Alex Castro
Were Native Americans and their culture portrayed fairly in Animation? Intro This essay is going to discuss how Native Americans have been portrayed in animation. It will start by looking at Native American history and culture and compare it to early animations and more contemporary animations. By looking at Native American stories, beliefs and way of life, it can then be compared to the narratives, purpose and visual representations within animation. Disney will be a key focus as they have a history of representing different cultures poorly or unrealistically. As an animator, this is an important area to study because if they were to make an animation with some cultural insight, they would need to consider how it could be perceived in society. After looking at key animations, the essay will explore other visual media which depicts Native Americans such as illustrations and games. Finally it will look at the effect that these animations and other visual media have had on societies’ view of Native Americans. A key text for this essay will be ‘Diversity in Disney films: critical essays on race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality and disability’. It will also look at journal articles which discuss Native Americans in the film industry. This essay will look at animations which adapt Native American culture; first it will look at offensive and less realistic depictions particularly focusing on Disney’s Peter Pan. Then it will look at less offensive and more realistic contemporary portrayals such as Brother Bear and Spirit.
Negative representations of Native Americans Disney has a historical reputation of portraying ethnic groups poorly; especially in earlier eras where racism was more accepted. In the 1953 production of Walt Disney’s Peter Pan, it is shown how people may have viewed the Native Americans. A particularly well known song in the early Disney era is from Peter Pan: ‘Why is the Red Man Red’. “Some complaint has already been voiced by those who oppose stereotypical representation about this song, which affirms that he’s red from a constant pursuit of red women.”(Cheu, 2013, pg 41). Racism was more accepted in the early 1950’s as it was not until 1954 that the Civil Rights Movement came into power in the United States. Although this was to bring equality for African Americans this may have brought on an awareness of equal rights to other minorities including the Native Americans. “It would have been hard for the studio in 2010 to wriggle out from under this pre-civil rights era gaff particularly since the braves are indeed drawn in darker tones than Lily, and that’s not the whole of it” (Cheu, 2013, pg41). The character design of the Indian tribe takes physical stereotypes to a more extreme depiction as well. Tiger Lily has the most acceptable design and aesthetic as the skin colour is more realistic. However Tiger Lily is displayed to have some basic elementary qualities about her such as having braided hair, headband and feather, a dress possibly made from animal hide however overall she is represented more fairly. The Indian Tribe followers known as the braves are much more offensive. “The braves are not only bigger and darker than the maiden, but they are to a man clumsy, grotesque and with faces that have prominent noses and mouths but also no eyes at all” (Cheu, 2013, pg 41). This proposes that there may not have been much care or thought into how the characters would look on screen as suggested in this reference. “In trying to imagine what they were thinking in creating these characters, one of the ideas which occurs to this observer is that they were cognizant of the racist
Alex Castro tradition into which they were drawing: these bodies, with different costuming, could easily be those of happy field hands or bush cannibals leaping around their fire” (Cheu, 2013, pg 41). This implies that rather than researching the Native American culture, animators just relied on stereotypes. The Big chief, for example, barely even looks human. He is characterised with almost animalistic features such as his horns on his headdress and his nose, this could be perceived as a snout perhaps of a buffalo or bull, bringing back the point that people saw them as less human, less important or less civilized because they were an ethnic minority. “When the chief is dancing, at one point his steps change from the campfire cadences we recognise to something between and Irish jig (vaudeville) and a Cossack squat-dance…” The chief’s dance during ‘why is the red man red’ displays a good example of the inaccuracy that was applied to these native American character. It further suggests the carelessness Disney had when creating these characters and animating them. (Page 43)
Pocahontas on the other hand is a Disney film that aesthetically looks much more accurate and less offensive representations of Native Americans. If the Indians in Peter Pan were represented in a similar way to Pocahontas, there would certainly be less complaint about it. However, the interpretation of the original story may not be entirely accurate. This quote is taken from an article online which was written by someone from the Native American culture and gives his insight to the Disney take of the story of Pocahontas. In 1995, Roy Disney decided to release an animated movie about a Powhatan woman known as "Pocahontas". “In answer to a complaint by the Powhatan Nation, he claims the film is "responsible, accurate, and respectful. “We of the Powhatan Nation disagree. The film distorts history beyond recognition. Our offers to assist Disney with cultural and historical accuracy were rejected. Our efforts urging him to reconsider his misguided mission were spurred.” (Chief Roy Crazy Horse, n.d) Pocahontas was released in 1995. The fact that they are still making inaccurate and possibly offensive takes on other cultures in this case between 1954 and 1995 is astounding. This quote is from a direct source and shows Disney does not pay much attention to cultural accuracy and are more concerned with money and selling more. “It is unfortunate that this sad story, which Euro-Americans should find embarrassing, Disney makes "entertainment" and perpetuates a dishonest and self-serving myth at the expense of the Powhatan Nation.” (Chief Roy Crazy Horse, n.d) In Peter Pan only the big chief seems to be able to speak English but even then, it seems as though they tried to make him sound a bit dumb. The other Indians do not speak English except for in the song. Even then Disney wrote what is thought to be all the stereotypical language conventions such as “How, Ugh and Red Man” (Cheu, 2013, pg 41). This makes them appear to come across as stupid which is offensive in itself as well as making them sound encouraging of the racial stereotypes of their language which the culture would not encourage people to think of. Through acting on stereotypes such as these and others mentioned earlier, Disney is building a big case of cultural inaccuracy against them.
Alex Castro Marginalisation of Native Americans by western culture Hollywood and film creators have a history of marginalising Native Americans, Boyd states that they have remained “one of America’s most marginalized minorities” (Boyd, 2015). “American Indian population’s challenges, struggles and progressive strides are reflected in popular culture. Hollywood and the American film industry have long represented Indians unfavourably.” (Boyd, 2015). This further backs up how poorly represented they were in Peter Pan, and shows the small strides towards equality that the film and animation industry has made. “Before Columbus there were no Indians. The indigenous peoples of what is now called North America not only did not call themselves Indians, they did not think of themselves as one people” (Buscombe, 2006, pg 10). The only reason they were referred to as Indians, was become Columbus thought he had discovered India, when it was actually North America. This led to the native people of North America being referred to as Indians. “In this view, Indianness is an artificial construction, imposed by the whites.” (Buscombe, 2006, pg 10). Western cultures are aware that they can stereotype cultures that they know little of, parodies in animations such as South Park and Family Guy often take racial stereotypes and exaggerate them for comedy effect. In Edward Said’s book ‘Orientalism’ he looks at the western view on the Orient from the French and the British perspective. Orientalism is ‘a way of coming to terms with the Orient that is based on the Orient’s special place in European Western experience’ (Said, 1978, pg1). Although Said does not focus on Native Americans specifically, his theories can be applied to the culture and the way the culture is perceived in film. ‘Most of all they see in the discourse of modern Orientalism, and its counterparts in similar knowledges constructed for native Americans and Africans, a chronic tendency to deny, suppress or distort the cultural context of such systems of thought in order to maintain the fiction of its scholarly disinterest.’ (Said, 1978, pg 347). This backs up the idea that Disney does not necessary stick to accuracy because they are more concerned with making a story that sells and appeals to western society.
Positive representations of Native Americans In the production of Pocahontas (1995) it is fair to say that aesthetically Disney paid more attention to the way the Native Americans were portrayed. Compared to Big Chief’s Indian tribe in Peter Pan, there are massive strides of improvement to the characters in Pocahontas. The characters are portrayed as people, as a society, and the colours used (especially that of their skin) is much more true and culturally accurate than the bogus depiction of the Indians being red in Peter Pan. That being said, as was mentioned earlier in the essay, Disney may have gotten the colours and faces right this time but they obviously compromised the story in order to sell their product. Of all of Powhatan's children, only "Pocahontas" is known, primarily because she became the hero of Euro-Americans as the "good Indian", one who saved the life of a white man. Not only is the "good Indian/bad Indian theme" inevitably given new life by Disney, but the history, as recorded by the English themselves, is badly falsified in the name of "entertainment". (Chief Roy Crazy Horse, n.d) There are other animated movies involving the Native American culture. For example Brother Bear which explores the history of Native American shamanistic power. It recognises cultural accuracy much more than other Disney films, particularly Peter Pan. It reminds us that within their society they have jobs as any other man or woman has in our modern society; they had hunters and
Alex Castro shamans, similar to farmers and doctors in western society. The fact that Disney have shown the audience Native Americans performing roles in society shows that they have tried to represent Native American culture in a fair and modern way. ‘"Brother Bear" is only the beginning of a soon-tobe growing revival of our interest in American Indians. Last century they dubbed themselves the "forgotten minority." They received little positive attention, and I don't ever recall seeing an American Indian sit-com on television’ (Beliefnet, 2003). Reading reviews for Brother Bear, it is clear that unlike Pocahontas and Peter Pan, it is not a ground breaking or classic film. It shows a fairer and more realistic representation of Native Americans however this may had led to its lack of popularity. ‘Compared to the Disney classics, this is a lazy and forgettable misfire’ (Film 4, 2003) and ‘Brother Bear is a very mild animated entry from Disney with a distinctly recycled feel’ (McCarthy, 2003) are examples of the type of reviews it has received. Spirit is another film that represents Native Americans in an accurate way aesthetically at least. This is a production by DreamWorks rather than Disney but this only shows how other production studios have made strides to represent the Native Americans accurately as well. This film comes from the point of view of a horse living in the open land during the time when the white man started to take from the Native Americans. To an extent this reminds us of how our culture was cruel and brutal to the Native Americans. In this film it shows the white people being unaccepting of the Native American way of life just because they did things differently and had a different colour of skin. ‘The other point of contention is the political correctness of the story, where Native Americans are nearly deified while the cavalry, railroads and westward expansion in general are vilified. But in the early versions of the story, the differences were not so pronounced’ (Peszko, 2002) This backs up that the white man in this film is seen as the ‘bad guy’ whereas the Native Americans have been shown as innocent victims. This is a completely different representation to Disney’s films, it is more based on true events and out of the films I have looked at, is the most positive representation of Native Americans. This is a quote by writer of the film John Fusco, ‘I spent a lot of time in the Lakota world. I speak the language and was adopted into a family there’ (Fusco cited in Peszko, 2002) It shows that there was actual consideration and primary research involved in the writing of Spirit.
Conclusion The aim of this essay was to focus on case studies of early Disney animations in particular Peter Pan. It has been pointed out the cultural, ethical and racial stereotypes and problems that Disney would not get away with in their current animations today. The essay has also compared these poor depictions to more current animations including Pocahontas, Brother Bear and Spirit. These have shown to be not perfect but better in cultural accuracy. Based on these early depictions many would say that no the Native Americans have not been portrayed fairly in early animation and even today are perhaps slightly looked over in either culture or their historical stories and legends. This essay includes a source from a member of the Native American culture who expresses his disapproval of how they were portrayed in Pocahontas. Some of the discoveries about this topic as it was being written is the true events of what really happened in the Pocahontas story and just how out casted the Native Americans feel they are especially when depicted in Hollywood films and animations.
Alex Castro Bibliography
Beliefnet (2003) Shamans at the Cineplex [Online] Available at: http://www.beliefnet.com/entertainment/movies/2003/12/shamans-at-the-cineplex.aspx. Accessed 25th January 2017 Boyd, J. (2015). "An Examination of Native Americans in Film and Rise of Native Filmmakers." Elon Journal of Undergraduate Research in Communications, 6(1). Retrieved from http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/a?id=1130. Accessed Nov 24th 2016 Buscombe, E (2006) ‘Injuns!’ Native Americans in the movies. London: Reaktion Books Ltd Cheu, J (2012) Diversity in Disney films: critical essays on race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality and disability. London: Jefferson Film4 (2003) Brother Bear review [Online] Available at: http://www.film4.com/?id=125858&section=review. Accessed 26th January 2017 Laskow, S (2014) The Racist History of Peter Pan's Indian Tribe [Online] Available at: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/racist-history-peter-pan-indian-tribe180953500/?no-ist. Accessed Nov 24th 2016 McCarthy (2003) Review: ‘Brother Bear’ [Online] Available at: http://variety.com/2003/film/awards/brother-bear-1200538552/. Accessed 26th January 2017 Peszko (2002) Spirit: A Longshot Or A Sure Bet? [Online] Available at: http://www.awn.com/animationworld/spirit-longshot-or-sure-bet Accessed 25th January 2017 Powhatan (n.d) The Pocahontas Myth [Online] Available at: http://www.powhatan.org/pocc.html. Accessed 1st December 2016 Said, E (1978) Orientalism. London: Penguin Group