Native Americans in Hollywood Essay Example For Students

Native Americans in Hollywood Essay Dances with Wolves is a movie staring Kevin Costner as Lt. JohnDunbar. John wants to see the frontier before it is gone from the war sohe goes to a fort there. When he gets to the fort he finds it abandonedand soon finds that there is a Sioux tribe as his neighbors. John becomesfriends with the Sioux and learns their language. He lives with them andlearns their culture. John falls in love with a woman named Stands with aFist (Mary McDonnell) that was captured by the Sioux when she was little. They get married but then the white people come to kill the NativeAmericans. John attempts to talk to them but fails because they think hewas a traitor. He ends up giving the Sioux guns and they kill the whitemen and go to the winter fort. Unfortunately, twelve years later all ofthe Sioux were killed. There are many Native Americans in this movie. There is an old wiseone and then many other leader figures. The old one likes John and saysthat he is the only white man he has known. John becomes a friend with onequiet one that was the father of Stands with a Fist. He gives advice toJohn and tells him what to do. He is one of the head people in the Siouxand he makes decisions about hunting and war.John also becomes closewith a teenage Sioux named Smiles A Lot. They talk and trade NativeAmerican things with White people things. In the beginning of the movie Native Americans are talked about asthieves and beggars. The white men state that they have to kill theIndians because they are thieves and beggars. The Natives said theywanted to be recognized for their trail so they were going to kill thelieutenant. They are wearing animal skin and feathers, with a lot of facepaint on and they speak a different language. One Native says the whitemen are a poor race and they wont survive one winter. The Indians go toJohns house and looks through his things (thieves). After awhile the old wise Sioux tells the others to go see John andtry to talk with him. They start to teach each other their language. Atfirst one of the men want to kill John but the other one tells him to clamdown. He makes them coffee and lets them have sugar. They learn eachothers word for buffalo since the buffalo are very important to the NativeAmericans as the winter is coming soon. John starts to have the whitewoman to translate for him too so they can now communicate very well. TheNatives are shown as excepting people. At this point John is quite welcome among the Native Americans. Heknows their language and spends a lot of time with them. The Sioux accepthim; they even let him go on hunting trips. The Sioux are now seen as nicefriendly people, which is a totally different message they were puttingthrough at first. They have wars against other tribes to protect the wivesand children of the tribe. By the end of the movie the Native Americansare seen as nice men that have to defend their land from the white men.