Cos' I Said So...
By Jocelyn Cosgrove
By Jocelyn Cosgrove
For Indigenous tribes and people, November is a special time as it is Native American Heritage month and it’s about time that Native American representation in Hollywood is talked about. Throughout movie history, minority representation has seen its struggles, especially for Indigenous people. There are the old cowboy movies, stereotyping Native Americans as the dangerous enemies of the cowboy main character. There have also been a few Disney movies that have had Indigenous main characters, but those films can be noted for their misrepresentation as well.
“Pocahontas” is one such Disney film that features a Native American main character. However, Disney’s version of Pocahontas’s story has been twisted to fit a much older teenager who falls in love with one of the white colonists that takes over her tribe’s land. The true story of the English colonists coming to Chesapeake Bay and their conflict with the Native American tribes in the area is a lot darker then Disney’s lovesick depiction of it. Disney is glorifying and twisting a very real and horrible story and with all of that, misrepresenting Native American communities. The visuals and the music are the better parts of the movie, but still despite that, Disney twisted a very real story about colonization into something that depicted Native Americans as the savages we were first preserved to be in the early days of New World exploration.
However in the past ten years or so, Indigenous representation in Disney and other movies has been improved. Disney’s “Moana” features a Polynesian main character who saves her island and the world without falling in love with a man twice her age or turning into an animal to learn some life lesson. As a Native Alaskan and someone who identifies as an Indigenous person, this is the kind of representation I want to see. If people want to make movies or TV shows about Native Americans, they might as well do it right or not do it at all.
“Pocahontas” is one such Disney film that features a Native American main character. However, Disney’s version of Pocahontas’s story has been twisted to fit a much older teenager who falls in love with one of the white colonists that takes over her tribe’s land. The true story of the English colonists coming to Chesapeake Bay and their conflict with the Native American tribes in the area is a lot darker then Disney’s lovesick depiction of it. Disney is glorifying and twisting a very real and horrible story and with all of that, misrepresenting Native American communities. The visuals and the music are the better parts of the movie, but still despite that, Disney twisted a very real story about colonization into something that depicted Native Americans as the savages we were first preserved to be in the early days of New World exploration.
However in the past ten years or so, Indigenous representation in Disney and other movies has been improved. Disney’s “Moana” features a Polynesian main character who saves her island and the world without falling in love with a man twice her age or turning into an animal to learn some life lesson. As a Native Alaskan and someone who identifies as an Indigenous person, this is the kind of representation I want to see. If people want to make movies or TV shows about Native Americans, they might as well do it right or not do it at all.