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BLACKPINK - ‘Ice Cream (with Selena Gomez)’ M/V

Get ready; it’s time to talk about Native Americans in film.

That’s right, eeeeeeeease into it. This is one hell of a topic, and I am NOT qualified to talk about it. And this is a topic that requires some, uh, qualification. So, OK, let’s start here with Disney and Pocahontas. By now, anybody who’s read my posts knows that I LOVE me some historical accuracy. And Pocahontas is FAR from being accurate in any way. For fuck’s sake, she learns how to speak English via LISTENING WITH HER FUCKING HEART. Wish I could learn languages that way, it’d make world travel easy as hell.

But other than that, how was the Powhatan tribe portrayed? Well...they were OK. The filmmakers tried hard to be accurate to Virginia Algonquian tribes of the time, and they mostly succeeded. But they weren’t perfect. For example, the villain of the film, Ratcliffe? Yeah...yeah, they took off his face. Face/Off style. He, uh...he did not live. They skinned it with seashells. But, they weren’t gonna put that in a Disney movie, obviously, so that gets a semi-pass from me. And that’s not the main focus. There’s a theory that Disney made Pocahontas to distract from their previous foray into Native American portrayal. And that...

OH GOD I’M REALLY DOING THIS HUH?

...Look, I’m a big fan of Disney properties. Like, a HUGE fuckin’ fan. But I will always acknowledge when they do something fucked up. Recently and...in the past. I’m the kind of guy to defend certain creative decisions due to historical context (for example, the Crows from Dumbo and King Louie from The Jungle Book have never really bothered me as much for that reason, even though the former is certainly very offensive by modern sensibilities). But, uh...YEAH THIS IS PRETTY FUCKIN’ BAD I AIN’T DEFENDING WHAT MAKES THE RED MAN FUCKING RED

...Although it is a banger of a tune. IT IS GODDAMMIT. If it weren’t for the HORRIBLE HORRIBLE RACISM, I’d like it for the musical stylings. But OK, enough navel-gazing. This is an animated reflection of real public perceptions of Native Americas, dating back to...well, the Wild West era. Native Americans in film had been portrayed as either the enemy, savage barbarians that deserved to be annihilated, or peaceful dullards meant to serve the white settlers. Which...ugh. Gross. So, let’s jump ahead and look at one of the most legendarily stereotypical Native American characters...and the tragedy of his existence.

GODDAMN IT DISNEY, AND GODDAMN IT JOHNNY DEPP

Pictured above is a potential cannibal and Johnny Depp in the 2013 Disney film, The Lone Ranger. Anybody around during this time is gonna remember the insane controversy surrounding Johnny Depp at this time, the scale of which he would never encounter again cough cough hackwheeze. Depp for SOME FUCKING REASON chose to accept the role of Tonto, arguably the most famous and infamous Native American character in American media.

I’d love to get into the fact that Depp claimed to be of Cree and Cherokee lineage, despite never saying this previously and providing NO FUCKING PROOF, but...there’s another Western movie starring Depp that I wanna talk about down the line, and I’d rather save this conversation for then. Instead, I want to talk about Tonto. Because Tonto was originally played by one of the most prominent (and also infamous) Native American actors in film history: Jay Silverheels.

Harold Jay Smith was a Canadian member of the Mohawk tribe, and a successful lacrosse player in his youth. He would later be inducted into the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame, which apparently exists. In 1937, at the age of 25, he was found by Joe E. Brown, comedian, actor, and radio star. You’d actually know him as Osgood in Some Like it Hot! Anyway, Brown is impressed by Jay’s athleticism, and he tells him he should work as an extra and stuntman.

But here’s the thing: Jay’s First Nations, which is relegated to “Indian” during this time period. And First Nations (and Native American) actors are...not appreciated. Let’s just say that they were treated as props at best, and animals at worst. And they were NEVER thought of as capable of actually acting. So, Jay’s at a disadvantage in the industry. Adopting the name Jay Silverheels at this point, he acts as an extra in dozens of films, doing the same thing everything. Whooping, riding horses, attack the poor innocent white people who are taking over the Native American lands for their own good, GOD. What I’m saying is, that reductive image of Native Americans was alive and thriving.

He was in quite a few bangers, like The Sea Hawk, Yellow Sky, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, etc. Here’s the thing, though: in 45 films from 1937 to 1950...dude was credited in 6 of them. And his character was named in 3 of those roles. Jesus. I’m not going into the INTENSE racism during this time period, but just know...it ain’t good. And people are starting to notice.

Why did I stop at 1950? Well, that’s when Broken Arrow comes out, and that would be Jay SIlverheel’s most famous role up to that point, despite the fact that he’s not even the star of the film. The film, starring Jimmy Stewart and directed by Delmer Daves, would be the first film after World War II to paint Native Americans in a good light, and sympathetically. It would also be the film where Jay Silverheels met another future famous actor: Iron Eyes Cody. We’ll get back to Cody, because...Christ. But just know this...Cody is this dude.

The MOST FAMOUS COMMERCIAL IN AMERICAN MEDIA HISTORY. We will get to him. Oh...we will. But for right now, let’s FINALLY watch this goddamn movie, huh? If you’d like to watch Broken Arrow for free, it’s on Tubi! With ads, but hey, beggars and choosers. 

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!