- You're Sacagawea?
- You have most unusual names here.
- Pew, pew! - [Brandy] Oh, my goodness.
- Hi, my name is Mary Ann Buggs,
I am Native American.
I'm a registered member of the Cahto tribe from Oklahoma
and I'm also Cheyenne and Arapaho.
- My name is Silas Cleveland. I'm from Lander, Wyoming.
I myself am Eastern Shoshone.
I am Kalder Ness from Kennebec, South Dakota.
- I'm Bart Ness, his dad.
- And I was raised on the Lower Brule Sioux tribe
Indian reservation, you were also raised.
- I'm Brandy Lewis.
I am an enrolled member of the Choctaw nation of Oklahoma.
- And today we're going to be reviewing
some native American characters in film and TV.
- Native American and indigenous representation
in film is quite often inaccurate.
And the reason for that is that oftentimes
the stories are being told by non-natives.
- I grew up watching westerns with my dad on TV.
I'd say, sometimes I'd say,
why are we watching this movie again with these people
who aren't really Indian,
we called ourselves Indian those days.
And he'd say, well, maybe someday we'll actually win.
Because we were always the ones that got killed off
or, you know, worse things.
- Our houses are fine.
- You think that only because you don't know any better.
- No, I don't think very many natives like hearing
these kinds of things.
- There's so much we can teach you.
We've improved the lives of savages all over the world.
- No, savages. - Savages?
- Not that you're a savage.
- Just my people.
- No, listen.
That's not what I meant, let me explain.
- Let go.
- No, I'm not letting you leave.
- That dress kills me.
It's such a Disneyland sort of take on
the historical figure of Pocahontas.
Savage is just a word, you know,
a term for people who are uncivilized.
- Ooh! - Like me.
- Well, when I say uncivilized-
- Native Americans, I'd say, are some of
the most civilized people, have been for centuries.
- What you mean is not like you.
- For many years, I resisted watching the movie Pocahontas
just because I knew it was going to be a bad representation.
- I really kind of stay away from these types.
I never really had our kids watch them
because they're not even close to the truth.
- I was going to say, I don't remember watching Pocahontas.
- Yeah.
- She's super hypersexualized.
But I liked when she reacted to him calling her a savage
because I think that's what a lot of people think
still to this day.
- Pocahontas, in reality, historically was a young girl.
She was taken and forced to marry John Smith
against her will, and it wasn't a beautiful love story.
- She had a lot of trauma in her life
that when I read the story a long, long time ago,
I really related to, because I think a lot of our people
are still to this day suffering from the trauma
they experienced, whether it's this generation
or past generations.
- Are you,
you're Sec - Sakagawea?
You're Sakagawea?
Ooh, Sacagawea!
You're Sacagawea?
- Even in North Dakota
they pronounce it three different ways.
- There's one of your stereotypes,
having a native American track someone.
- You're amazing.
- I think she was actually a great tracker, too.
- She was, yeah.
- It's really a big deal,
when you see Native Americans in film,
and Sacagawea being part of my ancestry, in my tribe,
That's a pretty big ordeal to me.
- I was struck by her outfit because that's the next thing
I look at is I try to figure out what tribe they are
by looking at their dress.
And it was very non Native American.
- It's just a stereotypical portrayal
of her with the braids.
- I bet a lot of people haven't heard of Sacagawea before,
and so, at least it was educational from that viewpoint,
I assume this is like a kids movie?
- Technically you're a council meeting crasher.
- A scene from Twilight.
- See, the council leaders, dad, Quil's Grandpa,
and Sue Clearwater.
- Clearwater, good name. - Took over for Harry
when he died.
- The Quileutes - Did he say Quileutes?
have been a small tribe from the beginning.
- I don't know if that's a tribe, but maybe it is,
there's 570 plus tribes in the United States,
so I don't know all of them.
- Shape shifters.
- This is a great example of oral tradition,
which is a very, very important part
of native American history,
of stories being passed down for generations.
- And now I see at the end,
they're near water and she's wearing,
the older lady is wearing shell earrings.
So that must be in the Pacific Northwest, I'm guessing.
Actually overall, I was really happy that there were
so many Native American actors making money.
- I think they did a good job, you know,
showing modern native Americans.
They dress like everybody else.
And not every native has a crazy name or anything.
They had the, Steph Clearwater,
I think it was on there, regular names,
there are many traditional last name still,
but not everybody's named like Pocahontas
or something like that.
- Are you a real Indian?
- Okay, "Indian in the Cupboard."
- Wolf clan, Iroquois.
- Iroquois, I've heard of them.
- As if he hadn't heard of that,
maybe he wouldn't really be Indian
because I tell people what my tribe is
and Cahto isn't a well known tribe and they say,
I've never heard of that, as if I made it up.
- Can you be the peacemaker?
- I'm a boy, my name's Omri. - The music.
- The great spirit can be a child?
- To me, I don't think the great spirit
would be a white child, especially.
- How do you know English?
- We know the English.
- The English.
- They suffer us to fight the French for them.
- I know that's true.
And I wonder how many people watching this film
actually caught that.
- That was not at all what I expected
it was going to be about, Indian in a cupboard.
- I think a lot of people don't realize the accuracy of his
comment that native Americans were employed
by the English to fight the French.
That's really important for people to know
the accurate part of history.
What I've experienced is children being told
what their parents think based on what they've seen
in old westerns.
And I think this would give them an alternate view,
much closer to the truth of my people.
- That is really cool that it's like some magical cupboard.
And the he can kind of learn about the tribe
or like the past.
- One day this ranch is going to be yours.
- But I don't want this ranch.
- What is going on?
Who is this woman?
Was she adopted, maybe?
- You are ungrateful and you don't deserve this.
- Well, you're an Indian giver.
- Oh, man. - How is promising someone
something, then taking it back named after us?
- This is shocking.
- I'm confused because why is she blonde?
Why does she not look one speck of Indian?
Yesterday I saw you try to milk a male buffalo.
- Whatever mom, it worked.
I put it in the fridge.
- I mean, it's actually kind of funny,
but definitely playing into every stereotype that exists.
- I would hope that the writers and the producers of this
particular show would talk to the two Native American
actors that they employed to do this.
- I feel like it's meant to be joking
about the stereotypes, actually.
I guess I would want non native people to know that
a lot of times the stereotypes that you see
are so overt, it's laughable.
- I think that the majority of the clips that I saw had
inaccuracies as far as portraying Native American people.
- I'd love to see Hollywood giving more opportunities
out there to different Native Americans.
- I really just think it's important to have
native people telling native stories.
- I think the more realistic and the more natives
that they bring on to these sort of movie,
there's so many interesting things with the Indian tribes.
I think a lot of people would really enjoy the watch.
If one of those movies made you want to learn more
about native American tribes,
you should research which ones are in your state.
- I hope that you, the audience don't get
all of your ideas about Native American people
from TV and movies, that you are encouraged
to explore native American accuracies.
There's a lot of books out, there are powwows
that happen in every major city.
- And if you want to learn more about actual native people?
Talk to them.
(gentle music)