Native Americans on Film ― Conversations, Teaching, and Theory

The film industry and mainstream popular culture are notorious for promoting stereotypical images of Native Americans: the noble and ignoble savage, the pronoun-challenged sidekick, the ruthless warrior, the female drudge, the princess, the sexualized maiden, the drunk, and others. Over the years, Indigenous filmmakers have both challenged these representations and moved past them, offering their own distinct forms of cinematic expression.

Native Americans on Film draws inspiration from the Indigenous film movement, bringing filmmakers into an intertextual conversation with academics from a variety of disciplines. The resulting dialogue opens a myriad of possibilities for engaging students with ongoing debates: What is Indigenous film? Who is an Indigenous filmmaker? What are Native filmmakers saying about Indigenous film and their own work? This thought-provoking text offers theoretical approaches to understanding Native cinema, includes pedagogical strategies for teaching particular films, and validates the different voices, approaches, and worldviews that emerge across the movement.

M. Elise Marubbio is associate professor of American Indian studies at Augsburg College and director of the Augsburg Native American Film Series. She is the author of Killing the Indian Maiden: Images of Native American Women in Film, winner of the Peter C. Rollins Book Award.

Eric L. Buffalohead, an enrolled member of the Ponca Tribe of White Eagle, Oklahoma, is associate professor and Chair of the American Indian studies department at Augsburg College.