- (Chief) Teach 'em, pale face brother
all about red man. - (John) Good, this should be
most enlightening. - Ugh, interesting.
Unfortunate.
- (Michael) Why does he ask you, "How?"
- This used to be my favorite movie.
- (Chief) Why does he ask you, "How?"
- I remember this.
♪ Why does he ask you How? ♪
- I see more Caucasians say this than natives.
♪ Once the Injun didn't know ♪ - The Injun.
♪ But the Injun, he sure learn a lot ♪
- Don't remember this in Peter Pan at all.
- So, when you're a kid, you don't know what
you're looking at.
- Oh, it's so racist.
- Like, that's [bleep] up.
- (FBE) So while many do love this film,
there are also many that feel that the portrayal
of in the indigenous people in this film is pretty offensive.
- Absolutely. I mean, for one thing,
it doesn't have anything about their nation
or about who they are.
- Redskins is just-- it's such a derogatory term
and then they made the native peoples in
this movie have actual bold red skin.
- The Searchers, I don't know--
I don't know if I ever saw this movie.
- And I'm guessing he's a white man.
- This is a John Wayne movie.
- (sighs)
- Savages will be slaughtered, I am sure.
I haven't even seen this, but they generally are.
- Always portrayed as the villain and not as somebody
who's trying to protect the land, their way of life
and fighting off invaders who did horrific things to them,
but John Wayne's the hero.
- (FBE) So, western movies were some of the first
representations of Indigenous Americans in entertainment,
but they were often used as the antagonists.
- Yes. - (FBE) So, what are your
personal thoughts on western films?
- I personally don't watch too many western films
just because how many times can you see people
of your ethnicity that they're representing
be killed, slaughtered?
- The thing that's always missing here is that
Indians were trying to save themselves
from complete annihilation. Of course they were gonna fight.
- I did like this film because I was born
in Colorado, so cowboys, horses, that was us.
We had horses. We didn't really think
about the social implication about it.
- My did has always loved the western films
despite being Native American because during the time
that these are made, this is the way people thought
and I kinda think it's stupid for-- To Kill a Mockingbird
was banned from schools because of the use
of the n-word in it, which I think is offensive
and is awful, but it's also history and I think you should
not ignore history because then you don't learn.
- Keep America Beautiful.
- (narrator) They held it in simple reverence.
- Ah, Iron Eyes Cody.
- Iron Eyes Cody is actually Sicilian.
- (narrator) All around us are reminders of how far
we still have to go. - The crying Indian.
- It's the one where he tears up.
- What is that, litter? Is that a road?
- (narrator) 99 Park Avenue, New York, New York.
- I got chills from that.
- A different perspective of Native Americans
being the caretakers of the Earth
and pushing us to actually try to take care of our planet.
- (FBE) So, this is part of a PSA starring Iron Eyes Cody.
- Who's an actor.
- (FBE) So, Cody was not Native American.
- That man wasn't Native American?
- (FBE) Yet he claimed he was of Native descent
even though his parents were from Sicily.
He somewhat acted as a cultural ambassador
for Native Americans and he tried and sought out
to correct common misconceptions about Native Americans
whom he claimed to be his people.
- How interesting.
- There were a lot of people that left their civilized life
to live with the Indians and even white men.
Everybody loved them, actually.
- Every culture should be appreciated to an extent
as long as you appreciate the right reasons
for the culture and what they do. You can appropriate
the image of the Native culture as long as you're
telling a story that's the true story of it.
- He probably was appreciating the culture in itself,
which I do-- that is very nice
and genuine, I think he really was.
I just wish they actually used a Native American person.
- Pocahontas.
- I had a big crush on Pocahontas.
- First of all, she was a child.
- No.
- (Pocahontas) If you kill him, you'll have to kill me, too.
- (Chief) Daughter, stand back. - (Pocahontas) I won't.
I love him, father. - Disney.
- (Pocahontas) Look around you. This is where the path
of hatred has brought us. - She should be saying that
to John Smith, not her father.
- (Pocahontas) This is the path I choose, father.
What will yours be? - Very intense.
I feel like as a child, you're rooting for Pocahontas
and John and then from this perspective,
you're like, I know how this story really ends.
- That scene is really important. It really erases the violence
of conquest, right? Because if the Native woman
is heterosexual and falls in love with the settlers
and makes it seem like we invited conquest
to come to our land, that we wanted this.
- Even though it's pretty much incorrect of her life,
I do kind of appreciate them trying to at least
make it be more of a gentle message.
- (FBE) Many claim that Disney kind of distorted
the story of Pocahontas, focusing on her relationship
with a man and kind of placing that above all else.
- Yeah, making it a love story.
- (FBE) The real Pocahontas was actually around 11 years old
and she was actually captured by the colonists while
trying to help the settlers and she later was even
brought back to England as proof that it was possible
to civilize a quote, "savage" end-quote.
- Damn it, I'm not gonna get emotional.
It's not happening because I'm actually very angry.
It's just another form of whitewashing.
- What's so crazy about that whole thing
is literally the English were the savage--
they were the savages coming to someone
else's territory.
- (Victor) You know, Thomas.
- This looks like a-- okay.
- I just recently watched this for a second time.
- (Victor) I don't know what you're talking about half the time.
- (Thomas) I don't know. - (Victor) I mean, you just
go on and on talking about nothing.
- Sherman Alexie movie.
- (Victor) You're always trying to sound like some
damn medicine man or something. How many times have you
seen Dances with Wolves? 100, 200?
- Dances with Wolves is a hard to watch.
- (Victor) You have seen it that many times, haven't you?
Don't you even know how to be a real Indian?
- (Thomas) I guess not. - I think he has
the wrong idea of what an Indian should be.
- (Victor) First of all, quit grinning like an idiot.
Indians ain't supposed to smile like that.
Get stoic. - As I'm smiling.
- I feel like I'm grinning like an idiot, too.
- (Victor) No, like this.
- I guess. If you call that stoic.
- (Victor) You gotta look mean or people won't respect you.
- I mean, that's more real in the fact that
they're wearing regular clothes.
- That movie was so important to me when it came out
because it was the first time I'd seen anybody like me
represented in film.
- I wish there was more contemporary films
on Native Americans, I truly do.
This was a really good movie and actually,
the main actress in this movie was the voice of Pocahontas.
- (FBE) So, this was a clip from the film Smoke Signals,
which was the first feature length film that was written,
directed, and starred Native American actors.
- I did not know that, though. That's representation
when people of color or indigenous people
are behind the camera.
- (FBE) So at the time, many hoped that this
would pave the way for more Indigenous storytellers
in Hollywood, so why do you think it's been so difficult for this
culture to make its way into Hollywood?
- I've noticed that a common thing for modern
Native Americans is that it's hard to get out
of the reservation. I feel like it's bad,
'cause they're set back to begin with.
- Network heads will meet with people who they know
or people who they know who know other people
and usually, those are all white people.
The people who are in power really have to make an effort
to open up that door.
- (Lone Ranger) What is it? - Modern.
- Oh God. This was not a good movie.
- And the Indian is Johnny Depp, right?
- Don't believe Johnny is Native at all.
- (Lone Ranger) We're lost, aren't we?
I knew it. Just follow the horse.
That was your idea? - And Tonto had a very
unappropriate name, unfortunately.
Tonto means dumb-- dumb person, I believe.
- (Lone Ranger) Hello. If you could just point us
in the right direction, we'll take it from here.
- I liked this movie 'cause it was freaky.
- Was that supposed to be funny?
- It's a modern representation that's not exactly
a positive thing, but at the same time,
it's a character.
- (FBE) There were many people that were upset that
a prominent Native American character like Tonto
was not played by somebody who identified as
Native American. - Yeah.
- It's this weird [bleep] brawl of bringing people
to the forefront, but at the same time,
making money, but at the same time, doing the character justice.
- (FBE) So, what are your thoughts on when films
and shows cast actors to portray a race that
they're not really related to? - I wish they'd just
give them a chance. Stop having somebody else
pretend they are something else.
- I don't think too much about it mainly because too much
of other people doing other races because
that's what acting is. I don't think that's wrong
because that's make-believe.
- Some Native people who are playwrights or whatever
talk about how there aren't enough Native actors,
so they write plays that are for white people.
I don't want us to give up on ourselves.
I want us to really believe that someday, this can happen.
- (FBE) So as you know, the entire cast of this episode
are either Native American or Indigenous American
including myself. - Yes, yes.
That makes me so incredibly happy.
- (FBE) And we wanted to talk about the representation
of Native Americans throughout the years in film and television.
- Cool.
- (FBE) So as you've seen, there have been some
authentic and some not authentic Indigenous representation in media,
but there often isn't much representation of
indigenous people at all, with many issues as well
as amazing stories about the cultures often getting lost
or just unseen. So for you personally,
what does being Indigenous mean to you?
- I think I'm still trying to figure that out.
It means loving myself and my culture
and not living up to any kind of European
standards of beauty.
- It's definitely in my DNA, but because it was lost,
I just don't-- I wish I was more connected.
There's just a lack of information within my own family.
- I've been to a traditional pow-wow.
My dad was showing me, this is where our family comes from
is this kind of thing. It's a heritage thing for me.
- It's affected the way I think of myself.
I didn't speak English until I was six years old.
I could hear people say, "Speak English.
You're in America." But I was born here.
My father was born here.
- It's hard, right, because what you also see around you
is all the loss, all the things that we don't
have anymore. We're a beautiful people
who have not been defeated even though there's been
500 years of conquest on this continent.
- (FBE) So, Indigenous Peoples' Day was originally called
Columbus Day and first became a federal holiday
in 1937. However, in 1992,
Berkeley, California replaced the holiday
with Indigenous Peoples' Day since many said Columbus
did not discover America, but rather began
the colonization of it. - Yeah, it's like if I drove
to your house and was like, "I found this."
and then I did horrible things to you.
- (FBE) At least eight states and 130 cities and towns
have replaced this holiday, but as great of a step as this is,
there are still many states that haven't adopted
the new name for this holiday. What does changing
the name of this holiday mean to you?
- I think it should be exactly what it is.
It's important that people understand what Columbus Day
actually stands for.
- 'Cause where Columbus did not discover America,
I would think-- you would think that's
common knowledge at this point. I think changing it
to Indigenous Peoples' Day, I don't see anything
wrong with that.
- A lot of states are slow to adopt new things
because of tradition. The name change is sweeping it
under the rug and doesn't deal with the issue,
but it's a step forward.
- I don't want it to just be symbolic.
I want it to be material. It can't just go nicely
to Indigenous People Day without a lot of education.
- (FBE) Finally, there are many Indigenous people
around the world from different regions
and many feel underrepresented and would love for their stories
to be heard more, so what strides do you hope
to see in the representation of indigenous people
across the world moving forward? - I don't know if this
is a good answer, but I really feel like
YouTube and other forms of online media
are going to be very effective.
- It's nice that they do have one or two people
who are actually in the political spectrum
and nice to get more people, but it would be nice
to see even more.
- This is a good start. I just send so much love
out to all the indigenous people.
I feel it. I feel your pain.
I feel it. I feel it.
I know what it's like to feel disenfranchised
and marginalized. I'm still trying to find my roots
and they're so hard to be discovered
because they were ripped out of the ground.
- Hey everyone, Lauren, producer here at FBE.
Thank you so much for watching this episode.
As somebody who's part of the Tohono O'odham
and Apache tribes, this video was such an honor
for me to make and shed a little bit of light
about the representation of Native Americans
in entertainment and media. I also wanted to thank
all the reactors who came in today and shared their
personal stories. We do know that there
are indigenous cultures all over the world
that are underrepresented, so we wanna know
their stories as well, so if you have any,
let us know in the comments down below.
Bye, everyone and have a happy Indigenous Peoples' Day.