Existence

[Wetzelbill]

This is a critique of the film "Dances With Wolves" and the vision of Kevin Costner regarding the project. It's not really edited that much or anything, I just busted it out for a class a few weeks ago, however, I thought you all might like reading something a little different. :) -Bill



EXISTENCE

The air is crisp. The landscape holds shadows and light. Mesmerizing. Resplendent. Haunting. Flashing memories from a not so distant time. People. Culture. Dreams. There are romantic notions. The tint of grandeur. Nobility. Savagery. This is life. This is death. Melancholy illusions. Fields of sadness. Is this all gone? Where are the songs? The dances? Sometimes we revel in mystique. Tears are shed for ancient lives. When death is all around us. Pain. Anguish. Poverty. There is no beauty. Nobody rides off into the sunset. What is life? What is death? What are dreams? Some call them existence.
_________
In his only nonfiction novel, Killing Custer, Blackfeet Indian author, James Welch, critiques the film, Dances With Wolves, by arguing it is everything that a white person could want in a film. Lieutenant John Dunbar, played by Kevin Costner, taps into romantic notions of American Indians. He becomes an Indian, marries another Indian, who is really a white woman, and does all of this amidst gorgeous, breathtaking landscapes. The Indians in the film have a homogeneity to them. There are the “good” Indians, the “bad” Indians, the funny and the dangerous. Some yip, some holler and some just stand around and act noble. The good Indians have a child-like quality to them, while the bad ones perpetuate the stealing, murdering savage myth. Welch eludes to all of this. And, I would say he is right. Yet, sometimes I think that the people who critique Costner’s vision, not necessarily Welch, miss the point of this whole process. Costner, while not perfect, holds an integral role in the evolution of Indian film.

Obviously, Dances With Wolves, is told in a Eurocentric manner. The “story” of Indians is told by a white man and through the eyes of a white man. That is one of the biggest criticisms of films made about American Indians. It is not from an Indian point of view. Costner makes no pretense of seeing the Indian world through an Indian’s eyes, and in part, this may be why this film is so romantic. The character, Lieutenant Dunbar, humorously finds white men absurd. Whether it’s the flatulent mule driver, the suicidal military commander, or the dangerous rube, Spivey, who steals Dunbar’s journal and encompasses the embodiment of Euro-ignorance, the protagonist finds them all ridiculous. In the end, he finds no real home. He does find peace with the Indians, but has to leave them, so his character never quite sheds his loneliness. He simply leaves the Indians with the belief that a way of life - his way and the way of the wild frontier- is about to vanish.

This concept of the vanishing frontier, more specifically in this case, the vanishing Indian is at the heart of the Eurocentric view. This is the biggest flaw of Costner’s vision and the film itself. Death is quite symbolic in Dances With Wolves. It’s all around Lieutenant Dunbar. From his participation in the Civil War, to the death of animals, to the eventual demise of the whole indigenous culture. The latter of course is a myth. That’s what makes the Eurocentric vision so flawed. Indians have not died. We are still here. Through the Indian wars, assimilation, and socioeconomic turmoil, the Indian people have persevered. There is nothing romantic about life on a reservation. It’s difficult, rife with addiction, poverty and violence. Indians have suffered, not vanished, so it does no good to wax philosophic about the grievances and injustices of the past. It’s not important to lament the vanishing Indian, but it is important to examine the current situation of the contemporary Indian populace. That is the most valid contemporary criticism of this film. However, I understand what Costner was trying to do here, and it is tremendously respectable.

By getting people in theaters, Costner was able to conjure interest in American Indians. Without his film, we may never have had an interest in films about Indians and by Indians. Sherman Alexie and Chris Eyre may not have made Smoke Signals, for example. Neither may have went on to make other films told through an Indian’s perspective, either. Costner helped push a golden age, if you could call it that, of Indian film and Indian interests which have expanded into the world of literature as well. Indian literature and film are relatively mainstream now. They transcend Indian audiences. While people like Pulitzer winner and Kiowa Indian, N. Scott Momaday, ushered in a revolution of Indian art, Kevin Costner helped create an interest that opened the doors even further to these artists. That is his most important contribution to the Indian people.

Last August I was talking to the Montana State Coordinator of Indian affairs, Reno Charette. She told me that in the process of getting a program called “Indian Education for All” funding, she had to attend meetings of the Montana State Legislature. The program would provide education about Indians and Indian history to all Montana students, both white and indigenous alike. She recalled how one white male member of the Senate stood up and argued against the program. His argument was that the program was unnecessary, because Indians do not exist anymore. He wondered if “we,” meaning Montana, America and the world, even had Indians anymore. That is the type of thinking that American Indians have to deal with nowadays. People wonder if we even exist. Now while Kevin Costner may have helped perpetuate that myth to an extent in his film, he also piqued enough interest so that Indians can now prove those stereotypes wrong. The importance of that interest cannot ever be understated.

[oneighty]

1. Nice

My sister-in-law is the daughter of a Seneca man married to a white woman.

We live a couple of miles from the 'Res'. There are two types of Indians here. We round eyes see the Indians of the bar rooms. It is rare for a white man (Woman) to know the 'Res' Indians. Few of us whites venture there. Unless we want something.

180

[Wetzelbill]

6. that's how contemporary reality is

Unfortunately. It's an unusual cultural tornado, to see two groups of Americans live next to each other, but still not know each other that well. I think it's also interesting that the "plight" of the Indians of long ago is widely regarded as sad, yet the socioeconomic problems that we can do something about are often ignored. Seeing the Indians of bar rooms is an unfortunate reality that exists. It needs plenty of addressing too. :)

[JitterbugPerfume]

2. once, many years ago

I knew a "missionary" to the Indians of Arizona. Her one goal was to bring Jesus Christ to the Indian.


how misguided and sad

[Wetzelbill]

7. you know

that in and of itself, can be a good thing, especially for certain individuals. For example, my grandfather was a practicing Catholic and the most religious and spiritual person I have ever known. I was raised a Catholic, but really mainly consider myself a Christian. I pray daily and faith is important to me. You'll find that Indians are some of the most religious people you will ever meet. Very strong Christians. However, often missionaries have only that one goal, and it leads to some consequences that can be pretty sad. The White Man's Burdern is a very conflicting action. They feel that they need to force something on to the uncultured people of color, because they do not know any better. Missionaries bringing Christianity to Indians is not unlike Neo-Cons forcing Democracy on Iraq. Sure, in many ways they may be worthy missions, but how can the detriment caused by these actions be justified? I think you bring up an interesting phase in all of this. It is misguided, in many ways.

[petgoat]

3. Good Work, Bill. nm

[Wetzelbill]

8. glad you liked it

:)

[frogmarch]

4. Thought-provoking

review, Bill. It was superb. I read it an hour ago and am still thinking about it.

When the movie was made, I lived in the Black Hills. As most South Dakotans, I was very excited about Dances with Wolves yet the "vanishing Indian" theme you noticed in the movie escaped me. I didn't notice it. That may be because I, like you, knew these people hadn't vanished - which may be partly because one of my sons is married to a Lakotah woman.

I think public awakening to, and interest in, the plight of Native Americans may have begun with Dee Brown's book Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, but that's just a guess. No matter. Dances with Wolves was, and is, an important film.

Have you read any of Kenneth Lincoln's books about Native Americans? Native American Renaissance is excellent, and so is Good Red Road.. (And I don't say this just because I had a crush on Kenny when we were in the sixth grade together. haha)

Anyway, I enjoyed your piece very much! Thanks for it.

[Wetzelbill]

5. no I haven't read any of Lincoln's books yet

so many I need to get to. :)

A few books basically ushered in the interest in American Indians. One in 1969, Kiowa author N.Scott Momaday won the Pulitzer for fiction with his novel "A House Made Of Dawn, and that same year, I believe, Sioux activist Vine Deloria wrote: "Custer Died For Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto." Then the other big one at the time was the one you mentioned, Dee Brown's book. Those sort of helped bring forth some changed during the 1970s when Nixon was president. Oddly enough, Nixon has probably the best record in terms of Indian progress out of any president. Part of it was the activism of the time when you began to see movements bringing forth civil rights, women's rights etc. After a time, those works and other Indian writer's works, while having a loyal audience, never quite gripped mainstream America. Brown, Momaday, Deloria, and LA Times Book award winner, James Welch all had a certain status, yet were never household names. Kevin Costner sort of changed that, because he did become a household name. Everybody knows "Dances With Wolves." So the public had been awakened to these issues in the decades before, and Costner's fame helped push it through even further.

Glad you liked it. :)

Interesting book written about the Lakota Sioux is "The Heartsong of Charging Elk" by James Welch. It's about a Lakota who went over to France, in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, and he ends up getting left over there to survive on his own. It tells the tale of his life, which is fictional, but I think it has some historical precedence to it. It's historically rich and beautiful though. Just thought you may be interested since your son is married to a Lakota.