In 1990, Congress declared November as American Indian Heritage Month, and they also passed the Native American Languages Act, followed by the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. At the same time, movie Dances With Wolves was timely and it reminded American people that Indians occupied the country long before Christopher Columbus set foot on it. During the whole 1990s, American Indian became hot property in Hollywood. Studios scrambled to duplicate the success of Dances With Wolves and created a cycle of sympathetic Indian-themed movies. As a result, people began to put focus on Native American and their culture, history, traditions and language. Meanwhile, Native American, being out of the stage of the U.S. culture for many years, started to think about whom they are and what a real Indian identity is.
Smoke Signals was written, directed and produced by a Native American Chris Eyre, and it was featured as a milestone of breaking the Hollywood stereotypies and bringing real Native American to the screen. The story takes place in the present not …show more content…
hundreds years ago on Coeur d’Alene reservation. The present is presented as a time of a typical daily life and story starts with a traffic report from KREZ radio, “Big truck just went by... now it 's gone,” on a rainy bicentennial Fourth of July. Just on such a special day, Arnold Joseph (Gary Farmer), did “a good thing” and saved the infant Thomas Builds-the-Fire (Evan Adams) in a fire that killed Thomas’s parents. While in his son Victor Joseph’s (Adam Beach) memory, Arnold was an alcoholic and irresponsible father and husband who abused him and his mom and abandoned them when he was only 12 year olds. In the news of Joseph’s dead, Victor and Thomas first time leave the reservation and go on a journey to Phoenix, Arizona to take care of Joseph’s remainders. In this journey, these two young men learn from their past, debate the images Hollywood portrayed, and eventually discover what a real Indian identity is.
In the skillful hands of director Chris Eyre, Smoke Signals presents a real Indian identity that the contemporary Native Americans try to stay away from the white culture, and at the same time, they are immensely influenced by the western main culture. The film establishes a brand new and realistic identity of the Native Americans who are positive to make progress as the development of the U.S. civilization. They inherit the kindness and peace from their Indian ancestors toward other people, and they live with wisdom and optimistic attitude toward their lives.
Although the Native Americans in the film try to stay away from the White, they are immensely influenced by the white-man culture within the U.S. The movie starts on July 4th when the Native Americans celebrated the holiday on the reservation. They celebrate the birthday of the nation in the similar way as all other American around the nation. They dance, sing, drink and burn firework, as if they have already forgot the independency of the U.S. results in their tragedy in 500 years ago. It seems they have no reason to love this country. However, as the time passes, they are assimilated to become a U.S citizen. They eat fast food, play basketball, wear T-shirt and jean, speak fluently English, and moreover they watch Hollywood movies that play an important part in changing the contemporary Native American culture. The young generation has realized such changes; meanwhile, they are involuntary to the change. Victor is mad at Thomas because Thomas always mentions the story in Dances with Wolves, a famous Hollywood Indian movie. Victor questions Thomas, “don 't you even know how to be a real Indian? How many times have you seen Dances with Wolves anyways? 100... 200 times? Oh Jesus, Thomas, you have seen it that many times?” Victor thinks that Thomas should have thought the image of Indian American in the movie reflects a real Indian identity, and that Thomas models the hero in the movie who is merely a write man made up like an Indian. Victor believes Thomas has been influenced too much by the Hollywood movie and thus he gradually loses his identity. However, does Victor in fact know what a real Indian identity is? He thinks he knows and teaches Thomas how to behave, “You gotta look mean or people won 't respect you. White people will run all over you if you don 't look mean. You gotta look like a warrior! You gotta look like you just came back from killing a buffalo!” Indeed, Victor has never met a white man, but he holds a prejudice against the White because being insulting by the Whites is an image of Indian in most of the Hollywood movie. What is more, such prejudice also imposed by the elder generations of Indian. Victor and Thomas meet Lucy and Velma on the way leaving for Phoenix. The two ladies question that “you guys got your passports?” They think the two young men are “leavin ' the rez and goin ' into a whole different country.” But Victor and Thomas think “it 's the United States.” The younger generation has considered the reservation as a part of the U.S. and themselves as a U.S. citizen. While the elder generation still think outside the reservation is “as foreign as it gets” and Indian need to have vaccinations to enter the U.S. Elder generation Indian’s misunderstanding of the relationship between the reservation and the U.S. impacts the younger generation to correctly identify themselves. Furthermore, Victor and Thomas have never left the reservation and interacted with any white man, so their knowledge of the White and the understanding of their own identity is limited. The trip to Phoenix begins their journey of discovering their real Indian identity.
In addition, the Native American identity is filled with wisdom, optimism and kindness. The movie pictures a peaceful and joyful morning on the reservation where the local radio station is reporting a live traffic report. Even though there is rarely a car passes by the high way of the reservation, the reporter still stands by at his station and provides accurate and timely traffic report. Indian people are humor and optimist. Their local weather report talks about the shape of the cloud and the taste of the air. “It’s a good day to be indigenous!” is the motto of the Native Americans’ lifestyle. Although the history of American Indians on the continent have in later years has included many sad events, Native American pride still remains and Native American life is ideally filled with pride for their roots and love of nature. They are wisdom and optimistic to their lives, respecting to their land and tribes, knowing that the mind and the spirit play a critical role in physical illness and healing. Furthermore, Kindness and peace are the major parts of the Indian identity. 400 years ago, when the western White first time came to the North America by Mayflower, the Indian ancestors helped those newcomers to grow coin, which did save their lives. Native American’s kindness and peace are passed on generations by generations. In the film, Victor runs a 20-mile way, from night to day, to save the white woman injured in a car accident. Everyone believes the white woman is dead and Victor is not capable to run back to the down for help. But the kindness and peace deep inside Victor’s spirit drive him to do something unpredictable and impossible.
Smoke Signals is not Hollywood’s first Native American directed movie, but it is the first all-Indian casted commercial film.
Smoke Signals demonstrated that contemporary Native American stories could appeal to mainstream audiences. It meets the demand by the audiences at that era that Native Americans are the real people. The film gives out a sense of humor and a projection of real Indian identity. The contemporary Native American’s identity is changing as the development of the U.S. civilization. On one hand, they try to stay away from the Whites and the white culture and keep their original identity. On the other hand, they are immensely influenced by the white culture. Being confused in this paradox, Native American keeps looking for their new identity and move forward as the humanization. However, they never abandon the optimistic lifestyle and the kindness toward other
people.
Work Cited
Chris Eyre. “Smoke Signals”. Sherman Alexie. 1998. U.S.A.
Aleiss, A. Making the White Man’s Indian: Native Americans and Hollywood Movies. 2005.
Indian.org. “Native American Culture”. http://indians.org/articles/native-american-culture.html. Apr.20th 2014.