Reel Injun: On the Trail of the Hollywood Indian

Cultural Fascination and Shifting Projection of Values
Commentary and Review by Sandra Cosentino

Hollywood has made over 4000 films about Native people in the past 100 years which have come to define how Indians are seen by the world.

Oh, how our culture has created an ever-changing series of stereotyped, one-dimensional images. Reel Injun (2009 Canadian documentary) is an insightful look at the Hollywood Indian, exploring the portrayal of North American Natives through the history of cinema.

The film points out that Native people growing up with these movies in the past 100+ years often self-identified with the stereotypes.  You see bewilderment on modern young Native school kids’ faces when they watch cowboy and Indian movies for the first time.  You see them trying to understand what they are seeing which is so different from their own life experience.

Laguna Indian dancers were the subject of the first moving picture display by Edison in the late 1800's. During the silent film era Indians were shown as noble and free as filmmakers tried to capture a vanishing race.

During the 1930’s advent of talking films, the American western with the image of the brutal savage emerged. John Ford's 1939 "Stagecoach" is the epitomy of this genre. For a walk into history, see the original black and white trailer here.  John Wayne, often with violent behavior, was the unstoppable true American.  The Indians always lose. Reel Injun writers see this as a damaging image of “vicious, backward people” that prevailed for decades.  


Hollywood’s famous white stars portrayed Indian lead characters.  All Indians looked like Plains Indians with the war bonnets, wore headbands and were great riders. Cree filmmaker Neil Diamond, the narrator and one of the writers of Reel Injun, shares some self-deprecating humor as he rides a horse for the first time, wanting to feel like he was a real Indian. 

“When you’re kids and you’re trying to play Cowboys and Indians, and if you’re an Indian kid – well, doesn’t that mean you’re going to lose all the time?” 

Jesse Wente, president of Native Earth Performing Arts, Canada’s oldest Aboriginal theatre company.

The Indian princess image portrayed in many films such as

Disney’s Pocohantas  is seen by Reel Injun as a caricature, the “embodiment of American desire.”

American Indian Movement activist John Trudell points out:  “Indians call themselves human beings.”  The “predatory mentality” of movies erases that memory.   

Trudell (Santee Sioux) was a spokesperson for the Indian occupation of Alcatraz Island from 1969-1971. He then worked with the American Indian Movement (AIM), was Chairman from 1973 to 1979. Trudell has released 12 albums featuring a unique mix of poetry, Native music, blues and rock and acted in feature films including Thunderheart (trailer).  

The 1970’s was a turning point:  Native people became filmmakers. And Hollywood made films like Little Big Man and Josie Wales where Indians were multi-dimension characters with humor, authenticity.  In 1973 Marlon Brando had a Native American woman take his place at the Oscars to refuse his award based on injustice to Indian people by the film industry and the Federal government siege at Wounded Knee. 

Only since the 1980's have Native filmmakers emerged with a whole new genre from their own viewpoint.

By the 1990’s in Dances With Wolves, native characters became fleshed out, not just shown as warriors but as sensitive people.  But, Reel Injun points out, this was still shown from the white person viewpoint.

The 2001 Arctic film, The Fast Runner by Inuit Director Zacharias Kunut was truly an “inside job” that revolutionized the Native image (see trailer).   


Now aboriginal filmmakers are springing up all over the world who are “not asking to be good and noble, but 
vital humans with something to say.”

The projection of Western culture idealized values of Native peoples still goes on today.  Does this speak to a longing in us for freedom, spirituality, nobility, community and to be at one with nature that are idealized in another culture?  How do we embody these ideals within our own daily world? 

“We’ll never be able to change the fantasy of who and what Indians are. That fantasy will always be there, we will always be on the cover of novels 

saying ‘Cheyenne Warrior’!"

Actor Adam Beach, of Saulteaux First Nations, Manitoba

I highly recommend watching Reel Injun.  

You can see a trailer here. 

Pilgrimage to Zuni Salt Lake

by Sandra Cosentino  based on research from multiple sources and knowledge shared by Puebloans

Zuni Salt Lake, home of Salt Woman

"Zuni people will not sacrifice our Salt Woman for cheap coal to serve Arizona or California because our Salt Woman is irreplaceable." (Arden Kucate, Zuni Councilman, 2001)


I love the Arizona territorial style of architecture of the Painted Desert Inn which overlooks colorful other wordly strata found in about a 100 mile swath along the basin of the Little Colorado River in northern Arizona.  In 1948, this charming building was Petrified Forest National Park's northern headquarters, featuring a shop and restaurant operated by the Fred Harvey Company.

Painted Desert from the Inn by Sandra Cosentino

 Mary Jane Colter, the company's architect and interior designer, was tasked with remodeling the Inn. She hired Fred Kabotie, a Hopi Indian artist, to paint murals in the lunch room and dining room.  Kabotie also had painted spectacular murals for Colter in the Desert Watchtower at the Grand Canyon in 1930.   Colter had a keen understanding of the Puebloan history and buildings and brought that into her architectural design in Arizona.

historic Painted Desert Inn, today a visitor center

The Salt Lake pilgrimage mural tells the story of two young Hopi men as they walk 230 miles round trip from their home to the Zuni mesas, passing through what is now Petrified Forest National Park, on a salt collecting journey. It was not only a physical journey; it was also a sacred journey.  The salt is an important food preservative, flavoring and used for ceremonial purposes. In addition to ceremonial pilgrimages, Hopis from all of the Hopi villages also made other journeys to Zuni Salt Lake to make ritual offerings if there was a drought and to collect salt for domestic purposes. On these trips to Zuni Salt Lake, Hopis often traveled via Zuni Pueblo, where they would stop to visit with friends and trade Hopi pottery, baskets, and textiles. Certain Hopi men through the centuries have also made pilgrimage to the Salt Mine near the Grand Canyon and their place of emergence into this the 4th world. Fred Kabotie mural of Zuni Salt Lake Hopi pilgrimage The murals tie the ancestral Puebloan people of the region to the Hopi people of the 1940s and today. While Painted Desert Inn gained status as a National Historic Landmark primarily due to its architecture, the murals of Fred Kabotie made a significant impact on the nomination. Zuni Salt Lake (in western New Mexico about 60 miles south of Zuni Pueblo) is still a sacred site today. For centuries, the Pueblo people of the Southwest, including the Zuni, Acomo, Laguna, Hopi and Taos pueblos, have made annual pilgrimages to Zuñi Salt Lake to harvest salt, for both culinary and ceremonial purposes.  The Lake and surrounding area (known as the Sanctuary Zone) are considered sacred ground by six Native American tribes--especially to the Zuni Tribe, who believe that it gives life to Ma'l Oyattsik'I, Salt Woman, one of the tribe's central deities. Mineral springs from an extinct volcano bubble to the surface here laden with pure sodium chloride. Natural evaporation causes the salt to crystalize into a glittering crust on the lake's bed, where it is scooped up by the handful (gathered for consumption and ceremonial use) in exchange for a small cornmeal offering. A network of foot trails running east, north and west connects "Salt Woman" with every major pueblo and tribal village in the area. Zuni Tribal Council member David Wyaco, Sr. compares the trails to umbilical cords linking the villages to their source of life. The Zuni Salt Lake was not part of the Zuñi reservation originally recognized by the U.S. government. In 1978, An Act of Congress provided for the return of the Zuni Salt Lake to the Zuni Tribe and allowed the Zunis to sue the government for lands taken without payment. The U.S. returned the lake itself, and 5,000 acres surrounding it (Sanctuary Zone), to Zuni control in 1985.   In recognition of the sites' significance, the National Park Service listed Zuni Salt Like on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999. Zuni Salt Lake from National Trust for Historic Preservation In 2003, the site was threatened by a proposed coal mine (to make electricity for Phoenix) that would have drawn water from the aquifer underlying the lake and placed construction on federal lands between the lake and Zuni Pueblo.  Zuni Salt Lake received a reprieve when the mine company withdrew its application and relinquished its interests in the area after several lawsuits.   That same year, another threat arose when the Bureau of Land Management issued oil and gas leases across thousands of acres in the Sanctuary Zone.  The National Trust for Historic Preservation challenged the leases and, in 2006, the Interior Board of Land Appeals overturned the leasing decision. More recently, the National Trust recommended that BLM designate the entire Sanctuary Zone as an Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC), a designation that would have prohibited oil and gas leasing and restricted groundwater pumping in the area.  BLM ultimately decided to designate one-fourth of the Sanctuary Zone as an ACEC and agreed to develop a Memorandum of Understanding with Zuni and other tribes to establish a process for how BLM will consult with the tribes on actions proposed within the ACEC.

Hopi Reaching Out to Japanese People

On my April 7,  2011 trip to Hopi, I asked a friend of mine from Second Mesa if he would be willing to say a prayer for the people of Japan.  Deep feelings were evident on his face as he went into a space of communion with Creator and spoke in Hopi for several minutes. I thought I was making a movie, but only still images came out.  His wife translated into English his message below.

Hopi man from Second Mesa deep in prayer for the Japanese.

"Thank you to all the Japanese people that live way out on the waters.  We ask Great Creator to help clear the waters and the food and the air.  And we ask Great Creator in all his help to keep their homes together.  And also their hearts and all of their families.  All of us at Hopi have been and are praying for all of you--for Creator to hold all the Universe together."

Right after the tsunami, Hopi people from all across the Reservation gathered at their Civic Center and held a candlelight prayer vigil for Japanese people.  And even though  material resources are slim in Hopiland, they are collecting supplies to send to people in Japan.

A universal time....
The words above, "praying for all of you, for Creator to hold all the Universe together," hold a profound truth of this time of growing interconnectedness of us all.  On this day, for example, I brought a family from India to Hopi.  Coming from India with thousands of years of their own deep religious tradition, they easily related to the reverence, prayers and family orientation of Hopi peoples.  Driving back to Sedona across the Colorado Plateau in a raging wind and sandstorm, they embraced the elements with calmness.

On that same day, I am praying for a aware young man from Netherlands who had been doing earth-spirit experiences in Sedona with me during the week and was now facing these same elements with great determination on his windy mountaintop solo overnight time of vision.  His words remained with me relating a powerful "chance" encounter with a Japanese woman during the week who was also out on the land in deep meditation.  Though from two from different parts of the world, they understood without words the soul's calling each felt to be out listening to the voice of spirit spoken in sandstone cliffs, junipers, and ancestor wisdom embedded in the landscape.  Just as indigenous peoples for thousands of years up to today's time have come to this region offering prayers and seeking inspiration.

"It is very important that we understand that our consciousness is part of the whole mind of humanity.  We are quite literally a part of the birthing of a new way of being through what we entertain in heart and mind."  (Rev. Bruce Kellogg, Unity Center of Verde Valley.)

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Article presented by Sandra Cosentino with permission from the Hopi couple who are friends of mine.  They are speaking from their hearts.  This is not an "official" statement--just a human one from individual Hopis.  However, I know from many decades of sharing with Hopi peoples, that as a culture, they sincerely send out their blessings to all of Mother Earth and her peoples.

Sing Down the Rain

Article by Sandra Cosentino inspired by book:  Sing Down the Rain

Judi Moreillon captures the synergy of the ancient Tohono O'odham people of the southern Arizona desert people with their arid landscape in this lovely poem lushly illustrated by tribal member Michael Chiago.
Saguaro cactus, the magnificent sentinel of the Sonoran Desert, are considered people in cosmology of these desert dwellers with roots in this land going back thousands of years.  Each summer when the fruits come ripe, the saguaro fruit wine making ceremony occurs.  This is a community celebration of life and of rain.

Judi says, "Before 1970 the Tohono O'odham did not have a written language.  Their cultural and spiritual beliefs and history were preserved and passed down through stories, songs and orations.  In the spirit of this rich tradition, Sing Down the Rain was written to be performed orally, with different voices taking the parts of the poem."

"For us, the Desert People, the most important ceremonies are those that bring rain.  Late June, when the summer rains are due, marks the beginning of our year.  A essential part of the rain-making ceremony is the making and drinking of saguaro fruit wine.  Many Desert People live and work in Tucson and on the nearby Tohono O'odham reservations.  Each August, a few villages still practice this special ceremony."

"It was I’itoi, Creator of the Tohono O’odham, tradition says, who taught the Desert People their sacred wine ceremony so they could summon the rain (ju:k ̆i) they needed to survive. He taught them to make saguaro wine (nawait),to gather together to drink the wine and sing important songs, to “sing down the rain".

Chiago rain ceremony painting on display at Arizona Museum

The saguaro grows very slowly, taking more than 150 years to reach its full height and size, which can exceed forty feet. At age 100, the cactus may begin to grow its characteristic arms. During the summer and winter rainy seasons, the accordion-like structure of the cactus allows it to expand and retain water that can be later used during the dry months.
The cactus blooms late in the spring and is pollinated by bats.

For generations, the Tohono O’odham people have harvested saguaro fruits with long poles made of saguaro ribs. They eat the juicy fruit raw or cook it down into sweet, nutritious syrup. The dried seeds, rich in proteins and fats, can be ground into flour. The saguaro provides an abundant and important source of nutrients at a time otherwise scarce in desert food resources.

The vibrant images of the desert and of the simpler ancestor times portrayed by Mr. Chiago, evoke the spirit of place for me.  As a child of the Sonoran desert I took for granted the sun blasted light, felt the saguaros as living friends but no one told me the older stories of place.  The heritage that is inherent in the land and voiced by those with long lineage in a place, I now treasure.  In this way we today become part of the on-going weaving of the life of a Place.  Judi Moreillon feels this story in her bones and, together with Michael Chiago, take us into the Spirit of the Sonoran Desert.

Please see one of the illustrated pages here on Tohono Chul Park website.

More info:
The main reservation's land area is 11,534.012 square kilometres (4,453.307 sq mi), the third-largest Indian reservation area in the United States (after the Navajo and the Uintah and Ouray).   Sells, AZ is the headquarters. Divided into 11 districts within southern Arizona, all of the reservation is not continguous.

The Tohono O'odham enrollment office tallies a population of 25,000, with 20,000 living on its Arizona reservation lands as of year 2,000. The Tohono O'odham share linguistic and cultural roots with the closely-related Akimel O'odham (People of the River), whose lands lie just south of Phoenix, along the lower Gila River.

Most of the 25,000 Tohono O'odham today live in southern Arizona, but there is also a population of several thousand in northern Sonora, Mexico. Unlike aboriginal groups along the U.S.-Canada border, the Tohono O'odham were not given dual citizenship when a border was drawn across their lands in 1853 by the Gadsden Purchase. Even so, members of the nation moved freely across the current international boundary for decades – with the blessing of the U.S. government – to work, participate in religious ceremonies, keep medical appointments in Sells, and visit relatives.

The Tohono O'odham Nation is also the location of the Quinlan/Baboquivari Mountains, which include Kitt Peak and the Kitt Peak National Observatory, and Telescopes and Baboquivari Peak. The observatory sites are under lease from the Tohono O'odham Nation at the amount of a quarter dollar per acre yearly, which was overwhelmingly approved by the Council in the 1950s. In 2005, the Tohono O'odham Nation brought suit against the National Science Foundation to stop further construction of gamma ray detectors in the Gardens of the Sacred Tohono O'odham Spirit I'itoi, which are just below the summit.

David Sine Painting of Holy Ones at Ancestral Verde Valley Site

article by Sandra Cosentino


Painting by David Sine
Yavapai-Apache elder, historian and storyteller

I am fascinated by this painting I bought from Mr. Sine many years ago.  He told me it portrays an ancestral time in the Verde Valley, Arizona when the Holy Ones were here on earth--they were supernaturals who could float in the air.

Mr. Sine says they taught his ancestors about religion and healing and after that left this earth by walking over a rainbow bridge into another world. The way the spiritual ones are dressed in this painting is similar to today's Apache crown dancers. According to archaeologists the Yavapai and Apache people who live here today are not the same people who created the Puebloan culture. The Puebloans were primarily farmers while the Yavapai and Apache were primarily hunter and gatherers. But this is a good example of how over the centuries, much cultural sharing has occurred.

By 1450 A.D. they were gone from this Verde Valley (where Sedona is located)--the prehistoric cliff dwellings and village sites of the Colorado Plateau were abandoned by 1300 A.D.
Today's Hopi people (12 villages in Arizona) and New Mexico pueblo people (18 pueblos) are the descendants of these ancestral pueblo people (formerly called by archaeologists as the "Anasazi" now known as Puebloan Ancestors).