful with weapons.

The Sexualized Maiden in Duel in the Sun meets, however, more criteria for the

Sexualized Maiden than Hesh-Ke does. The most showing characteristic of her is her promiscuity. We can see this sexual aspect already on the poster to the film (see Fig.

11). This sexual aspect is not present only on the poster of Duel in the Sun, but also on the posters of other films of the Golden Age of the Western (see Fig. 12, 13). The women there are very attractive, they expose themselves, they offer themselves and are lascivious. On the poster to Duel in the Sun the woman is lying on the ground, while the white man stands decidedly above her, which shows how inferior she is compared to him. At the same time, however, the woman seems to be enjoying her position and she also has the posturing of being available to him; she offers herself to the man.

Pearl Chavez, the main female character of Duel in the Sun, represents the typical Sexualized Maiden. She is a ―half-breed‖, sexually promiscuous, wild, skillful with weapons and dangerous. Throughout the film she takes up with three white men and it is her, who initiates the relationships by her flirting and ―easiness‖. Her mood and sexual desire fluctuates during the film and often it is not clear who and what exactly she wants. Jesse is the first man Pearl starts with; they are apparently attracted to each other. During the first night Pearl stays on the farm of her aunt, she talks to Jesse; he touches her head casually, hugs her and there is a moment when they almost kiss. The only reason why they don‘t kiss is probably because Jesse turns away claiming Pearl should go to bed. Jesse‘s brother, Lewt, on the other hand, doesn‘t have such good manners as Jesse and so he comes to Pearl‘s room without knocking the same night she was with Jesse. He grabs her violently and kisses her, because he considers Native

American women ―easy‖ and he knows that he can treat a Native American woman in

23 this fashion, as was the case with Bannon in Arrowhead and Hawks in The Indian

Fighter. Pearl fights back and says she hates Lewt, but the next day when Lewt shows her some tricks on a horse she is quite friendly with him and even basically accepts she would go out with him. Apparently she did not mind his kissing so much after all. In the film Pearl is also seen swimming, and it is quite funny to see many Hollywood filmmakers‘ need to show Native American or mixed-heritage women swimming, bathing or simply being in water. These scenes supposed to be, as Buscombe states,

―testament to the free and easy sensuality attributed to women of other races‖

(Buscombe, "Injuns" 126).

Pearl and Lewt kiss once again during a stormy night, but this time Pearl likes it and it is not against her will. This time Jesse comes to Pearl‘s room without knocking and walks on her with Lewt. Pearl contends she hates Lewt and that she is interested in

Jesse, but then right in the next scene she again flirts with Lewt, she strokes his arm; she is very lascivious and offers Lewt to go swimming. Few scenes later, because Pearl wants to make Lewt angry, she takes up with Sam Pierce, who later wants to marry her, but Lewt shoots him. Lewt is then wanted for a murder and despite the fact he killed

Sam, Pearl hugs with Lewt and hides him. This takes me to the dangerous side of

Pearl‘s character. She is clearly manipulative, especially in her relationships with white men and she is also dangerous. By the end of the film Lewt kills Jesse and rides to the mountains. Pearl goes after him and there is a shootout. Both Lewt and Pearl are hurt and dying, Pearl crawls to Lewt, kisses him and they die in each other‘s arms.

The perfect example of the Sexualized Maiden represents Louvette in North West

Mounted Police. Cecil B. DeMille‘s North West Mounted Police was the biggest box office hit of the Paramount film studios in the year 1940 (McGee), which means a lot of people came to cinema to see it and absorb it. The main Native American female

24 character‘s name is Louvette, originally Lupette, which according to Marubbio

―parodies the word ‗lupine‘ as well as the French slang term for a ‗street girl,‘ suggesting that she is both sexually promiscuous and innately animalistic‖ (Marubbio

89). Louvette has all the characteristics of the Sexualized Maiden. Marubbio cites the director DeMille himself, as he talked about Louvette: ―I see a tough son of a bitch, […] who is a half animal, […] beautiful as hell […] I see a gorgeous black panther […] Men are afraid of her‖ (Marubbio 89). DeMille, in fact, describes the features of the

Sexualized Maiden. She has mixed-blood heritage, she is excessively libidinous, she is available to white men, she is dangerous and manipulative.

Louvette is introduced in a scene, few minutes after the beginning of the film, where she importunately craves attention from her white lover, the police officer,

Ronnie. Ronnie and his commandant, Sergeant Jim Brett, ride on horses through a town; Brett notices Louvette and says to Ronnie besides other things: ―Never trust a blue eyed squaw‖ (North West Mounted Police), which implies a negative connotation associated with Native American women. In another scene, when Louvette and Ronnie secretly meet, Louvette asks him, why he is so late and suspects him of having another woman. She threatens Ronnie in a playful manner and says that if he has other woman she eats Ronnie‘s heart out (North West Mounted Police). Even though it is not meant seriously, it seems Louvette would be capable of doing something like that. It is a first moment with a hint of her being dangerous. When Ronnie‘s sister comes to Louvette asking her to help her warn Ronnie, the dangerousness of Louvette is emphasized for example in a way she suddenly throws a knife on a table. When Louvette lures Ronnie out of a cabin and they ride to her house, some Native American men are already waiting for them. They overpower Ronnie and tie him to a chair. It comes to light that it was Louvette who told the men to wait for them, in order to prevent Ronnie from

25 coming back to his post, where he would be killed. It is apparent Louvette is dangerous and manipulative. Another example of how dangerous and skillful with a knife she can be is seen in the scene when Dusty Rivers comes to the place where Louvette is hiding

Ronnie. There is a knife jabbed into a post and Louvette is trying to secretly grab it.

Dusty is faster and takes it away (see Fig. 14). Since Louvette does not want Dusty to disclose to anybody where Ronnie is, she pays some Native American man to kill

Dusty. Such acting again shows how dangerous Louvette is.

In the scene when Ronnie‘s sister is trying to persuade Louvette to go and save

Ronnie, Louvette eats some meat and the way of eating is emphasized as if to prove the point Ronnie‘s sister is making. Louvette does not use any cutlery; she holds the meat in her hands biting it. During the quarrel Ronnie‘s sister calls Louvette a ―savage; vicious, cruel savage‖ (North West Mounted Police), which, again, fits the ignoble savage image of the Sexualized Maiden.

Louvette also knows how to use her sexual power; she uses her charm on Ronnie several times, for example, when he is in the cabin, where she persuades him to go marry her right at that moment (see Fig. 15).

While in the Golden Age of the Western it is evident the Sexualized Maiden and the Indian Princess play very important roles, the use of these stereotypical images begins to decline in 1960s. This is true especially for the Sexualized Maiden. On the other hand the Squaw stereotype, used so sporadically in this period, starts to be visible much often in the Revisionist Western and Modern Western.

The Revisionist Western

Both Little Big Man and A Man Called Horse are in many ways typical representatives of the Revisionist Western films of the 1970s. These films were intended to look at the history of the interaction between Native Americans and U.S. government from different perspective and to show more realistic course of history.

Often, films from this period were presented as pro-Indian. These films also worked with some of the stereotypes connected with the genre and Native Americans in general, as we can see in the two films mentioned. Not much revisionism, however, can be observed in the depiction of Native American women.

Easy way to not have to deal with the stereotypes linked to Native American women in film was to not have Native American female character in film. The truth is that

―none of the famous ‗Indian‘ movies of the early 1970s had substantial roles for women‖ and that Native American woman in the films of this period ―had even less importance to the plot and was easily sacrificed if necessary‖ (Bird 75). Common feature of the films from this period represents the ability the Native American female character has – to seduce the white hero from white ways to Native way of living.

Running Deer, chief‘s sister in A Man Called Horse is obviously not interested in

Native American men, as she declines proposals to marriage. On the other hand she is excited when the main white protagonist, John Morgan, wants to marry her. After she is married to Morgan, they consummate the marriage and she is eager to please him and to have sex with him. As Marubbio describes in her work, the direction and camera contributes to Indian Princess image in this film, as ―the camera seemingly caresses

Running Deer‘s skin and focuses tightly on her breasts and the sweat that covers her body‖ thus recalling ―precinematic images of the Indian Princess and Pocahontas that so often depicted the maiden bare breasted‖ (Marubbio 176). Running Deer is able to

27 seduce Morgan from white ways to such an extent that he wants to become a chief of the group. In the end Running Deer dies and thus she satisfy what is expected from the

Indian Princess image.

Little Big Man, on the other hand, responds to the trend I described in the previous subchapter and so it features the Squaw character. The film is in many ways a pro-

Indian film, it depicts Native Americans in quite a positive light and it tries to describe and show the way of life of a particular group of Native Americans. It also shows the brutality of white soldiers and the inability of U.S. government to keep deals with

Native Americans. Although the film eliminates some of the stereotypes present in the films of the Golden Age of the Western, and also cleverly parodies some of the ―wild

West‖ stereotypes, yet the stereotypical image of sexually available Native American women is quite strong in the film.

The Native American women do not have much screen time in this film and in the time they have they are depicted as Squaws. Most significant role is that of Sunshine,

Jack Crabbs‘ wife. Jack Crabb, the main white hero marries Sunshine and happily lives with her in her camp. Sunshine, same as her sisters, is sexually available to Jack and it comes natural to her to have many children. Second time we see Sunshine in the film she is off to have her second child. She had the first child with a different man, but probably not long after she met Jack and got on with him. Also, Sunshine‘s availability makes it easier for Jack to embrace Native style of life again (Marubbio 169). When

Sunshine goes away to have her second child delivered, she persuades Jack to have sex with her three sisters, who sleep alone and feel lonely, because they do not have husbands. Even though the sisters have never seen Jack before, they all, one by one, have sex with him (see Fig. 16). They sexually welcome him and even when he has sex with all of them, they still do not have enough. Although this is intended as a humorous

28 scene, the outcome of it is not so funny, as it seems to position Sunshine ―as sexually deviant and to stigmatize her and her sisters as overtly libidinal. Her request, […] though […] perhaps sexually arousing to some viewers, would seem abhorrent […] in an ethnographic sense, to the colonial imagination and the monogamous American mainstream‖ (Marubbio 182).

When compared to the films from 1940s, 50s and 60s Native American female figure in 1970s is different in her ability to ―seduce the white hero away from white

American culture and ‗civilization‘‖ (Marubbio 168) and we can see the Native

American female characters in this period are more subdued and not so dangerous. The

1970s deal with some of the stereotypes concerning Native Americans and so they mark the point from which more attention has been given to this topic, but at the same time instead of getting rid of the sexually available Native women stereotype; they only use different means to perpetuate it.

The Modern Western

In this thesis the term Modern Western denotes the period of Hollywood western film from 1990s onwards. This period continues in the trend of the Revisionist Western and we find that Native Americans are depicted in much more positive light. Lot of film producers and directors declare their films depict Native Americans and the history of the Native American-White encounters in true light and that their films are very accurate. The stereotype of sexually available Native American women unfortunately also continues in the trend established by the Revisionist Western and so in Modern

Western films we encounter the Squaw image quite a lot.

A film that was praised for its historical accuracy, employment of several Native

American languages, using Native American advisors and altogether putting much effort into the film is Black Robe. Despite all that, the film was not able to dispose of some negative stereotypes, namely the Squaw image.

It does not take much time for the young Squaw, Annuka, to get acquainted with young white Frenchman, Daniel. A passionate kiss comes naturally and very early after they get acquainted. Annuka does not have any restrains and is active in pursuing the relationship between her and Daniel. The course of their sexual relationship is fast paced, since at night of the day they kiss, they already have sex. There is no shyness on part of Annuka as she and Daniel have sex using a missionary position. Bird summarizes this fact in her words that the message is that ―sexuality among American

Indians is casual and animal-like, although an Indian can be uplifted by a real love relationship with a White‖ (Bird 75). Ward Churchill, whose main focus of study is treatment of Native Americans by U.S. government, claims in his book Indians Are Us? that Annuka has sex with whatever male available at the moment of her need and that she does it on all fours in the dirt (Churchill 128). Even though I agree with what

Churchill asserts afterwards, this observation is wrong since in the tent sex scene he mistakes Annuka for another Native American woman. As far as the missionary position is concerned Churchill defines it as ―still morally - and in some places, legally - defined as the only ‗unperverted‘ sexual posture in the United States‖ (Churchill 129).

The fact also is that Annuka uses her body as a sexual object when she, her father,

Daniel and Blackrobe are imprisoned by Iroquis. Although Annuka has sex with Iroquis guard because she wants to set her group free, the impression the situation gives is still quite negative, because it seems it is not so demanding of Annuka to have sex with a strange man. Since Annuka copulates with Native men and white men alike, this scene then confirms her Squaw image.

How alive in the new millennia is the trend of depicting Native American women as

Squaws may be observed in TV mini-series Into the West. I decided to include this TV mini-series in my thesis, despite the fact it is not a film, because the percentage of western films made today is fairly small and the number of films that actually feature

Native American female character is even smaller. Also, the TV series addresses many viewers as well as film does. Fourteen years after Black Robe there is a TV show with even more stereotypical Squaw character/s. Unfortunately, the show‘s creators were unable to dispose of negative stereotypical images of Native American women, despite their attempt for true and accurate depiction of the American West in the first half of the nineteenth century.

In the first episode, already, we can find several examples of the stereotyping.

Fletcher, the mountain man who stops by at Wheeler‘s wheelwright, talks about all the adventures in the West as well as about how ―tribes will give you girls‖ (Into the West).

This implies it is a common thing the tribes give white men women and that women are sexually available to them. Jacob Wheeler travels to the West with group of mountain

31 men and they come by a Mojave camp. There, many of the men are entertained by

Mojave women, who behave seductively and after the men are drunk we can see several of the women escorting the men to their shelters.

On other occasion Thunderheart woman, Lakota Native American, makes eyes on white trader, who visits Lakota camp. The trader wants to trade for her, and, in fact, the men of the tribe decide to give Thunderheart woman to the trader. It happens that

Thunderheart woman gives baby to the trader. Later, when Crows kill the trader, take the baby and hold Thunderheart woman as a captive, she is sold to Jacob Wheeler.

Again, she makes eyes at him and eventually marries him. The story does not end, however, as in the second episode Jacob Wheeler stays behind the group, which travels to the West, leaving thus his wife and children. Couple of years later Jacob is able to find Thunderheart woman; by this time she is married to Jacob‘s brother – another white man.

Interestingly, the image of Pocahontas is so strong that it does not fit into the ongoing trend from the 1970s. In 1990s there was a wave of films about Pocahontas and this wave was started by the 1995 Disney version of the story called Pocahontas. Since the stereotypical image of Indian Princess originated in the character of Pocahontas, it is logical that a film of the same name, respecting in some ways the original story, would feature this kind of Princess. What is unfortunate about this film is the fact it incorporates in itself stereotypes in many respects typical of the Golden Age of the

Western. What is probably even more unfortunate is that it is an animated film primarily intended for children, and so children get in contact with the stereotype and acquire it very early in their age.

The creators of the film claimed they created a film supporting multiculturalism, but the truth is they were not able to stop perpetuating Indian Princess stereotype. In their

32 effort to present multicultural film the creators made multicultural the appearance of

Pocahontas. With Disney‘s multiculturalism in Pocahontas deals Leigh Edwards who describes Pocahontas body as ―historically-impossible multiethnic body‖ which is composed of ―‗aesthetically-pleasing‘ body parts drawn from American Indian, African

American, Asian American, and Caucasian models‖ (Edwards 151). She further discloses that ―Disney animator Glen Keane describes his Pocahontas drawing as ‗an ethnic blend whose convexly curved face is African, whose dark, slanted eyes are Asian and whose body proportions are Caucasian‘‖ and that Keane used for his drawing except the historical representations of Pocahontas also for example Irene Bedard, the actress who provides Pocahontas's voice; Filipino model, Dyna Taylor; black model,

Naomi Campbell; and white supermodel, Kate Moss (Edwards 151-152).

Pocahontas in this film embodies almost all the features of Indian Princess, since

Indian Princess stereotype is derived from Pocahontas. The only thing missing there is the Princess‘ ability to adapt to white man‘s culture (even though this is partly present, because she starts to speak English). Pocahontas has a connection with nature, she explains to Smith how things work in nature, she talks with a willow, which is her grandmother, and so on. She is beautiful; she has large sensual lips, she is big-breasted and does not look like thirteen years old, as the real Pocahontas was (see Fig. 17).

Buscombe fittingly writes that Pocahontas has ―gently swelling bosom and exaggeratedly small waist of a Barbie doll‖ (Buscombe, What’s New in the New World?

36). She wears kind of Native American mini dress; her legs and neck are exposed, and often she poses very sexy somewhere by water or on rocks. While being sexy she is at the same time innocent. Kim Anderson comments on this, in her essay dealing with

Native American women, in this manner: ―Pocahontas who is ‗so oversexualized, kind of crouching around, slithering around on the rocks‘ part noble savage, part princess,

33 part loose squaw‖ (Anderson 230). Also, unlike other Native American girls/women in the film, Pocahontas is not interested in Native American men. She is supposed to marry great warrior Kocoum, but instead she is interested in the white sailor Smith.

With every frame love between Pocahontas and Smith graduates and every frame contributes to this impression of a great love story considerably. It is present from the scene on rocks in fog, through the moment Pocahontas starts to speak English out of the blue sky, until the moment they kiss and the moment when Pocahontas saves Smith.

Pocahontas‘ story is so ubiquitous that even such a director as Terrence Malick was apparently somehow fascinated by it and decided to make a film out of it. His The New

World offers beautiful cinematography and it is evident that much attention was paid to the details. Unlike Pocahontas, The New World is little bit more realistic (though this is probably due to the fact it is a feature film) and it illustrates nicely the lack of understanding between Smith and Pocahontas. It is possible to understand the need to adapt the love story of Pocahontas and Smith over and over again, as it is an important myth connected to the history of settlement of North America and it is embedded in many people‘s conscience, but on the other hand I agree with Marubbio on the fact that this particular adaptation should offer a critique rather than reaffirmation of old themes

(Marubbio 228), and in essence the film does not offer different perspective or a new theme. It only retells the story as it supposedly happened.

If we take a look at The New World from the perspective of the role of Native

American women, it does not differ so much from the Disney version of the story.

Fortunately, Q‘orianka Kilcher, who plays Pocahontas, ―is a long way from the Barbie- doll looks of the Disney conception‖ (Buscombe, What’s New in the New World? 39) and also her age, more or less, corresponds to the age of real Pocahontas. Despite this, the image of the Indian Princess is even stronger than in Pocahontas. Pocahontas is very

34 much connected to the nature and she lusts for a white man. Her sexuality is quite repressed, but there are hints pointing to her exoticism and her body, as Buscombe describes: ―At one point Pocahontas […] appears in a pair of fetching, indeed mildly fetishistic, deerskin stockings which would not be out of place on a contemporary catwalk‖ (Buscombe 37). She is pure and virginal and wants to help white men in spite of the fact she betrays her own people. She also accommodates to white‘s culture as she adopts their eating habits, dress code and other customs, and travels to the ―civilized‖

Britain. At the end of the film Pocahontas dies.

Because the number of western films made in the history of Hollywood cinema is very large and so it is often hard to find some original theme in today‘s Modern

Western, many filmmakers combine tools of various genres and create films such as

Cowboys and Aliens (2011), Hidalgo (2004) or Shanghai Noon. In most of the western films made nowadays there are almost no relevant Native American female characters and so the filmmakers do not have to deal with the stereotypes concerning the Native

American women.

Shanghai Noon combines elements of western, martial arts and comedy, and according to Lynn Gregor it ―provides an opportunity for contemporary American

Indian audiences to take another look at the genre and the female Indian role in it‖

(Lynn Gregor 106). The truth is, the film works with some of the stereotypes and offers fresh look at the ―wild West‖. It plays nicely, for example, with the names of characters

– Jackie Chan plays Chon Wang, ―with the obvious John Wayne pun intended‖ (Lynn

Gregor 106), Owen Wilson is a cowboy called Roy O‘Bannon (Bannon being the main character in 1953 Arrowhead) and Xander Berkeley as marshal Van Cleef, clearly referring to actor Lee Van Cleef, famous for roles of bad guys in Sergio Leone‘s films.

I don‘t see ―another look‖ Lynn Gregor talks about, however, as far as Falling

Leaves, the Native American female character, is concerned. Falling Leaves maybe does not fit precisely one of the stereotypical categories I described in the previous chapter, but she represents a blend of them. Chon arrives at the camp of Natives, they celebrate until late at night and he wakes up the next morning next to a beautiful woman, Falling Leaves. It is clear they had sex. Of course he does not remember anything, but Falling Leaves is smiling at him and is available to him the same way she probably was at night. Falling Leaves is a daughter of the chief, who pronounces her and Chong wife and husband. Chong is not comfortable in this situation and tries to get out of it. Falling Leaves remarks that ―He did not complain last night‖ (Shanghai

Noon). In these scenes Falling Leaves meets the criteria for Indian Princess in several ways. She is beautiful, she is the daughter of the chief and she craves for a lover outside her racial group. On the other hand, as one of the natives says to the chief: ―Don‘t worry

– it could be worse…at least he‘s not a white guy‖ (Shanghai Noon). Fortunately

Falling Leaves does not meet the criteria for Indian Princess as far as dying is concerned.

At the same time Falling Leaves has some features of the Squaw as she likes whatever guy she comes across. At first she sleeps with Chong and marries him after

(which is a reversed situation concerning the Indian Princess character, than we usually see in western movies), but then she makes eyes on Bannon and in the end she initiates passionate kissing between her and Bannon. The fact is Falling Leaves also partly fits the category of the Sexualized Maiden. She is able to ride horse skillfully, she is great shooter, she is dangerous to white men and she can take care of her.

The number of western films where you could find relevant Native American female characters is fairly small in the Modern Western period from the 1990s onwards.

Despite that in those that feature Native American female character these characters are depicted in the same stereotyped way as they were decades ago. While the Sexualized

Maiden has been suppressed, the Squaw‗s presence in Modern Western‘s films is quite common. There seemed to be also Pocahontas‘ restoration in the 1990s and 2000s and so the Indian Princess re-emerged for a while. Old theme exhaustion brings new films that cross genres and with that comes, for example, in Shanghai Noon a character, which is a blend of several stereotypical images.

Conclusion

In the introduction I talked about the misunderstandings of Europeans and how the stereotypes developed out of these misunderstandings and ignorance. These stereotypes and false assumptions may be attributed to the lack of materials and information channels at that time. That is probably partly true, but I think much more important role play the nature of people itself. There was and has been deep-rooted idea of whites‘ superiority over other races, the need to spread ―civilization‖ and, of course, the human‘s trait to oversimplify things. Although information was much more available by the time of film invention, people were used to their stereotypes and no one really tried to understand Native Americans. Film continued to depict these false assumptions and in some ways it still does today. It is ironic, that even though there has been growing interest in Native Americans since 1970s and plenty of information on their cultures is easily available nowadays, some of the films were not able to dispose of the easy women stereotype. As I document in my thesis, in some cases the stereotype of

Native American women sexually available to white men is today as vivid as in the

1950s.

To prove how vivid the stereotype has been in the last decades outside of film and, especially, how vivid is today, I have looked for some examples. One of the most insulting examples I found is 1982 video game called Custer’s Revenge (see Fig. 18).

The game introduces, as a main character, General Custer, whose only goal is to have sex with naked Native American woman tied to a post (see Fig. 19). On his way to the post he has to avoid arrows shot at him. Custer is almost naked, wearing only a hat and boots, and he has visible erection. After he reaches the woman, he has sex with her (Top

Ten Shameful Games). Whether it is consensual or not is not clear. Apparently there was a Brazilian remake of the game in 2008. This brings me to more contemporary

38 history. To see how very much alive the stereotype is outside of film, it is enough to type perfectly neutral phrases ―native American costume‖ or ―Indian costume‖ into

Google search and wait for the outcome. When you switch to pictures, the first page features many pictures of half-naked women in sexy Indian Princess costumes, closely resembling the costume of Pocahontas in eponymous film from 1995. If you continue with your search and you visit some of the web pages selling these costumes, you come to realize that if you want to buy at least a bit realistic costume, you do not have a chance. For example Halloweencostumes.com offer dozens of Native American female costumes and every one of them has its own ―sexy‖ name and all the models pose in very sensual way. You can see examples of the pictures in the Picture Appendix (see

Fig. 20-22). There is one costume named ―Women‘s Disney Pocahontas Costume‖ (see

Fig. 23) and I do not think that is what Pocahontas used to wear. There are, however, even ―sexier‖ costumes, such as the ones from Yandy.com, with names similar to the stereotypical images I described in the previous chapter (see Fig. 24-25).

It is undeniable that people are very much influenced by today‘s mass media such as the internet, television broadcast, print media and film, and so in a perfect world there should not be any misinformation, myths or stereotypes. Film has been a powerful medium from its invention and is still now, although its role diminished compared to the pre-television times, when it was the main source of the news. How important a source film is documents for example a Cherokee scholar, Jesse Morris, in his study called The

Stereotyping of American Indians: Where Do We Currently Stand at the University

Level? In this study university students were asked to ―identify their initial thoughts about Native Americans and where did they learn this?‖ (Morris 1). Morris highlights the role of the school system and media, as he states that ―the majority in all groups surveyed identified the school system as the main contributor in their current

39 understanding of American Indians. The second largest number of responses were related to the media― (Morris 6) and he further goes into more detail, when he describes that some of the students‘ answers ―may be explained by some of the movies presented to this generation, […] ‗Dances with Wolves‘, ‗The Last of the Mohican‘s‘,

‗Pocahontas‘, ‗Smoke signals‘, […] ‗Into the West‘ are all relatively new ideas and a new spin of Indians in the movies‖ (Morris 8). Buscombe also confirms my point of view in his words that ―Where do white people‘s ideas about Indians come from?

Undoubtedly, the most pervasive and potent contemporary source is the cinema‖

(Buscombe, “Injuns” 23).

As the stereotype of Native American women sexually available to white men goes beyond film, the depiction of the stereotype on screen may negatively influence real-life situations. The statistics concerning sexual assaults and rape in the United

States speak clearly – there is much higher ratio of raped or sexually assaulted Native

American women than white, African American or Asian women. According to Policy

Insights Brief published in February 2013 by National Congress of American Indians

Policy Research Center ―American Indians and Alaska Natives are 2.5 times as likely to experience violent crimes – and at least 2 times more likely to experience rape or sexual assault crimes – compared to all other races‖ (Policy Insights Brief 2). The Brief also states that ―61 percent of American Indian and Alaska Native women (or 3 out of 5) have been assaulted in their lifetimes, compared to 52 percent of African American women, 51 percent of White women, and 50 percent of Asian American women have been assaulted‖ (2) and that shows nine to eleven percent larger percentage of assaulted women. Much larger percentage can also be seen in the number of women raped, ―34 percent of American Indian and Alaska Native women will be raped in their lifetimes, compared to 19 percent of African American women, 18 percent of White women, and

40 seven percent of Asian and Pacific Islander women‖ (3). What is important to emphasize is the fact that ―among Native women victims of rape or sexual assault, an average of 67 percent describe the offender as non-Native‖ while ten percent are Asian and 57 percent are white perpetrators (4). Marubbio describes the situation between the stereotypes of nowadays and real-life sexual assaults thusly: ―the squaw whose overly active sexuality results in a brood of children for whom she cannot provide, and the

Sexualized Maiden who deserves to be raped because she is inherently bad. Also implied is that men have the right to Native women‘s bodies – that, as women of color and members of a ‗conquered‘ people, Native women are sexually exotic property‖

(Marubbio 231).

I don‘t want to argue that the only cause of this difference in the statistics of sexual assaults is film; nevertheless it can be one of the factors, which influences people‘s behavior, especially if the stereotypes are embedded in one‘s mind from their childhood, when they used to see it in cinema or TV. I find it important not to perpetuate stereotypes about Native Americans and rather try to find a way to understand Native American cultures and depict them in its true nature, which is interesting for itself and there is no need to ridicule it or insult it.

Appendix

Figure 1. The People and Island Which Have Been Discovered (circa 1505).

Figure 2. Grüniger.Clubbing Member of Vespucci's Crew (1509).

Figure 3. Blake. Europe Supported by Africa and America (1796).

Figure 4. Adriaen Collaert. America (circa 1589).

Figure 5. The ―Captain Lyon.‖Across the Wide Missouri.

Figure 6.―By the water.‖The Indian Fighter.

Figure 7. The ―naked Appearing Day.‖ White Feather.

Figure 8. ―Nita is being treated roughly.‖Arrowhead.

Figure 9.The ―dangerous Hesh-Ke.‖Mackenna’s Gold.

Figure 10. The ―lustful Hesh-Ke looking at Mackenna.‖Mackenna’s Gold.

Figure 11. A poster. Duel in the Sun.

Figure 12. A poster.Across the Wide Missouri.

Figure 13. Poster.Run of the Arrow (1957).

Figure 14. A “Knife.‖North West Mounted Police.

Figure 15. The “Louvette‘s sexual power.‖North West Mounted Police.

Figure 16.―Jack and the three sisters.‖Little Big Man.

Figure 17. A ―Pocahontas‘ look.‖Pocahontas.

Figure 18. Custer’s Revenge game case.

Figure 19.Custer’s Revenge game caption.

Figure 20.―Sexy Indian Girl Costume.‖Halloweencostumes.com.

Figure 21.―Sexy Native American Indian Costume.‖Halloweencostumes.com.

Figure 22.―Mystic Indian Maiden Costume.‖Halloweencostumes.com.

Figure 23. “Women‘s Disney Pocahontas Costume.‖ Halloweencostumes.com.

Figure 24.“Indian princess Costume.‖Yandy.com.

Figure 25.―Indian Warrior Costume.‖Yandy.com.

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English Résumé

The aim of this bachelor thesis is to show the way Native American women were, and still are depicted in Hollywood film. The thesis is concerned with the stereotype of

Native American women being sexually available to white men and it argues that this stereotype has not practically changed since the silent era.

The second chapter of the thesis shows how the stereotype was created, what influenced the emergence of it and how it changed in the time before the Hollywood film was invented. Since this stereotype is firmly linked to the western genre, the next chapter deals with important periods of western film genre. It goes from the Silent Era up until the Modern Western, and for every period there are several films, which are analyzed, while particular examples of the stereotypical depictions are demonstrated there. To illustrate the usage of the stereotype there is a picture appendix attached.

In the conclusion, it is demonstrated on several examples that the stereotype is very vivid in today‘s society. It is indicated, for example, in a way what costumes depicting Native American women are available on the internet. The conclusion also draws attention to the fact that films and television have considerable influence on the viewers and that these media have the power to influence the society with negative stereotypes.

Czech Résumé

Záměrem této bakalářské diplomové práce je komplexně ukázat, jak byli a stále jsou zobrazovány americké indiánské ženy v hollywoodských filmech. Práce popisuje přetrvávající stereotyp amerických indiánských žen sexuálně dostupných bílým mužům a tvrdí, že se tento stereotyp téměř v ničem nezměnil od dob němého filmu.

Ve druhé kapitole je popisováno, jakým způsobem byl tento stereotyp utvářen, co mělo na jeho vznik vliv, a jak se vyvíjel až do doby vzniku hollywoodského filmu.

Jelikož se tento stereotyp vyskytuje převážně v žánru westernu, tak je pak v další kapitole postupně mapováno několik významných období westernu, od němé éry až po současnost, a v každém z těchto období jsou rozebírány konkrétní příklady používání stereotypu v konkrétních filmech. Pro lepší představu je k práci připojená také obrazová

část.

V závěru je ukázáno, že tento stereotyp běžně ve společnosti přežívá a tento fakt je demonstrován na několika příkladech, například na tom, jaké jsou k dostání kostýmy zobrazující americké indiánské ženy. Závěr také upozorňuje na vliv filmů a televize na diváky a potažmo celou společnost, a tudíž i na schopnost ovlivňovat společnost negativními stereotypy.