White Europeans and Indians in America

¶ … White European Authors Depicted Native Americans in Fiction

The objective of this study is to examine how white European authors have depicted Native American in Fiction. Examined to inform this study are two specific works in writing and specifically those entitled: "The Last of the Mohicans" and "The Searchers" written by James Fenimore Cooper and John Ford, respectively.

There can be no doubt that the native American Indians are misrepresented in literature written by white European authors as the Indians are portrayed as ignorant, uneducated, ungodly, barbarians and villains. IN the literature of White European authors, the Native American Indians lived a life that was wild, unprincipled and ungodly however, study that has examined the life of the Native American Indians since those earlier works has related an entirely different story of the Native American Indians.

Coleman on Social Construction of Indians in the Cinema

The work of Cynthia-Lou Coleman entitled "Framing Cinematic Indians within the Social Construction of Place" reports that Native American images have become "ubiquitous in the marketplace of goods, with raven-haired maidens adorning grapefruit boxes and aftershave bottles shaped like war-bonneted braves." Coleman notes that such Indian iconography "extends beyond hawking trinkets to the marketplace of ideas and ideology." ( ) Exploration of cinema and the way in which White Europeans have depicted American Indians in a stereotypical role that fails to exceed what is a "one-dimensional space" although a timeless one writes Coleman ( ).

William Stedman is reported to have made the observation that Western films characterize Indians as a homogenous group portrayed as vicious, indolent, stupid, and savage. While movies 'ensnared and then filmically embalmed the Indian forever in Hollywood's image, the real crime is the constant torrent of mediated images that depict a lop-sided version of history." (Coleman, )

According to Coleman "In the colonial American captivity narrative tradition, the racial category of whiteness gives the captive agency to reproduce his/her captivity in the form of a narrative. Upon the former captive's release, ransom, or escape the cultural and colonial privilege of whiteness transforms the captive from a powerless victim of cross-cultural contact into an active agent who then discursively reconstructs the terms and conditions of Indian captivity. The narrative reproduction of captivity, thus, inverts the power structure in the act of writing the white captivity narrative. The writing gives the former captive control over the Indian as subject of and subject to white discourse. Hence, the Indians -- the captors -- eventually become the captives to white cultural and social structures of power and knowledge, which historically indigenous people had little or no access." ( )

II. The Feelings of Native Authors and Scholars Include Deep Resentment

Coleman reports that native authors and scholars even now "harbor deep resentment of this arguably "archetypal genre" of American literature because the popular and canonical narratives generally feature the most horrific portrayal of Indian people and culture without historicizing the circumstances that generated the capture of white captives in the first place." ( )

Gregor writes that recent examination of the literature shows that "many of the early American captivity narratives white captivity occurs as a result of white encroachment on Indian lands, white violation of Indian treaties, and Indian retaliation for violence committed by a member of the white community in Indian country. The Indian captor's motives for the practice of captivity, however, are usually excluded from the white captivity narratives when in fact as Pauline Strong Turner's anthropological study shows the practice of Indian captivity has a long and complex history among North American Eastern Woodland tribes." (Gregor, 2010)

III. Cooper -- A Friend to the Indians

It is stated in the work of Kenneth Lee Untiedt entitled "The Evolution of the Western: The Original American Novel" that 'The Last of the Mohicans (1826), was one of the two work written by Cooper that won him a "prominent place in American Literature. Through the influences of the romantic adventure tales of his European ancestry. Cooper created a new genre that was familiar and yet uniquely American. At the heart of every Western is the very serious issue of establishing order and search for a better way of life. This theme of a valiant quest to make way for civilization may have originated in the Old World, but the American frontier Literature of the nineteenth century established the formula of characters and action that became the "Westem," which has since evolved into a unique and influential genre that continues to be an immensely popular form of Literature. The Western that we traditionally think of has been shaped by many sources, both literary and nonliterary." ( )

Cooper is stated to have held an attitude toward the "colored races…" that was of an "unprejudiced philosopher." (Kellner, 1915) Cooper tended to idealize the Indians as he was acquainted with many Indians from his childhood. Research shows that according to Cooper the Indians while they did indulge in scalping and were merciless in pursuit of their enemies…possessed many virtues above all, hospitality, and a sense of self-sacrifice, not only for wife and child, but for a strange friend." (Kellner, 1915)

IV. The Searchers

John Ford's cinematic production 'The Searchers' starred John Wayne, a character who was highly prejudiced and who had no shame about feeling the way that he did. This production is about a quest that one man is obsessed with. John Wayne plays Ethan Edwards whose niece is kidnapped by Comanches, murdering the family and burning down their home. Ethan spends five years searching the tribe that took his niece and to shoot the child dead since "she has become the leavings's of a Comanche buck." ( )

It is reported that 'The Searchers" was "made in the dying days of the classic Western, which faltered when Indians ceased to be typecast as savages." ( ) The films of Ford tended to view Indians more sympathetically than did other productions. One writer states that in 'The Searchers' that Ford may well have been attempting to "…imperfectly, even nervously, to depict racism that justified genocide; the comic relief may be an unconscious attempt to soften the message. Many members of the original audience probably missed his purpose; Ethan's racism was invisible to them, because they bought into his view of Indians." ( )