Reservation reelism: redfacing, visual sovereignty, and representations of Native Americans in film

TLDR

Hollywood films have long shaped non‑Native perceptions of Indigenous peoples, often portraying them as a dying race or incapable of adapting, while occasionally acknowledging Native presence through plots and subplots. The book investigates the history of Native actors, directors, and spectators to highlight their contributions and promote more positive, nuanced representations of Indigenous communities. It does so by analyzing the careers and creative works of Indigenous industry participants across Hollywood’s history.

Abstract

In this deeply engaging account Michelle H. Raheja offers the first book-length study of the Indigenous actors, directors, and spectators who helped shape Hollywood's representation of Indigenous peoples. Since the era of silent films, Hollywood movies and visual culture generally have provided the primary representational field on which Indigenous images have been displayed to non-Native audiences. These films have been highly influential in shaping perceptions of Indigenous peoples as, for example, a dying race or as inherently unable or unwilling to adapt to change. However, films with Indigenous plots and subplots also signify at least some degree of Native presence in a culture that largely defines Native peoples as absent or separate. Native actors, directors, and spectators have had a part in creating these cinematic representations and have thus complicated the dominant, and usually negative, messages about Native peoples that films portray. In Reservation Reelism Raheja examines the history of these Native actors, directors, and spectators, reveals their contributions, and attempts to create positive representations in film that reflect the complex and vibrant experiences of Native peoples and communities.