Read Online The Inconvenient Indian by Thomas King - Free Book Online

lines in Hollywood films,” and that this movie franchise is “a gateway for non indigenous people to view more accurate indigenous characters than those of the past, forever changing how the world sees Native Americans through film.”
    Right. We used to be portrayed as bloodthirsty savages. Now we’re vampire-killing werewolves.
    So, does who gets cast as what matter? Nope. With regular type-casting, reasonable makeup, and a good voice coach, almost anyone can be a Hollywood Indian. Does it hurt the veracity of the film? Nope. Film has little veracity to begin with. The only “truth” you see on the screen is the fancy that you see on the screen. We expect too much and too little from Hollywood, and we never get what we desire.
    When I was at the University of Utah, I had a chance to be in a Christmas commercial for a local appliance store. They needed an Indian couple, a Latino couple, and a Black couple. Off we went to the studio, and when we arrived we were given our “authentic” ethnic outfits. Yes, mine was a faux-leather vest with a headband and a single red feather. The Latino outfit was a skirt and huipil, along with a serape and an enormous sombrero. Black traditional dress on this occasion consisted of an agbada for him and a dashiki for her.
    I had a moustache at the time and probably looked more Mexican than Indian, while the guy who was supposed to play the part of the Latino looked more Indian than Mexican. He was tired of wearing sombreros, he told me, and suggested that we trade places. I’ve never been one to say no to a complication, so I put on the sombrero, and he put on the headband with the feather. The producers didn’t notice or didn’t care. “Just stand among the appliances,” they told us, “and wish everyone a merry Christmas. In your own language.” Fortunately for me, I knew how to say “
Feliz Navidad
,” but I had no idea how to say “Merry Christmas” in Cherokee. “Make something up,” I told the guy with the feather. And he did. We all did.
    Since then, I’ve found out that
danistayohihv
is more or less “Merry Christmas” in Cherokee. The next time such a situation arises, I’ll be ready.
    Tony Hillerman, the author of the Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn mysteries that are set on a Navajo reservation, once told me a story about a producer who couldn’t find enough extras for a jungle movie he was making, so he hired a group of Navajo, did them all up in blackface and bad wigs, put them in a dugout, and set themloose on a river. When the Navajo asked what they were supposed to do, the director told them to paddle and sing something that sounded African, something that sounded fierce. The Navajo obliged, singing parts of the Night Chant, a Navajo healing ceremony, as they paddled along. Tony told me that whenever that movie came to drive-ins in the Four Corners area, Navajo would come from miles around to hear their relatives singing “African war chants” on the big screen.
    So, what’s the problem with casting an Indian actor as a doctor or a lawyer or a baseball player or some rich asshole everyone hates? Black actors play a wide range of characters. Will Smith played a fighter pilot in
Independence Day
, a dating coach in
Hitch
, a superhero in
Hancock
, a man who begins giving away pieces of his body in
Seven Pounds
, and a lawyer in
Enemy of the State
. Denzel Washington played an army officer in
The Manchurian Candidate
, a futuristic warrior in
The Book of Eli
, an angry father in
John Q
., a bodyguard in
Man on Fire
, and a corrupt cop in
Training Day
. Samuel L. Jackson played a cop in
Freedomland
, a gangster in
Pulp Fiction
, a cop turned private detective in
S.W.A.T
., a villain in a wheelchair in
Unbreakable
, and a fight promoter in
Hype
. And these were all principal or leading roles.
    At the same time, Native actors—Eddie Little Sky, Shelia Tousey, Nathan Lee Chasing His Horse, Irene Bedard, Tantoo Cardinal, Evan Adams, Byron Chief-Moon, Ben