Two thoughts on American Indians in film . . .
 
On the negative side:
   Has anyone noticed that the Pawnee in _Dances With Wolves_ are treated with
exactly the same negative stereotypes as in a "normal" Western?  They are
completely brutal and inhuman savages.
 
On the positive side:
_Massacre_ (1935) is a film which advocated giving Indians more control over
policy decisions on reservations.  It was, as far as I know, a standard
Hollywood theatrical release and is really pretty interesting.  It more or
less concludes that the New Deal will help Indians make THEIR lives better, too
(and thus is sort of a piece of New Deal propaganda).  It is also really
interesting on questions of identity.  A brief synopsis:  The hero is a Sioux
who is working in midwestern cities as an Indian in a Wild West Show.  He has
a white girlfriend (apparently one of many) who is only attracted to him
because he is an Indian and tries imposing signs of Indian-ness (e.g. a
headdress) on him to fulfill HER fantasies.  He, however, has joined the show
to escape his identity . . . he drives a big fancy car and has not desire to
remember his roots.  He gets a message that he has to come home to the
reservation in South Dakota on which he grew up (I think there's a death in
the family).  When he gets there, the Indians treat him with a certain amount
of hostility.  Our hero   discovers that the white men who run the reservation,
ostensibly at the behest of the Bureau of Indian affairs, are entirely corrupt
and oppressive.  They are just interested in bilking the reservation of
whatever they can get from it.  They have also started to prevent the
reservation's residents from practicing their religion.  It takes a while for
our hero to realize how bad things have gotten.  By the time he does, however,
the other Sioux are ready to openly revolt.  He convinces them not to and takes
his case to Washington, where a completely sympathetic New Deal official hears
him out, kicks out the corrupt white administrators, and appoints the main
protagonist the new head of the reservation.      I am fairly certain that
_Massacre_ is NOT on video.  They do have a viewable copy at the Library of
Congress, which is where I saw it.
 
--Ben Alpers
  Princeton University