Inside the behemoth hit film, Wonder Woman, a welcome and
long overdue newcomer to the all-white male movie superhero landscape, stands a
supporting character known as Chief, portrayed by Blackfoot actor, Eugene Brave
Rock. By all accounts, the character is not just another caricature, Brave Rock
and director Patty Jenkins were allowed to create a real, complete character
even for the supporting role he was playing. The character is complete beyond
stereotype. Irritatingly, the last Native character I saw in a superhero film
was Adam Beach’s role in Suicide Squad and he emerges from a car, hits a woman
and says she deserved it. I haven’t had the opportunity to see Wonder Woman
yet, I really want to but am watching my money at the moment. It will be the first
one I see when I can.
Current views of Dances with Wolves aside, the white savior
motif et al., I, and many Native people were excited to see the film when it came
out back in the early nineties. Not for the journey that Keven Costner made in
the story, and his sacrifices to help the Native people survive in the last
real west, but for those Native people. There was Graham Greene speaking
Lakota! There was Tantoo Cardinal! There was a buffalo hunt with real,
Indigenous people! There was real, Indigenous people! There were real,
Indigenous, young people too.
ON. THE. MOVIE. SCREEN. IN. FRONT. OF. ME!
For me, even more powerful was Thunderheart, bringing back
Graham Greene yet again, but also introducing Val Kilmer as a light-skinned,
mixed blood, Indigenous FBI agent who returns to the reservation and meets with
mixed reactions from the residents. Story of my life, except for the FBI part.
The film presented a reserve that I recognized, albeit on a macro scale. It
presented people that I recognized.
Every few years, when I was teaching, the Native kids in my
classes would suddenly start saying, “Hey Vic-torrrr,” and I would know that
another film with real, Native characters had entered their lives. Smoke
Signals was another film, this one from a Native writer and Native director and
Native actors, told a Native story in a uniquely Native setting that was
decidedly contemporary. These were real characters not caricatures or
stereotypes (although they did exhibit stereotypical behaviour, it’s a fascinating
balancing act), and they were contemporary. I can’t stress that enough. One of
the complaints about Dances with Wolves, and much of the Settler view of
Indigenous peoples, is that we are very much a part of the past. For our kids,
Smoke Signals was about young people in contemporary times. For us, and the
students every few years, they could be the people down the street.
It’s useful to remember that representation matters,
especially if you are a teacher or are in another position of authority for our
youth. Too often we see the Johnny Depp as Tonto, Rooney Mara as Tiger Lilly,
Pocahotties stories that harm more than help. Too often we see the ongoing
mascot challenges that continue to reverberate and we are often attacked with
the strawman arguments that there are more important issues that we should be
fighting for. It is important to remember that these are all connected. The
mascot and the white actor playing Indian create a worldview and a climate that
allows the other, more important challenges to thrive. Too often we encounter
the casual racism, the “get over it” mentality on those challenges and a large
part of that is because the way we are portrayed, as mascots, as pretend, as
not real or really important, teaches our society that it is okay, or that it
is, somehow, our fault.
Teaching against this is hard, especially online, and that
is why we need to be the proper teachers our children need. When choosing the
media you show the students, make sure that it is making real representations
of Native people. When choosing the novel you want to read about a Native
story, who wrote, what does it say, why does it say it? And are we stuck in the
past? My favourite Graham Greene performances is in Thunderheart but also in Die
Hard with a Vengeance. He plays a cop in both. One is much more “Indian” but he
is humourous and competent, real. His speech about having a vision is priceless
in Thunderheart. I love, love, love the novel, Dreadfulwater Shows Up, by
Thomas King (writing as Hartley Goodweather), because it is a modern story of a
cop, who happens to be Native, solving a murder. Plus, it’s funny.
I cannot wait to see Wonder Woman, admittedly not just for
the Chief, it is nice to see a superhero that isn’t just the white male motif
of everything else. Truthfully, I am suffering from superhero fatigue, but I am
happy to see this because it is from filmmakers that are trying to make changes
within the box and succeeding. It is exciting that more of us are being allowed
to see ourselves in popular culture. I hope it continues and I hope that the
clapback is held in check against women, against people of colour, against Indigenous
people, and we are able to move forward somewhat. Until then, I will enjoy this
film and the other ones I mentioned (even the white savior one) and the others
that have been popping up lately (whatever you think of the Fast & Furious
franchise, it is awesomely diverse!).
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