Quote:
Originally Posted by Loveshiscountry
She was right as far as that time frame. That was our governments thought process. The indigenous were not thought of as people. Sub human, not people. People have rights, sub humans don't. Kill them, kidnap them into slavery. Not that big a deal to do it to savages.
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I am Native American. I was actually a fan of the show in childhood. It was family oriented.
The show had "ups" and "downs" in regards to depictions of Native Americans. The first episode
I recall was a part-white grandchild of a white male resident who was caught by surprise of having a
Native American grandson. The child made friends in the town (e.g. the Ingalls) but also dealt with
horrible racism. He got into fights. The first fight was one-on-one but the Indain won. The next fight
was something like 10-to-1 and he was beaten up badly. The racism got very intense.
The Ingalls father stepped in to help. That episode stands out. It was like a adolescent, frontier
version of Billy Jack's famous fight scene set in a bigoted reservation border town a century later.
Another episode showed a tribe on the run from the 7th Calvary's Gatlin guns of the time.
The Ingalls father rode along with the posse but intervened to prevent a slaughter. I remember
episodes like that. I could tell they tried to make that scene very authentic.
They were positive - humane and helpful to local indigenous people caught up in conflict.
There were other episodes that were blatantly racist. One showed Indians as savages tearing up the
pillows in front of the white women. Another showed a child in a buffalo head dress trying to catch up
with a stagecoach - a very negative, comical caricature. That episode was probably the worst one for
negative stereotypes.
I used to watch the show with my sisters. We took it in stride with the "ups" and "downs" and
generally enjoyed the family focus of the series. Compared to other TV shows, the treatment of
indigenous people was actually relatively progressive and positive - not perfect with some episodes
being very bad but balanced by other very good episodes.
I watched it for years. I remember when Nelly faked an injury and stayed in the wheel chair. I
remember when Laura's sister went blind but still became a teacher. I remember the episode with
Colonel Sanders trying to promote a 1-menu option of just chicken on the frontier. I remember when
Nelly got married. I was a true fan of the show as a child. I even remember Shannon Dougherty's
character as a small child. I am glad she survived that cancer treatment now in middle age - a tough
accomplishment. The show was sensitive to adolescent females. I remember the "rape" episode and
its realism of how crimes like that go under-reported even in modern times.
To be fair, I think they should selectively promote some of the books or chapters that are positive.
If there are books and chapters that are very bad, they could just be placed in context and noted for
the racism as a teaching standpoint.
One book that was far more racist was Tom Sawyer - the negative caricature of Indian Joe is very bad -
unacceptable. The book didn't mention that a guy like Indian Joe at the time would have likely been
the last of a local tribe on the verge of extinction as the frontier was colonized by European immigrants.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/2774703...n_tab_contents
I have far more expectations of modern series. The CSI-Miami was more bigoted in recent times.
One episode literally revolved around the forensic analysis of a "scalping" by a modern Native American
tribe in the Florida Everglades (Seminoles). The people who wrote that script were obviously unaware
that over 100,000 Native Americans were killed off by 1860 with only about 300 Seminoles left in the
Everglades. Which means (1) the writers are unaware or (2) they are ignoring that historical reality.
Either way, it was just really wrong. Colonial Spain (which once colonized Florida) actually took the
initiative to promote genocide of indigenous inhabitants by promoting a scalp bounty system on
Native Americans. Ironically, Hollywood typically portrays Native Americans as the "scalpers". Why
Spain usually gets left out of that historical blame is racist conjecture at best. According to Hollywood,
Spain never participated in scalping of Native Americans. By contrast, historians are well aware of it.
The Scalp Industry
Needless to say, CSI Miami never showed descendants of Spanish colonists committing a murder by
scalping. They just had racist script writers who wanted to blame scalping on Native Americans.
Hollywood is really bad in promoting racism, ageism, misogynism, etc. It's no wonder the "Me Too"
movement has grown recently.
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