By Genna Cottingham '23
Practically everyone grew up watching Disney movie classics that shaped our childhood. However, some of our favorites display racist depictions of Native Americans that most people are unaware of, even while watching them. The stereotypes are not only present in Disney movies but also in many Old Western movies that show fights between cowboys and Native Americans. In these types of movies, the Native Americans always lose and the cowboys always win. When children watch these films, they think it is okay to treat indigenous people poorly, just because that is how their favorite actors treat them on the screen. These negative depictions in the movies have an even greater impact on Native children, creating self-esteem issues from a very young age and increasing the likelihood that indigenous kids are bullied for their unique heritage.
The brilliant video shown in the American Studies class at Notre Dame called “Native Americans Through the Eyes of My Children” informs viewers of the incorrect and disrespectful stereotypes of Native Americans in movie classics. These unfortunate depictions might be from the movies we grew up watching with our families, but that are disrespectful to Indigenous culture no matter how much we cherished them.
The video shows a clip from the Disney classic Peter Pan, in which the characters in Neverland are depicted in connection to the culture of the Native people. Peter Pan is wearing a headdress through the entire scene, an ornament that is known to be a symbol of leadership and honor in Native American culture, worn out of respect for the chief of the tribe. Having a non-indigenous boy wear one in a children’s movie disregards the importance of the headpiece in native societies.
Another example is the film A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, which almost everyone grew up watching around the holidays with their family. In this clip, three Native Americans are seen celebrating the popular holiday with the characters, but they seem to lack awareness of popular music culture. In fact, a scene shows one of the Native Americans telling Charlie Brown that he doesn’t understand some of their traditions. And while a few of the Peanut characters are playing music on instruments, the Native people are depicted as being uninformed about any type of music. However, Native people play their own types of music and have their own cultural dances, so the stereotype of altogether not knowing music is quite incorrect and ignorant.
The video also shows a clip from the movie Indian in the Cupboard. Here, a Native man is portrayed as being very small and could even fit in the palm of a child’s hand. The child’s reaction to the Indigenous character conveys to the viewer that he didn’t think Natives were real. This depiction may make non-Native children begin to think that Native Americans are fantastical creatures, a figure of our imaginations, and only seen in movies. This is completely incorrect because Native Americans are real people with real experiences that we must not erase.
Although the movies of Peter Pan, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, and Indian in the Cupboard have negative depictions of Indigenous Americans, there are other resources of positive native culture. The movie Geronimo: An American Legend accurately portrays the innumerable problems Native Americans have faced in our society for hundreds of years. Additionally, Geronimo is one of very few movies that show a positive interaction between a veteran of the US army and Indigenous peoples. The director, Walter Hill, brings awareness on issues of the Native societies and correctly expresses Natives’ impact on American history, which is how Indigenous Americans should always be portrayed.
Sources:
Editors: Ms. Brilliant and Cecilia Fiorindo
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