The Portrayal of Native Americans in Disney's Peter Pan (1953)

The Portrayal of Native Americas in Disney's Peter Pan (1953)

(Peter Pan, Disney 1953)

 In 1953 Disney released the movie "Peter Pan." Peter Pan, as everyone knows, is a movie about a boy named Peter Pan who lives in Neverland. While chasing his shadow, he stumbles into three children and takes them back to Neverland with him, and they get into all sorts of shenanigans. One of the problems that Peter Pan and the children run into is a band of Native Americans. These Native Americans are horribly portrayed and just make watchers now think, "wow, that really just happened." 

The History Behind the Native Americans in Peter Pan

As anyone who has learned about Native Americans in school knows, Disney nearly gets everything wrong about the Native Americans of Neverland. The first mention of Native Americans in Peter Pan is when Michael, the boy from the regular world, sees a foot print and says, "Belongs to the...Algonquin.  Quite savage you know." This is then followed by the all the children being kidnapped, and taken back to camp like animals that had just been killed. This is where we see one of the most inaccurate portrayals of Native Americans. The Native Americans are living in teepees and have a totem pole in the middle of their camp. This is just so wrong in so many ways. 

First of all: If these Native Americans were actually Algonquin, they would not be living in teepees. Teepees were used by the plains Native Americans over 1000 miles away from the Algonquin territories. 

Second of all: There was also a totem pole that was located in the middle of the teepees. This is again just so wildly inaccurate that you might not even believe it was real. Totem poles were only used by Native Americans towards the North East of current day United States and South East of current day Canada. This is now over 2500 miles away from where the Algonquins would have been. 

Using teepees and totem poles shows that Disney was not even considering the history behind the Algonquins, plains Native Americans, and the Native Americans on the west coast. 

(Peter Pan, Disney 1953)

To the right is the first view of the Native American camp. As you can see there are teepees surrounding a totem pole with a camp fire. Just insensitive and all around a bad idea from Disney.

The Portrayal of Native Americans in Peter Pan

Native American chief wearing large head dress, face paint,
and making a worm out of his fingers while "telling a story."
(Peter Pan, Disney 1953)

Disney portrays the Native Americans in Peter Pan the way you would expect a movie in the 1950's to portray Native Americans. All of the Native Americans are wearing a feather behind their head, beat at their mouths and are playing the drums. Not only this but these Native Americans are a dark shade of burnt red, and either have necklaces or some sort of face paint. All of these now-a-day would not be allowed because they have been disproven, and are considered to be very culturally insensitive. After the introduction to the Native Americans, a song in sung that is called, "What Makes the Red Man Red." I mean anyone with a brain can realize that that is just ridiculous. This song then implies that Native Americans have their darker skin tone due to, and this is an actual quote from the movie. "Let's go back a million years to the very first injun prince, he kissed some maid and started to blush, and we've all been blushing since." I mean, does this really need an explanation on how this is inaccurate. This is just horribly wrong and offensive. This is also just one of many of the horrible inaccuracies from the song alone. 

(Peter Pan, Disney 1953)

To the right is Peter Pan, being portrayed as the "first injun prince" after he kissed Tiger Lily he began to blush and had his face turn very red. This was supposed to be a representation of Native Americans got their red skin tone. 

My Personal Opinion on Native American Portrayal in 

Disney's Peter Pan

Personally, I believe that this entire scene is horribly portrayed and very offensive, but I think that because of the time period and the lack of repercussions for things like this it was considered to be ok. This movie likely gives children a first impression on Native Americans, but I think that most children grow out of phases of thinking that something like this is ok. I do not believe that this  portrayal of Native Americans is okay, but I do believe that there are bigger problems that should be resolved for Native Americans than from a children's movie from the early 1950's. 

I also believe that though it is not okay for adults, young children should not be reprimanded for being insensitive, unless what they are doing is very racist and racist with intent. I think children should be allowed to see this just because nearly all children grow out of a phase where thinking this is an accurate portrayal of Native Americans. 

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Peter Pan:. Disney Studios. Accessed April 11, 2019. 

Peterpan3401. "Peter Pan - What Makes The Red Man Red (English)." YouTube. August 08, 2013. Accessed April 12, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7yE8TKUB_M.