Kim,
 
For a film that views Native Americans on the cusp between positive and
negative, check out Robert Aldrich's "Ulzana's Raid."  It doesn't stint on
depicting acts which appear cruel and savage from a white perspective--but
tends to demonstrate the limits of comprehension and judgment on the part
of an outside culture... in this case one which has perpetrated its own
unjust "cruelties"... which the film nonetheless doesn't deploy to raise
viewer sympathies.  If this seems a little confusing--well, it's partly a
reflection of the film's deceptive complexity.
 
Jeff Clark