Convenience vs. Accuracy: A Hollywood History

Flaws. We all have them. It's not like we as individuals have a team of "experts" monitoring us and budgets of millions of dollars for our everyday lives, right? You would think that with these accommodations, flaws wouldn't be present, especially in heavily funded Hollywood films either, right? Wrong.

"How Hollywood stereotyped the Native Americans"
(Picture from article by Michelle Henry)

From its very beginning, Hollywood has been home to many inaccuracies when dealing with Indigenous Americans as a people. With our country, founder of Hollywood and great contributor to the movie industry being founded on top of millions of Native Americans, one would maybe expect some sort of accuracy when dealing with various of our country's diverse groups. Unfortunately, the depiction of various Native and Indigenous American groups in Hollywood has a history of being historically inaccurate and, often times, offensive.

From the convenience of using headbands to keep wigs on white actors to the constant re-usage of feathered headdresses to depict all groups of Native Americans, regardless of accuracy despite headdresses being exclusive to the Great Plains region of the United States, let's look at some examples of Hollywood's inaccuracies.

Convenient Appearances

"Reel Injun," the 2009 documentary on the portrayal of the Indian people in American film over the years discusses this subject very well. In the documentary, Richard Lamotte, one of Hollywood's most famous Native costume designers talks firsthand about the generalization of the Native people's portrayals, going so far as to describe the cookie-cutter Indian as a caricature or even a prop, especially in the 1930s.

Screenshot from the 1940 movie, "Go West," which was
used in "Reel Injun" as a perfect example of the stereotype
of headbands and feathered headdresses in the Indian
generalization.

He described it as in order to keep things simple, the generalized Indian wore a feathered headdress, worn only by the Plains Indians, and on the contrary, headbands, which were not utilized by Plains Indians.

Lamotte explains the usage for headbands being credited to stuntmen, and the need to keep the Indian wigs from falling off. The best way to do it? Use a headband to keep everything in place. Lamotte does explain how headbands were used by various Native peoples, but the Plains Indians, or the epitomized Hollywood Indians, were never historically seen to utilize this fashionable head accessory.

Hollywood was a cash-grab, especially in its earlier decades. The proper portrayal of the Native American people was put aside for the accessibility of this cookie-cutter Indian to save money, time, and make an easier-to-produce product. While in later years the portrayal of the generalized Indian has slowly faded, making way for actual diversity withing Hollywood's Indian scene, one shouldn't overlook Hollywood's history of sacrificing accuracy and literal respect of the Indian people for a convenient product.

Sources:

https://tubitv.com/movies/54908/reel_injun - "Reel Injun" documentary (2009)

https://www.sbs.com.au/guide/article/2017/10/11/evolution-native-american-representation-westerns