thumbnail of As It Happens; Indian Stereotyping
Transcript
Hide -
<v Paula Whistle>Good evening. Welcome to As It Happens. <v Paula Whistle>I'm Paula Whistle. Tonight, we'll be talking with the producers of a TV series <v Paula Whistle>that explores the portrayal of Indians throughout movie and television history. <v Paula Whistle>And later on, we'll be discussing how Indians locally view and are perceived by their <v Paula Whistle>surrounding non-Indian communities. <v Paula Whistle>The word stereotyped is defined by Webster's as anything undistinguished by <v Paula Whistle>individual marks, and the meaning of that word is at the core of a PBS <v Paula Whistle>series entitled Images of Indians. <v Paula Whistle>The program contends that Hollywood's stereotyped view of Indians has been so <v Paula Whistle>consistent that the negative image is often seen on The Late Show or Saturday <v Paula Whistle>Matinee are taken for granted. <v Paula Whistle>[music]. <v Speaker>Apache, Blackfoot, Sioux. Killers all of 'em, They aint even human.
<v Speaker>The plain fact is that the Redskins will steal, hunt and murder, <v Speaker>and the whites will work. <v Speaker>War is their religion. <v Speaker>Murdering savages. <v Speaker>The wind is in the right direction. I can smell an Injun a mile off. <v Speaker>Comanches mate their women early. <v Speaker>Do you ever see what Injuns do when they get a white woman? <v Speaker>[actors speaking a stereotype of Native language] I shore would like to have me that <v Speaker>little paint. <v Speaker>And I shore would like to kill me an injun. <v Dennis Banks>Treatment of Indian people in my Hollywood is absolutely vicious. <v Dennis Banks>And second only to the diseases that were inflicted upon us by <v Dennis Banks>by the settlers and by the United States government. <v Dennis Banks>I would say that Hollywood ranks as one of the most vicious <v Dennis Banks>institutions which has has hurt Indian people. <v Will Sampson>John Ford was known as the grand master of the Western. <v Will Sampson>Yet his approach to native people, for the most part, was racist. <v Will Sampson>How do you feel about the things he chose to film? <v King Vidor>Well, they probably in the character of John Ford
<v King Vidor>without the things that he liked, the characteristic <v King Vidor>image that he decided on himself as a filmmaker <v King Vidor>they probably fitted into that picture. <v King Vidor>And he certainly made a name for himself. <v King Vidor>[music[ <v Will Sampson>Having Indians kidnap innocent whites to subject them to while atrocities <v Will Sampson>has long been a popular theme for movie makers. <v Will Sampson>Director John Ford used it in Two Road Together and The Searchers. <v Will Sampson>[music] <v Speaker>We're looking for a girl- white girl captive. <v Speaker>She should be about 14 now. <v Speaker>14! <v Speaker>We've got two about that age. <v Speaker>Where? <v Speaker>Sergeant. <v Speaker>All of white women are in the chapel, Doctor. <v Speaker>What's this girl to you? <v Speaker>She's my- <v Speaker>She's my niece. <v Speaker>One moment.
<v Will Sampson>Ironically, it was this very theme that helped start the negative Indian <v Will Sampson>image when it was used in the dime novel Seth Jones back in 1860. <v Will Sampson>[woman screaming] <v Speaker>Stand up please. <v Speaker>Debbie. <v Will Sampson>John Ford, like many filmmakers, used the idea that any prolonged personal contact <v Will Sampson>with Indians other than in battle will drive a civilized person insane. <v Will Sampson>Now, that's enough to scare the daylights out of anyone. <v Speaker>It's hard to believe they're white. <v Speaker>They aint white anymore.
<v Will Sampson>More what they don't show, of course, are the numerous incidents throughout <v Will Sampson>history where all attempts to liberate whites living with Indians, were met with a flat <v Will Sampson>refusal, the so-called captives to leave their adopted friends and families. <v Paula Whistle>Narrator of the series Will Sampson visited Fort Hall recently. <v Paula Whistle>And while there, talked with us about his interest as an actor in Hollywood's image of <v Paula Whistle>Indians. Will, you said that Images of Indians talked about the way Indians were <v Paula Whistle>in the movies then and now. How were they then and now? <v Will Sampson>Well, at the onset in the first silent days of film Indians have always been stereotyped <v Will Sampson>from the word go by the dime novels and the books and stories <v Will Sampson>from about Indians that they were savages and ruthless and stalwart <v Will Sampson>and unfeeling and had no humor, you know. <v Will Sampson>[Paula: Mhm] And so this proves that and shows [sniff] how Hollywood <v Will Sampson>perpetuated this, you know, by the use of non-Indian actors made <v Will Sampson>to look like them. It's slowly being changed tody. <v Paula Whistle>Are they still- are Indians still stereotyped in movies for the most part?
<v Will Sampson>Yes, for the most part, they are. <v Paula Whistle>Could you give me any recent examples? <v Will Sampson>Well, for the last part, any time you see <v Will Sampson>'em, they always have to be cast as Indianness, such that they be in beads and feathers, <v Will Sampson>you know. And some of the big productions like Cheyenne August and <v Will Sampson>different things. They've tried to portray them, they said accurately, but they cannot <v Will Sampson>add the historical fact about it because people now this, and they probably <v Will Sampson>wouldn't watch it. So thereby they had to commercialize it by adding some myths and <v Will Sampson>adding stuff left and right. <v Paula Whistle>What is the modern day stereotype of Indians do you think? <v Paula Whistle>[cough] The old stereotype was in feathers <v Paula Whistle>and- [Will: Mhm]. <v Will Sampson>Well, the modern day they still want you to walk slowly and talk slowly and have <v Will Sampson>a blank look on your face, you know. <v Will Sampson>And then many times during our takes the director knows this <v Will Sampson>and I will do a take with feeling and an expression.
<v Will Sampson>But it's OK, let's do one now and don't quite put so much into it, you know. <v Paula Whistle>And that's the take he uses. [laughter] <v Will Sampson>No, I won't do it. <v Will Sampson>No, I'm not going to do that. <v Will Sampson>So that's the way it's going to change. And that's the way they tried to do it. <v Will Sampson>They don't do it with me. <v Charlie Hill>I read somewhere that fourth attack maybe six times over a hundred years. <v Charlie Hill>You see the movie you think we do that every damn day. You know get up don't round the <v Charlie Hill>fire, attack the fort. And it's amazing how that is. <v Charlie Hill>They treat genocide real lightly. <v Charlie Hill>I saw a movie with a- I wasn't with him. <v Charlie Hill>I saw a movie with Bob Hope and it was called Paleface or the Son of Paleface or <v Charlie Hill>something. And the movie, he's shooting Indians and they're following neat stacks with a <v Charlie Hill>body and each bullet. He's telling jokes to his girlfriend. <v Charlie Hill>You're treating genocide real lightly. <v Speaker>We were wrong about the gander. He's doing some mighty shooting. [gunshots and music] <v Speaker>I need a bullet. [gunshots, bullets]. <v Speaker>Let's keep it neat.
<v Dennis Banks>I mean, we've tried- we've tried many different times to <v Dennis Banks>go to the president of the Screen Actors <v Dennis Banks>Guild. We've tried to meet with- We have met with <v Dennis Banks>the president of Columbia Pictures and with many of the network <v Dennis Banks>officials who program the movies onto <v Dennis Banks>TV. And we've- we've we offered a number of <v Dennis Banks>suggestions to them pm how they could correct this stereotyping of Indian people. <v Will Sampson>Until the changes do come, Native Americans will have to contend with the myth, <v Will Sampson>myth about our legends. <v Speaker>We're faster than the run of the Arrow. <v Will Sampson>Myth about our culture. <v Speaker>[laughter] What's so funny. <v Speaker>Only squaws walk [laughter] <v Will Sampson>Myth about our religions. <v Speaker>An Indian chief does not make war tonight. <v Speaker>The sun god would be angry.
<v Speaker>Since my father was a white man, perhaps the sun god will only be half angry. <v Paula Whistle>Once the series on Hollywood's portrayal of Indians was off the ground, some Hollywood <v Paula Whistle>film companies decided they didn't like the image they were being given in the programs <v Paula Whistle>and denied permission for use of their movies. <v Paula Whistle>Producer of Images of Indians, Phil Lucas, says as a result some of the final programs <v Paula Whistle>had to be cut. <v Phil Lucas>Well, the main problems were that we couldn't clear the rights for some of the clips that <v Phil Lucas>we were using in the series. And, uh, even though we had had verbal agreements <v Phil Lucas>from two major film companies and distribution houses that <v Phil Lucas>shall remain nameless for the moment [laughter]. <v Phil Lucas>We had verbal agreements that indeed we could use the footage from one of them. <v Phil Lucas>And we cut the footage in and <v Phil Lucas>then the president of the company said no. <v Phil Lucas>And everybody re- reversed their position.
<v Paula Whistle>What was his official reason? <v Paula Whistle>What do you think was the real official reason? <v Phil Lucas>His official reason was no. [laughter] <v Paula Whistle>What was the reason in your mind? <v Phil Lucas>Well, I think- I think that everybody is very, very conscious of their image. <v Phil Lucas>I think everybody is incredibly- they somehow think that if <v Phil Lucas>they hide all this stuff that they're going to have a better image. <v Phil Lucas>When in reality it works just the other way around. <v Will Sampson>The Unforgiven, directed by John Houston, is probably the most anti-Native American <v Will Sampson>film ever made. [music] <v Speaker>Dont touch me! And <v Speaker>get out of this house! Dirty injun with your injun ways. <v Speaker>I think you've done enough. Wound yourself around my son Johnny, <v Speaker>to give yourself a halfbreed to run around my son Charlie's cabin. <v Speaker>Squaw, squaw, Kiowa squaw.
<v Lee Piper>It's always griped to me to see the movies <v Lee Piper>who have constantly portrayed the American Indian woman as some <v Lee Piper>kind of beast of burden. <v Lee Piper>Movies seem to paint our people, our women, <v Lee Piper>as being a slave to the man, not having any <v Lee Piper>kind of power or authority. <v Lee Piper>In fact, almost not having any kind of sense. <v Lee Piper>[music] [laughter] <v Paula Whistle>Although most of what we've shown you from images of Indians deals with movies,
<v Paula Whistle>television also plays a part. <v Paula Whistle>And producer Phil Lucas doesn't think their image has improved all that much. <v Paula Whistle>As an example, he related an episode of the TV fantasy series The Incredible Hulk, <v Paula Whistle>in which a man tries to visualize a disease in order to cure it. <v Phil Lucas>During the process of this time, he discovers that a blood disease is <v Phil Lucas>the blood cell with little red dots around it. <v Phil Lucas>So then she goes into this trance and she visualizes and you see the blood coursing, the <v Phil Lucas>heart pumping and the lungs lunging, or whatever they're doing [laughter]. <v Phil Lucas>And you go- and they're sort of- and then it dissolves. <v Phil Lucas>There's this wagon train that's it's in a circle and it's surrounded by Indians shooting <v Phil Lucas>at. Okay. That's the disease. The Indians are the disease. <v Phil Lucas>Ok, got it. The blood cell is the pioneers in the wagon train. <v Phil Lucas>Then he fixes her chemotherapy drink, which she drinks, and then she goes <v Phil Lucas>through this whole process again and you see the wagon train. <v Phil Lucas>And then here comes the Calvary to the rescue. <v Phil Lucas>OK, so you've got the Indians of the disease and the Calvary is the medicine that's going <v Phil Lucas>to cure it.
<v Paula Whistle>And you say that's not an isolated instance. <v Phil Lucas>Kemper insurance commercials. <v Phil Lucas>Ever watch them? The Calvary riding through this was the insurance of yesterday, and it's <v Phil Lucas>the symbol of our insurance for today. <v Paula Whistle>Lucas says he doesn't want his children to develop a negative self-image and feel the <v Paula Whistle>pain he did as a child. <v Paula Whistle>And for that reason, as a performer as well as producer, he'd like to rewrite the <v Paula Whistle>negative historical image of Indians. <v Phil Lucas>[Singing This Land Is Your Land] Here's <v Phil Lucas>how we sing the song. <v Phil Lucas>This land was our land. It wasn't your land. <v Phil Lucas>Until we sold told you Manhattan Island. <v Phil Lucas>From the Redwood Islands to the Gulf Stream waters, I'm saying you took this <v Phil Lucas>land away from us. <v Phil Lucas>I think that somewhere there's a tremendous guilt.
<v Phil Lucas>First of all, you know how the beginnings of this country happened and <v Phil Lucas>how we think it happened. <v Phil Lucas>There's a tremendous guilt associated with- with it. <v Phil Lucas>And nobody wants it wants to deal with it in a straightforward manner, because <v Phil Lucas>the fear that maybe if the Indians ever had power, they'd do the same thing to us. <v Phil Lucas>And yet there's nothing in history that would substantiate that. <v Phil Lucas>Nothing. In fact, anytime the Indian people have ever been in a position of power, <v Phil Lucas>they've in fact done the opposite. <v Phil Lucas>They've been very loving. Indian people have traditionally always been very open and <v Phil Lucas>loving people. If that were true, you wouldn't be sitting here interviewing me right now. <v Phil Lucas>[laughter] Your ancestors wouldn't have survived <v Phil Lucas>on this continent. <v Paula Whistle>I guess the argument people around town give- give for not understanding the- <v Paula Whistle>the reservation is for one thing- the reservation is very closed and isolated and keeps <v Paula Whistle>itself isolated from the rest of the community. <v Phil Lucas>Well, that's an interesting phenomenon. You know, in the face of government policies <v Phil Lucas>that have ranged from annihilation to forced
<v Phil Lucas>assimilation in the face of the most powerful forces <v Phil Lucas>in the world. Indian people have survived. <v Phil Lucas>They've not been annihilated by all rights. It should be not not be any Indian people <v Phil Lucas>left in the world. And yet we've survived and we've continued- and we will continue <v Phil Lucas>to survive and- and- and the reasons <v Phil Lucas>are that we have learned how to protect ourselves <v Phil Lucas>and our interests as best we could. <v Phil Lucas>And so sometimes that's viewed as as being isolationists <v Phil Lucas>or whatever. I don't think that's true. <v Phil Lucas>Not in the true sense. I think that- that <v Phil Lucas>we always have considered ourselves human beings and. <v Phil Lucas>And that- that means a lot. <v Phil Lucas>It takes in more than anything else- I think the problem is economic. <v Phil Lucas>I think that it has always been economic. <v Phil Lucas>Our values are just- are just very different.
<v Phil Lucas>The Indian values have always been more in the spiritual realm than in the economic <v Phil Lucas>realm. And it's difficult to deal with that if you're only looking at the economic <v Phil Lucas>aspects. If you- if you say I'm successful, well, I'm I don't know that I am <v Phil Lucas>I'm successful only in the sense that- that I am a human being. <v Phil Lucas>That I- that I am able to to deal with truth as the best <v Phil Lucas>way I can, deal with my environment the best way I can, deal with my family <v Phil Lucas>and my loved ones, that I'm a spiritual being. <v Phil Lucas>If I'm that, then I'm successful. <v Phil Lucas>The other stuff really isn't important. <v Phil Lucas>It's not a measure of success to me. <v Paula Whistle>You mentioned that Indians have been reduced to roles. <v Paula Whistle>What has that resulted in? <v Phil Lucas>It's just like Indians have been dehumanized and and <v Phil Lucas>we're like animals or mascots. <v Phil Lucas>You got the Braves, the Bucks, the Cleveland Indians, the Washington <v Phil Lucas>Redskins. You don't ever have the Cleveland Caucasians or the Washington white boys,
<v Phil Lucas>though nobody would stand for that. But Indians have been dehumanized. <v Phil Lucas>And a lot of it has to do with the fact that you can't- you can't- it's a heavy thing <v Phil Lucas>to kill a human being. And anytime there's ever been an enemy, the enemy <v Phil Lucas>has always been dehumanized. You- you call them various names and you attach <v Phil Lucas>various things to them to dehumanize them so you can kill them then then <v Phil Lucas>it's OK to kill them. And it seems that that has been the pattern with Indian people <v Phil Lucas>throughout history and throughout the films that they have been dehumanized to the point <v Phil Lucas>where if you see an Indian killed it isn't- it's a role that's being killed without any <v Phil Lucas>regard to the human being or any regard for people in the feelings. <v Phil Lucas>Or you never see a three dimensional aspect of Indian people. <v Phil Lucas>You only see the one dimensional thing you know. <v Phil Lucas>I made the comment about that I had a busy week last <v Phil Lucas>week discovering, you know, [laughter] One of the things we talked about is Manifest <v Phil Lucas>Destiny and how we were discovered and our land was discovered. <v Phil Lucas>And so I've been really busy discovering. <v Phil Lucas>I've discovered the banks and I've discovered where all the money is you know [laughter].
<v Phil Lucas>And I discovered a new car. <v Phil Lucas>I discovered lots of things, but I don't have the firepower to hold it you know <v Phil Lucas>[laughter]. So it's really rather meaningless. <v Phil Lucas>But the idea is that it's OK to do that to somebody who isn't human, you see. <v Phil Lucas>Somehow it's OK if- if all of a sudden you have to relate to Indian people <v Phil Lucas>as human beings who have families, who have a home, who- who <v Phil Lucas>have a livelihood, who laugh and cry and have <v Phil Lucas>pain and experience, joy and all of the wonderful things <v Phil Lucas>of life. All of the emotions that are real human beings. <v Phil Lucas>It's hard to kill them. It's hard to kill somebody that, you know, that that you <v Phil Lucas>have an intimate awareness of. <v Phil Lucas>So that's why the dehumanization- dehumanization <v Phil Lucas>processes is so insidious. <v Paula Whistle>And all of this, according to Lucas, perpetrate such things as some letters he read <v Paula Whistle>recently written to a New Mexico Chamber of Commerce. <v Phil Lucas>This lady had been working for the junior chamber of Commerce- for the
<v Phil Lucas>Chamber of Commerce, and she was telling us about all these letters <v Phil Lucas>that they get every year from the eastern part of the United States. <v Phil Lucas>And I said, I want to see them. So she brought a file like this about that. <v Phil Lucas>And she said they they throw them away every year. <v Phil Lucas>And they're just hundreds of letters of people in- in the eastern United States asking <v Phil Lucas>if that- they're saying they're coming out on a vacation to New Mexico <v Phil Lucas>and are the Indians hostile? Is it safe to get out of your car? <v Phil Lucas>Do you need a passport to go onto an Indian reservation? <v Phil Lucas>How will they be treated? I mean, can- is there places to stay? <v Phil Lucas>And on and on and on. I mean, incredible question. <v Phil Lucas>And this is in 1980 that this is going on. <v Phil Lucas>It's unbelievable. And so much of the education that-that the majority, <v Phil Lucas>the people in this country have about Indians is what they get from television and <v Phil Lucas>movies. <v Paula Whistle>And Lucas says that was brought home to him recently while in the Seattle airport. <v Phil Lucas>There was this little boy standing on this side of this door- this gate. <v Phil Lucas>And he looked like he was about maybe 8, 7 or 8.
<v Phil Lucas>Very blond and blue eyed. He kept staring at me. <v Phil Lucas>I was wearing this- this jacket, waistcoat. <v Phil Lucas>He was staring him. And. <v Phil Lucas>Finally, he said. <v Speaker>'Are you in Indian?' And I said, 'Yes.' He said, 'Oh, are you a good Indian?' And <v Speaker>I didn't know quite what he was getting at. But I said- he says, 'Well, do you have an <v Speaker>arrow?' And I said, 'No.' And he said, 'Well, you kill people?' <v Speaker>and I said, 'No' and he just turned and walked away. <v Speaker>It was really very unsettling. <v Speaker>[Singing, song: I'm Easy] <v Paula Whistle>Phil Lucas' concern for more equitable treatment of Indians by history
<v Paula Whistle>and the media is echoed locally by members of the Shoshone-Bannock tribes who reside <v Paula Whistle>on the Fort Hall reservation. <v Paula Whistle>Although surrounded by the populous counties of Bingham, Bannock and Power, much <v Paula Whistle>of the non-Indian population knows little history or culture of the neighboring Indians, <v Paula Whistle>according to tribal chairman Lionel Boyer. <v Paula Whistle>He says that to many in surrounding areas the reservation and its people are invisible. <v Lionel Boyer> The outside community is very <v Lionel Boyer>unaware of what the reservation is, what it's about. <v Lionel Boyer>The fact that it is a- a sovereign nation within the state <v Lionel Boyer>of Idaho, the fact that we have our own tribal government and similar <v Lionel Boyer>to their own state governments, <v Lionel Boyer>the fact that we have elected leaders rather than the <v Lionel Boyer>chiefs as was before.
<v Lionel Boyer>Again we go back to the attitude of <v Lionel Boyer>the outside community is that the stereotype <v Lionel Boyer>of the Indian they- they think of the Indian <v Lionel Boyer>as what has been presented on the media, that we <v Lionel Boyer>have our reservation here, which is where the Calvary has <v Lionel Boyer>placed us, etc. And we have a Fort out here. <v Lionel Boyer>The Bureau of Indian Affairs and the cavalry still maintaining watch over the <v Lionel Boyer>restless ravaging Indians. <v Paula Whistle>What are some of the common stereotypes you see? <v Lionel Boyer>Attitudes of the non-Indian society, non-Indian communities, in reference to <v Lionel Boyer>an Indian- Rather than accepting him as- as a human being, they accept him <v Lionel Boyer>as- they look at him as that Indian. <v Lionel Boyer>And immediately that stereotype is there, that attitude is there. <v Lionel Boyer>And I think, uh-. <v Paula Whistle>They don't see him as an individual person.
<v Lionel Boyer>No, I've commented on this a number of times. <v Lionel Boyer>Take, for instance, the way each of us are dressed here today. <v Lionel Boyer>You take a look at the individuals out on the street. <v Lionel Boyer>Do they stop and look at each other as- as to <v Lionel Boyer>try to determine who they are, what they are? <v Lionel Boyer>No. Here's a- take, for instance, a tourist that's coming through through the state <v Lionel Boyer>of Idaho. He stands out like a sore thumb, but yet <v Lionel Boyer>he- if he's with a crew- crowd of non-Indians <v Lionel Boyer>and an Indian should walk by, who stands out the most? <v Lionel Boyer>The Indian does <v Paula Whistle>Most Shoshone-Bannocks living on the reservation remain fairly isolated until they reach <v Paula Whistle>junior high age. That's when they're bussd off the reservation to attend school in <v Paula Whistle>Blackfoot or Pocatello. And statistics show that the results are more negative than <v Paula Whistle>positive. The dropout rate is tremendous.
<v Paula Whistle>Only one seventh make it through high school. <v Paula Whistle>Many educators say it's difficult for the Indian students to adjust. <v Speaker>I don't know who has the difficulty. If the Indian student has difficulty adjusting to <v Speaker>the public school system or the public school system <v Speaker>has difficulty adjusting to the Indian student. <v Speaker>I think it's important that the maintainment of <v Speaker>an individual culture is- is important. <v Speaker>The assimilation of Indian people into the <v Speaker>dominant society has always been the goal of <v Speaker>the federal government. And, uh, I think they've found that, uh, it is hard to <v Speaker>do. And in a sense, they are achieving that goal <v Speaker>of assimilating into the dominant society, <v Speaker>primarily by acts of legislation, decisions <v Speaker>by the Supreme Court, et cetera.
<v Speaker>I shouldn't say assimilating, as I should say that they are changing our way of life <v Speaker>so that we have to be a part of that <v Speaker>dominant society. But yet we- a number of the <v Speaker>Indian people are- are very hard to change. <v Speaker>I think even the students that are able to blend into <v Speaker>the dominant society, they have uh- <v Speaker>reflection back upon them by their own tribal members. <v Speaker>The schools themselves that are predominant- the curriculum is set up predominately <v Speaker>to the middle class of the dominant society. <v Speaker>And it has been a problem of incorporating <v Speaker>anything from the reservation which is near those particular <v Speaker>schools. I think if
<v Speaker>you reviewed any of the textbooks in reference to <v Speaker>Indians, per say, the there is very little said about <v Speaker>the local tribes. <v Speaker>The important thing about the public school system is that to understand that <v Speaker>the Indian students are also human beings, <v Speaker>and they are no different than the non Indian students, however, <v Speaker>with the exception of coming from a particular <v Speaker>culture that is very dominant. <v Speaker>The reservation itself, the traditional <v Speaker>culture has always been of sharing and not of <v Speaker>keeping things that <v Speaker>as a as a symbol of status or whatever, um, <v Speaker>whereas the, uh, non Indian society has
<v Speaker>is, uh, a well, <v Speaker>an attitude of being competitive, <v Speaker>being better than the next guy. <v Paula Whistle>Next week will be a follow up of this week's program with a special hour long phone. <v Paula Whistle>In addition, beginning at 7:00 p.m., we'll be discussing Indian treaty rights, <v Paula Whistle>land use and tribal sovereignty with members of the tribe and surrounding communities. <v Paula Whistle>Until then, for as it happens, I'm Paula Whistle.
Series
As It Happens
Episode
Indian Stereotyping
Producing Organization
KBGL-TV (Television station : Pocatello, Idaho)
Contributing Organization
The Walter J. Brown Media Archives & Peabody Awards Collection at the University of Georgia (Athens, Georgia)
AAPB ID
cpb-aacip-526-319s17tp5r
If you have more information about this item than what is given here, or if you have concerns about this record, we want to know! Contact us, indicating the AAPB ID (cpb-aacip-526-319s17tp5r).
Description
Episode Description
The first portion of the program interviews producers of the PBS series "Images of Indians" about the negative stereotypes of Native Americans throughout film and television, and clips from that series are used, showing montages of portrayals of Indians in film and television and including interviews with Native Americans and Hollywood directors giving their opinions on these portrayals. These clip details some of the earliest portrayals of Indians that solidified these stereotypes, like the work of John Ford. Series producers Will Sampson and Phil Lucas are interviewed, who also talk about some film companies denying them permission to use clips from their movies in the series and present roles and perceptions of Indians in American society. Phil Lucas also performs several folk songs. Shoshone-Bannock Tribal Chairman Lionel Boyer talks about the lack of knowledge and understanding of Native Americans from the outside community and education of Indian youth in public schools with the goal of assimilation into the dominant society.
Series Description
"This program on the stereotyping of Indians was produced for a weekly public affairs program broadcast throughout Southeast Idaho, a sparsely populated, rural community with an Indian reservation in its midst. "The first part of the program explores Indian stereotyping with Phil Lucas and Will Sampson, producers of the PBS series 'Images of Indians.' (Clips from the series are used) "The problems Indians experience locally is then examined with Ft. Hall Shoshone-Bannock Tribal Chairman, Lionel Boyer. The education of Indian youth, the high dropout rate and busing the youth up to 30 miles off the reservation to public schools, is discussed. The differences in values between the Indian culture taught at home and the white culture learned at school, is brought out."--1980 Peabody Awards entry form.
Broadcast Date
1980-07
Asset type
Episode
Media type
Moving Image
Duration
00:28:50.395
Embed Code
Copy and paste this HTML to include AAPB content on your blog or webpage.
Credits
Producing Organization: KBGL-TV (Television station : Pocatello, Idaho)
AAPB Contributor Holdings
The Walter J. Brown Media Archives & Peabody Awards Collection at the University of Georgia
Identifier: cpb-aacip-d7ca1aebb97 (Filename)
Format: U-matic
Duration: 0:29:00
If you have a copy of this asset and would like us to add it to our catalog, please contact us.
Citations
Chicago: “As It Happens; Indian Stereotyping,” 1980-07, The Walter J. Brown Media Archives & Peabody Awards Collection at the University of Georgia, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed March 28, 2024, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-526-319s17tp5r.
MLA: “As It Happens; Indian Stereotyping.” 1980-07. The Walter J. Brown Media Archives & Peabody Awards Collection at the University of Georgia, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. March 28, 2024. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-526-319s17tp5r>.
APA: As It Happens; Indian Stereotyping. Boston, MA: The Walter J. Brown Media Archives & Peabody Awards Collection at the University of Georgia, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-526-319s17tp5r