Nanook Of The West: Film Analysis

As the frontier was successfully settled by Americans, many people became interested in documenting the fleeting culture of Native Americans. William F. Cody was on tour with his Wild West show during 1883-1917, which reenacted battles against the Plain Indians. Similarly, Robert J. Flaherty distinctly focused on capturing the old ways of the Itivimuits tribe in his 1922 docudrama film, Nanook of the North. Under the direction of these two men, both types of entertainment were explosively popular across North America and Europe. The creators of these crowd-pleasing forms of entertainment held Native Americans at a high level of admiration. The Wild West shows were used to retell battles during the westward expansion; Plain Indians were allowed the opportunity to educate whites on their culture because of Cody. In addition, while on tour, he would often spend his downtime with Indians in teepees. Similarly, Flaherty spent many months working with, as well as living among, an Inuit tribe. His goal for this film was to show the public the old ways of these indigenous people
of the arctic of Canada, before the harsh terrain would get the best of their tribe. Flaherty was greatly impacted by the Itivimuits, seen by the Eskimo styled drawings in his diary. Even though Cody and Flaherty had a lot of admiration towards indigenous people, their shows and film would not have been so beloved if it did not appeal to white audiences. Although the shows and documentary included real Native Americans, they portrayed a more simplified and stereotyped version of them.
To go along with the storyline that Cody had created, Indians acted like bloodthirsty savages, whose plans were foiled by cowboys. While it was clear to Native Americans that they were merely acting, the audience thought that Indians were always this barbaric. Likewise, Flaherty directed the Inuit to act dumbfounded by a gramophone, biting into the record and looking for the man inside of the box. In reality, the Inuit listened to the radio and wore American manufactured clothing, not furs. Nanook proposed many adventurous tasks Flaherty could film Inuit performing, such as hunting walrus’ with a harpoon, something they had not done for some time. Although hiring real Natives was a step up from painting a white man red, they were displayed as primitive
characters. Since the show and film included two different tribes from two vastly different terrains, the public's opinion of them were contrasting. As a result of Americans wanting to colonize out West, Native Americans in the Wild West shows were villainized. Since Nanook of the North was filmed in the cold arctic of Canada, there was no intent of besmirching the indigenous peoples (to the level that the Wild West show did). Instead, they were described as “the kindly, brave, simple Eskimo(s)”. In one scene, they were even seen peacefully trading furs with white merchants, for colorful beads and candy. Their story was more focused on Nanook’s family surviving the harsh environment. Although the Inuit were simplified for the big screen, they were not seen as barbaric, like the Native Americans in Cody’s show.
Soon after the final frontier was closed, there was a desire to recover what was lost in the process, Native American culture. William Cody’s Wild West show, as well as the film Nanook of the North, were shown to audiences all over the world. The rapid pace of industrialization and urbanization made Americans yearn for the wild and savage. Cody rewrote battles, making Indians look like the stereotyped barbarians seen in dime novels. Likewise, Flaherty directed the Inuit to act childlike and primitive. Based on where the Indigenous people lived in relation to where white people wanted to colonize, the narrative changed from an admiration of Natives to a critique of savages.