Society For History Education

Society for History Education
Popular Film and Young People's Understanding of the History of Native American-White
Relations
Author(s): Peter Seixas
Source: The History Teacher, Vol. 26, No. 3 (May, 1993), pp. 351-370
Published by: Society for History Education
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PopularFilm andYoung People's Understandingof the
History of Native American-WhiteRelations
Peter Seixas
TheUniversityof BritishColumbia
THE HISTORYOF NATIVE AMERICAN-WHITErelationsin North

America has been dealt with in a numberof popularfilms in the past five
years, none more successful in terms of audience size than the 1990
Dances with Wolves.These films have consciously challenged the older
mythology portraying the European as discoverer and civilizer. The
interpretivechallenge, of which the films areone part,has takenplace not
only in the popularmedia, but among historians,anthropologists,legal
scholars and politicians.' Indeed, the quincentenniaryof Columbus' ar-
rival in the Americas has providedthe occasion for broadpublic debate
on the interpretive frames which we employ in examining the past.
Young people, throughtheircontactwith the popularmedia, areexposed
to these debates. Indeed, many of their understandingsof the history of
war and peace, gender relations, interculturalrelations, and national
developmentareaffectedby presentationsin the popularmedia.2We know
very little, however, abouthow young people "read"the historicalfilms
they watch. If they take their textbooks as uncontested, authoritative
presentations,do they makethe same kind of assumptionaboutthe much
more emotionally engaging films which they view?3
The research described herein explores the kinds of critical judge-
ments young people make about popularfilm. It asks, when they view
The History Teacher Volume 26 Number3 May 1993

352 Peter Seixas
films with historicalcontent,do they ask themselvesthe question,"is this

accurate?"Under what circumstancesare they more or less likely to ask
such a question?On whatgroundsdo theyjudge thata film is an accurate
representationof the past?When do they make ethicaljudgementsabout
a film with historicalcontent?How do they relatetheir own interpretive
frameworkto the frameworkportrayedin the film? What kinds of aes-
thetic observationsdo studentsmake, and what promptsthem to make
them? How do these judgementsinteractwith their epistemological and
interpretiveassessments?These judgementsare an importantpartof the
students'use of film to constructknowledge of the past.4
Thoughteachersmay show or discuss popularfilm in class, it is fair to
assumethatmost studentsdo most of the thinkingand discussingof these
films outsideof the contextof school.In studyinghistoryin school, histori-
cal charactersoftenfail to "cometo life."In the surveycourse,particularly,
thereis a dangerthatthe actorsof historyremainflat "namesanddates"in
the historytext. In orderto engage students,teachersmayprovidehistorical
characterswith familiarhumanmotivationand feelings. Students,for ex-
ample,areaskedto imaginehow they wouldrespondif they werein a given
historicalpredicament.Some educators,indeed,have seen empatheticun-
derstandingas a centralproblemin historyteaching.But, as Jenkinsand
Brickley have noted, the invitationto see life from "inside"the historical
situationalways risks anachronismwhen teachersor studentsimpose con-
temporarymotivationalframeworkson the past. The inferentialleap we
makeas we move fromthe recordof the pastto the motivationandmeaning
of past actorsand actions,is madeusing present-day,culturallycontingent
values,conventions,andjudgements,imposeduponpeople whose cultural
frameworkswerequitedifferent.Thus,a successfulbringing-to-life,through
historicalrole-play,dramaor empatheticimagination,mustbe temperedby
criticalexaminationof the historicalcontextso thatstudentswill understand
how "foreign"the pastactuallyis.5
The problemwith young people's viewing of engaging historicalfilm
is related. Students are likely to be swept quite completely into the
"historical"world as presentedon film, but unlikely to exercise critical
judgements of the filmic depiction of the past. The first problem in the
classroom is thus to invite the student (imaginatively)into the circum-
stances of the past. The problemwith studyingpopularfilm is to get the
student to step out of the filmic depiction of the past.6This study was
designed to explore what that "entry"into the past means for studentsin
the context of film-viewing, and to look at the shifting boundariesbe-
tween thatempathetic"entry"(which allows one to be swept into the past
as portrayedin the film), and the critical distance which is necessary in
orderto see the film as a constructed,culturalproductof its own time.

PopularFilm and Native American-WhiteRelations 353
The Films
Two films were selected for discussionwith students.The first,Dances

with Wolves(1990) won the Academy Award for Best Film of that year.
Directed by Kevin Costner who also plays its main character,it was
widely viewed and discussed among young people. Briefly, the protago-
nist, LieutenantJohnDunbar,seeks a posting in the West in the midst of
the Civil War. He is sent to an abandonedfort where, aftera shortperiod
of mutual suspicion, he is befriendedby the Lakota Sioux. Among the
latter is a white woman, now named "Stands With a Fist," who was
capturedin early childhood.Theirmarriageand Dunbar'sadoptionof the
Lakotaname "Danceswith Wolves" signal his complete integrationwith
the community.Meanwhilethe armyis moving west, in advanceof white
settlement.They treatthe Lakota,the wildlife of the Plains, and Dunbar
himself with reckless and stupidbrutality.The film ends with the state-
ment, "theirhomes destroyed, their buffalo gone, the last band of free
Sioux submitted to white authorityat Fort Robinson, Nebraska."The
moral frameworkof Dances with Wolves,with the United States Army
andWestwardexpansionviewed criticallyandthe Sioux as theirvictims,
is not inconsistent with contemporarypopularculture. The portrayalof
Native Americansliving decently and in harmonywith the environment
resonates with audiencesconcernedaboutenvironmentaldegradationin
the late twentieth century. Its winning the Academy Award and its
popularity are indications, further, that its cinematic conventions are
familiar and effective for today's audiences.7
John Ford's film The Searchers (1956) offers a numberof important
similarities to Dances with Wolves,in a moral frameworkwhich inverts
that of the Costner film. Considered by some critics to be one of the
"most viciously anti-Indianfilms ever made,"8 it, too, portraysNative
American-Whitecontact in the West in the 1860s, revolving around a
white girl taken in early childhoodto live with Indians.At the outset the
happy frontier homestead of the Edwards family is devasted by the
hostile Commanches.Led by the notoriouschief, "Scar,"they slaughter
its cattle ("not for food, neither"), brutally murder the parents, and
abduct the daughters. Uncle Ethan (John Wayne) vows to find the
daughtersand defeat the Commanches,and spends the next years lead-
ing the search throughoutthe West. By the time he catches up with the
band, one daughter (Lucy) has been killed, and the other (Debby) is
Scar's unhappy and reluctantwife. In the climactic battle scene, Ethan
scalps Scar (off-screen) and then gives chase to Debby. At first aiming
to kill her because of her cohabitationwith a Native American, Ethan
relents and returnsher to the neighboringsettlerfamily, the Jorgensons.

354 Peter Seixas
For audiences in the 1990s the film is dated in its interpretivestance, in

its portrayalof Native Americans, in its portrayalof male-female rela-
tionships, and in its technical aspects. Nevertheless, it represents an
importantmoment in what Hobsbawm has called the "invented tradi-
tions" of the United States.9
The Students
The school from which the students for this exploratorystudy were
drawn is an upper-middle class school. Like most other schools in
Vancouver, its populationis increasinglymade up of studentsof Asian
origin. Volunteers were sought from grade ten social studies classes of
one teacher.The sample was designed to include studentswho had lived
in NorthAmericaall of theirlives and who had seen Dances with Wolves.
In addition, a mix of girls and boys and a range of interestand achieve-
ment (measuredby grades)in social studies were sought.
Ten students volunteeredwho apparentlyfit the distributioncriteria.
An eleventh student volunteered after the interviewing had begun,
having heard from a friend what it was like. All students who volun-
teered were interviewed.In spite of the selection criteria,two turnedout
not to have seen Dances with Wolves priorto the interview. Data from
one (Student #1) of those were not used. The other (Student #10) had
discussed the film sufficiently with friends,thathe was familiarwith the
theme and plot, and his transcriptwas used. None of them had seen The
Searchers prior to the interview, though many had a sense of "John
Wayne films." The tape for one student (Student#4) was largely inau-
dible, and the data were not used. The first portion of the tape (discus-
sion of segments of Dances with Wolves) for anotherstudent (Student
#2) was inaudible and not used. Among the nine subjects whose tran-
scripts were analyzed were six males and three females; five who said
social studies was one of their favorite subjects, four for whom it was
not; with grades in Social Studies ranging from A to C. Other than
gender differences, many relevant aspects of social and historical loca-
tion were similar for all subjects in this sample (i.e., grade ten students
born in Canada,attendingan upper-middleclass school in 1992, in the
midst of a period of active public engagement with issues of Native
American self-government, land claims and constitutional relations.)
Four were members of an advanced English class, which each men-
tioned as having devoted considerable time to stimulating discussion
and projects on Native American-White relations. Among the nine
students, social studies classes far outweighed all other sources of ideas
and informationabout Native-white relations.

Method
The researcher and a research assistant conducted semi-structured

interviews (APPENDIX 1) with individual students. Subjects were shown
four segments from Dances with Wolves,andthen readthe epilogue, fol-
lowed by four segments (includingthe first half hour) of The Searchers
(APPENDIX 2). Excerpts were selected so that the main plots remained
coherent.After each of the segments, studentswere askedto say what the
segment was about, whether any questions occurredto them about the
segment, and whetherthey had any otherresponsesto it. After all of the
segments were viewed, several questions promptedstudentsto compare
the two films (though most studentsbegan the comparisonafter the first
segment of The Searchers). These were followed by questions on their
film-viewing habits and their knowledge and opinions of the history of
Native American-Whiterelations. Finally, they were given question-
naires which asked basic demographicquestions as well as furtherques-
tions on film-viewing habits.The entire session took approximatelytwo
hours, less than one hour was consumed in viewing the segments.
Interviews were transcribed,but were not subjected to coding and
quantitativecontent analysis. Thus, claims made below aboutthe nature
of studentresponses include the relevantquotationsfrom the transcripts.
The analysis of the interviewtranscriptswas guidedby a frameworkwith
three major elements, the film-viewing, the film-maker, and the film-
viewer (or student). Each of these elements will be discussed in turn
(FIGURE1).
1.
FIGURE
Film Uiewer: Film-Uiewing: Film-Making:
- - operates within a social
operates within a social and I
historical context Internal External and historical context
- has a situated perspective - has a situated perspective
Critique: Critique:
with an ethical dimension with an ethical dimension
narrative line, acting, sets, reference to 'reality' as

coherence, 'believability', and known
aesthetic qualities of the through other sources
r%4
qproduction
IE
"'NRRRRTI
101
2
CRITICAL
4 3
'HERMENEUTIC

356 Peter Seixas
The film-viewing is the first element in the analysis. For the purposes
of the study, two kinds of film-viewing observationswere examined. I
have called them "internal"and "external"observations.Internalobser-
vations concern the aesthetic qualities of the production:the narrative
line, acting, sets, coherence, the effectiveness of the cinematic conven-
tions, the "believability"of the film. Internalobservations are just as
appropriatefor fantasy, futurist,or science fiction films as they are for
historical films. External observations concern the relationshipof the
film to the "reality"to which it refers (i.e., the West in the 1860s), and
thus would not be relevant for a fantasy film. In one kind of external
observation, a viewer may make an implicit and uncriticalassumption
that what she/he is viewing simply is the historicalreality.Alternatively,
the viewer may note a disjunctionbetween the film and reality, and may
claim inaccuracyor distortionin the film's presentation.
Observationsabout the film-makerconstitute the second element in
the analyticalframework.Like the viewer, the filmmakerhas a situated
perspective, and operates within a social and historical context. He/she
employs particularconventions, social and cinematic, and has purposes
which may be inferred from the cinematic product, and thus operates
within an ethical and interpretiveframework.Studentsquestionedabout
films showed varyinglevels of awarenessof the film-makers'positions.
The studentas a film-viewer,the thirdelement,similarlyoperateswithin
a social and historicalcontext,and thus has a situatedperspectivewith an
interpretiveframework.This contextinfluencesacceptance(or rejection)of
particularcinematicconventions(e.g., a given level of on-screenviolence,
studio lightingas partof the way a film should look), of particularsocial
conventions(e.g., racialepithets,uncriticalinequalityin genderrelations,
appropriate dressandhair-do),anda moreor less developedframeworkfor
understandingtheir own position in history.'"All studentsin this sample
madecommentswhichreferredto theirown experiences,butthey variedin
self-reflexiveawarenessof theirown social andhistoricalcontextandhow
thatcontexthelpedto shapetheirperspective.
Figure 1 illustratesthe analyticalframework.Each of the arrowsstarts
with the film-viewer (who is makingthe statementswhich constitutethe
data for the study). The first level consists of "internal"observationsof
the film. I have labeledthis level "narrative"since it refersto the critique
of the film as a story, with believable characters,sets, and plot. The
second level of observations,commentingeither implicitly or explicitly
on the film's relation to historical reality, has been labeled "critical."
Students' comments on the film-makers'perspectivesand on their own
perspectiveswithin a social and historicalcontext constitutewhat I have
labeled the "hermeneutic"level.1

PopularFilmandNativeAmerican-White
Relations 357
The findings reportedhere focus on the extent to which studentsask

the question, "is this film an accuraterepresentationof the past."In order
to answer this question, the transcriptswere reviewed for the following:
A. Statements where students made a comment indicating an im-
plicit assumptionthat the film depicts the historical reality. (These oc-
curredonly in respect to Dances with Wolves.)
B. The students'responsesto segmentsof TheSearchers,wherethey
are first coming to grips with a radically different interpretationof the
past from Dances with Wolves.
C. The students' responses to the interview questions asking them
to comparethe two films in terms of historicalaccuracy.
Findings
A. Statementswhere students made a comment indicating an im-
plicit assumptionthat thefilm depicts the historical reality.
During the viewing of Dances with Wolves, students often made
seamless transitionsbetween talkingaboutthe film's content,anddiscus-
sion of the historyof Native American-Whiterelations.They understood
the film depiction as a window on reality. Student#3 said:
... you see thatthe Indianstherewho alwayshadsucha culture.Likeit
was reallynice like how they dressedandthey hadtheirown thingand
thenafterthe whitepeoplecameit's all changed.Theygot themalcohol
andall theseotherthingsandnowyoudon'thaveas muchrespect.
Here the cinematic "before"is offered as a directprecursorto contempo-
raryreality.Similarly,Student#5 saidthatDances with Wolveshadtaught
her "thingsI didn't know before ... things aboutthe culture."
Student#6, who claimedto have watchedDances withWolvesten times,
discussed the film priorto viewing the first segment.
Q: ... Whatmadeyou so upsetwhenyou firstsawit?Tell me moreabout
that.
Student#6: I thinkseeing how people are treated,you know how the
Indiansweretreated.
She reacted emotionally because the film was showing her the reality.
Again there is an assumption of the seamless truth of the film. She
continued:
I thinkit wastryingto, youknow,showpeoplewhathappenedduringthat
time,how the Indianswerebasicallykickedoff theirland.... I guessthis
movie is just showingpeoplewhatreallyhappened,like 'wakeup,' and
they should know what happened.

358 PeterSeixas
Though she acknowledgesthatthereis a film here, the picturein the film

is still "what really happened."Watching a segment of Costner being
brutalizedby Union soldiers, she said,
Seeinghowthesoldierstreatedhimso ... it'sjustanindicationof howthe
realIndiansweretreated....I cansee theyhadabsolutelyno mercywith
trueIndians....Itembarrasses methatthisis myhistory,thisis whatI have
to showfor beingwhite.AndI knowit's notme, like I didn'tdo thisbut
still it's my background.
Priorto watching any segments, Student#7 recalledthatDances with
Wolveswas about "how the Indianswere treatedduringwhen the Euro-
peans first came in.... It showed how bad things were back then...."
Student#8's commentson the Dances with Wolvessegmentsdid show
an awareness both of himself as audience and of the film as cultural
product,but, again, the centralthrustof his early comments concerned
the seamless reality of the film:
I thoughtthatwasprettyneatbecause... whatyoureadin historybooksis
kindof differentfromwhatyou actuallysee.... Likeyou actuallyget sort
of how theyfelt andnotbig words....It's moreintense....
Both the film and the book portrayhistory,but the film is immediately
involving:you "actuallysee"it and"youactuallyget sortof how they felt."
After seeing the last segment of Dances with Wolvesbefore the epi-
logue, Student#9 said,
I wonderhow people could have thoughtthat way backthen.... The
peoplebackthenweren'tcorrectin theirthinking.Thepeoplethat[judge
by] skincoloror cultureorthingslikethat,theydidn'tevenbotherto ask
KevinCostnerbeforetheystartedshootingathimor beatinghim.
He has entered into the film as history: "Kevin Costner"becomes a
victim of the way people thought"way back then."
Student#10, who had not seen the film priorto the interview,was the
only one who enteredwith a critical framework,asking questions about
the film's relation to the historical past, ratherthan assuming that the
portrayalwas accurate.He had taken partin a numberof discussions of
the film, in which there was some disagreement.Asked aboutthe nature
of the disagreement,he replied:
Mostly I thinkthe reasonwhy most people disagreeis becausethey
personallydon'thave enoughknowledgeto base it on andthis is what
they'rebasingtheirargumentson, this movie, as opposedto real his-
tory.... [A] lot of peoplesimplysee thismovieandthinkthatit is what's
realbecauseit's thefirstoneto be as closeto realas it theoretically
is. Do
you see whatI mean?

Relations 359
"Real," however, is a problematicterm: confronted with segment 2 in

which the Lakota discuss how to handle the arrivalof a white intruder
into their territory,he explored the problem:"You get a sense that these
are real people and they're tryingto deal with a real problem,as opposed
to just a 'bunch of Indians."'And he revealed what made it so real for
him: "I could see very easily a bunch of white people talking about
almost exactly the same thing...." The power of the film comes, then,
from rendering Natives of 1863 familiar, like "white people" today.
Cinematically,"real"charactersare ones we might know.
Student #11 related the cinematic buffalo slaughterto what she had
learnedaboutPlains Natives Americans'culturesin school:
It wasjustsucha wastethatthey'dbeenkilledjustfortheirhidesandtheir
tongues... whenwe learnedaboutIndiansandeverythingin my other
gradesthattheyusedeverypartof thebuffalo,everything,nothinggoes to
waste.Therethey werelying out on the fields and everythingwas just
goingto wasteexceptfortheirhidesandtheirtongues.
Thus, priorto viewing TheSearchers,all the intervieweesexcept Student
#10, had a tendency to speak of Dances with Wolvesas though it were a
window throughwhich they could "see"partof the past. Theirresponses
to the next film were different.
B. Students' responses to The Searchers.
None of the studentsmade the same kinds of observationsin response

to TheSearchers.Rather,they madenumerouscommentsaboutthe film's
aesthetic qualities, what they viewed as its strained or faulty use of
cinematicconventions,its "outdated"appearanceand its failureto reflect
"reality."Student#3's first comment on the film indicatedhis distance,
as a viewer, from the portrayal:"The Indiansare made out to be [em-
phasis added] really bad and in the movie there, I guess they are."
Furthermore,he saw this portrayal as something formulaic: "It's so
classic in how all the cowboys and Indiansare being used."
After watching the first segment, Student#5 said "the acting wasn't
too great."Probed,she continued,
it's kindof old ... they'rekindof fake,thewomen,I mean... she'salways
wearingherapron,so you can tell it's kindof old, I thinkthat'skindof
outdated.It'sjust the women,all they'redoingis settingthe table... the
handmovements,theyjustseemreallyfake.
Like Student #10's comments above, this statement suggests that stu-
dents viewing a historicalfilm arejarredby social conventionswhich are

360 Peter Seixas
unlike theirs:it is congruenceto theirown conventionsand expectations,

not replicationof the moresof the 1860s, which makes the historicalfilm
believable for young people. This suggestion was confirmedrepeatedly,
as will be shown below.
Justas Student#5 ascribedaestheticproblemsof TheSearchersin part
to the historical moment in which the film was made, Student#6 had a
similar reactionafterthe first segment:
Oh,mydadlovestheseoldmovies... whenhe wasa kidheprobablywent

to see it in the theatre,you knowso I guessthat'swhy he likes themso
much.I don'tknow,it's kindof likethatold fashionedviolence....
She expressedsimilardistancefromthe pictureof the frontierfamily in the

firstsegment:"I guess they triedto makethe family seem so perfect... the
mom,the dadandthe childrenandtheyjust seemedto be all simple,happy-
go-lucky kind you know, for that time, [like]: 'hi, mom, how are you?"'
Student#7 said,aftertwo segments,"[it's]just badfilming."
Student#8 was the only one of this sampleto use directlythe language
of accuracy.While he had acceptedthe picturepresentedby Dances with
Wolves,he began to challenge TheSearchers:"Likethe movie itself, is it
portrayed accurately?"Student #9's first comment on The Searchers
was: "Thestoryline is okay butthere'ssome holes in the acting,right,it's
not thatbelievable...." He continued,"thecharactersaren'tas believable,
they don't act as real people would act.... Like when they try to act out
their emotions, they don't do that very well." Student #10, who ques-
tioned many aspects of Dances with Wolves,observed, "the acting was
just pathetic,"and "thestoryline itself is preposterous."He had difficulty
with the cinematicconventions:"I don't know why JohnWayne has this
reputation... him being this real hunter-outdoorsman type with a gut that
size just baffles the mind." (Student #11's first response to the first
segment of TheSearcherswas to compareit to Dances with Wolves,and
so it will be dealt with below.)
To a person, the sample thus respondedto The Searchers as an aes-
theticallyproblematicproduction.Most of theircommentswere directed
towards "poor acting," cinematic conventions which did not work for
them, or poor representationsof "how people act." Only one student
(Student#8) criticizedthe film for lack of accuracyin its depictionof the
1860s, and he did so in the form of questions (not statements) about
accuracy. Their critique was thus largely at the "narrative"level. How-
ever, as they attemptedto define why the film was unsatisfactory,some
began to historicize the film. The interview questions at the end of the
segment-viewing pressedthem furtherin this direction.

Relations 361
C. Students'observationsin response to questionsof accuracy.
As each interview proceeded, students who had not spontaneously

begun to comparethe two films when viewing TheSearchers were asked
explicitly to comparethe two on the basis of their"accuracy."Asking for
a judgement about "accuracy"demands that the respondent explicitly
consider the film as a representationof the past. But, as has been sug-
gested above, studentsare not confidentaboutdoing this. Theirstrategies
for handlingthe questionwere both remarkablyconsistentand revealing.
Student#2 was typical:
Q: Whichfilm do you see as being a more accurateportrayalof the

lifestyleof thesepeople?
Student#2: DanceswithWolves
Q: Andwhydo you say that?
Student#2: I meanit's notrealisticthattheIndianswerejustgonnacome
andsavageandkill a wholefamilyof people,justfor thejoy of doing
it....
Student#2 transformeda question about "accurate"to a question about

"realistic."He does not have much historical data at his disposal with
which to judge how "accurate"the film is, that is, how it correspondsto
the past. On the otherhand,the adjective"realistic"involves comparison
to a more general "how humanbeings act" or humannature.On this, he
has a lot of data, gleaned from his everyday experience. From this
experience, he concluded that people don't kill wantonly. Action in The
Searchersdoes not measureup to his experience,thus it is not "realistic."
Student#3 was more articulateabouthow this workedfor him. Asked
about the main differencesbetween the two films, he responded"I guess
I can relate to Dances with Wolves more because it was early, it's not
such an old ... with the old folky music."Studentsarticulatethe "realis-
tic" by saying that they can relateto it. They can "relateto" Dances with
Wolvesbecause its conventionsarefamiliar,while TheSearchersappears
dated.
The comparisonled Student#3, like some others,to begin to put into
historicalcontextnot only the film which was obviouslydated,but also the
film which had initiallyappearedto be a transparent windowon the past:
Thedifferenceis I guessin the 1950stheiropinionsabouttheIndiansand

thingslike thatwere a lot differentand thatwas I meanjust like how
AmericanTV madeRussiansout to be so badlike they'rethe worstand
you're scaredof them.And here they'representingus the same thing
whereas in Dances with Wolvesideas have changed and stuff.

362 PeterSeixas
The processof historicizingone film led quitenaturallyto the attemptto see

even thecontemporary film in partas a productof its own historicalmoment.
Student#5, comparingthe two films, saw Dances with Wolvesas be-
ing "a lot more realistic and modem." Its very present-mindednesswas
what made Dances with Wolvesa "realistic"picture of the past for her.
Student #6 noted that the Natives are portrayedstereotypicallyin The
Searchers, while they are well-rounded in Dances with Wolves: "It's like,
oh my gosh, these people are real."Pressed on the questionof accuracy,
she statedperceptively:
I guess,likeI don'tknowfor100percent,likeI wasn'tthere,right.It'smore

my feelingsandhowI feel.I guessbecauseI ammoresympathetic to the
IndiansinDanceswithWolves-and I feelI shouldbesympathetic, likeI am,I
feelbadforwhathashappened tothem,whereas inTheSearchers they'remade
upto be thebadguysandI don'tfeel anything, I don'tfeel likethat,I feel
completely theopposite.SoI guessI seethat[DanceswithWolvesas]is more
accuratebecauseI'm feeling the feelings thatI feel normally.
Student#7, pressedon the questionof accuracy,likewise transformed

the language to "realistic."
Q: ... how do you knowthatDanceswith Wolvesis the moreaccurate

portrayal...?
Student#7: TheyseemmorerealisticthanTheSearchers....
Q: ... When you say realistic what do you mean by that?
Student#7: Well, it shows moregraphicallywhathappened,like the buffalo
werekilledandtheIndiansdidn'thaveanywayof theirlife stillthere.
Liketheyjustlostoutbecausethewhitemencame.In TheSearchersit
doesn'tshowanythingabouthowtheIndianslosteverything.
Q:I wantto comebackto thisotherquestionagain.Howdoyouknowthat
DanceswithWolvesis a moreaccurateportrayal?
Student#7:I don'tknow,maybeit'sjustlikea newerkindof movieso that
theyhavemoreinformation or facts.
In this short interchange,the student has transformedthe question of

"accuracy"(correspondenceto the past), to "realisticness"(appropriate
use of contemporarycinematic conventions-the quantityof on-screen
blood and gore in Dances with Wolveswas unthinkablein 1956), butthen
back to accuracy through faith that "they"have more "informationor
facts" in 1990. More informationallows the making of a new kind of
film, one which has a differentperspective.Priorto this interchange,he
explained the change in perspective:"Maybethey just realizedlike what
has happened,nobody ever thoughtof the Indianpoint of view because
nobody really cared."

Student#8, who hadbeen askingquestionsaboutaccuracythroughthe

film segments, knew that the question of accuracy demanded some
knowledge of history, and responded, "I don't really know American
history all thatmuch but like just based on films and how I felt, I thought
Dances with Wolveswas more accurate."Student#9, asked how he knew
Dances with Wolves was more accurate, said, "It seems more realistic
because the acting was very good...." Pressedfurtheron the groundsfor
a claim of accuracy,he stated:
That'sgoingto be difficultbecauselike if you hadrecordsor something

butthereweren'tmanyrecordsbackthenso. If youaskopinionsof Native
peopleandwhitepeoplenow,theopinionswouldbe differentfromback
then. Our way of thinkinghas changedbecauseof all the civil rights
movementsandstuff.
This seems like a sophisticatedhistoricizing of culture. But the student

continued, "So what you'd have to do is just go by what you think is
right, what makes you feel, what do you think, what do you feel is
right."
Student#10 said, "Danceswith Wolvestries to be truthful.Whetheror
not it succeeds is hardto tell because I don't have much informationon
the whole era. Now TheSearchersjust tries to be an adventure,tries to be
action. It has absolutelyno bearingon reality."
Student#11 perceptivelyqualifiedher response on accuracy:
Student#11: I can'treallysay, well, if I hadto say whichone is more

accurateI'd probablysayDanceswithWolvesbutI'd probably justsay
thatbecauseit's moremodern.
Q:Whenyou sawDanceswithWolvesoriginally... didthequestionever
occurto you how accurateit is?
Student#11:No, becauseit wasjusta showthatI waswatchingandI was
so wrappedup in feeling andcryingthatI didn'tstop to think,you
know,I wonderif thisis right.In TheSearchers,it's a lot easier.
Discussion
There was a common strategy for viewing the films in relation to

"reality"among almost all of the studentsin the sample. Aside from one
student (Student #10), there was a strong tendency to see Dances with
Wolves as a window into the past. Each of them made a number of
statements which implied that assumption.They initially spoke of the
film as if it were primafacie believable. Not surprisingly,no studentdid
this with The Searchers.

364 Peter Seixas
As has been suggested above, the cinematic and social conventions

employedin Dances withWolvesmadeit a moreconvincingpresentationfor
studentsandthey madestatementsaboutthe film as if they were discussing
the past. They stated consistentlythat what made it a more convincing
presentation,was its employmentof "modem"conventions,its renderinga
strangeandforeignpeoplefamiliar.Its effectivenesswas basedon its being
"realistic,"not on its being "accurate."Very few spontaneouslycompared
the film to other sources which deal with the history of the era. This is
understandable, in thatthe historicaldatawhich they have at theirdisposal
are limited,andthe datafromtheirlived experiencearerelativelyrich.Not
having much informationon the historicaltopic, when forced to make a
judgement,they fell back on theirknowledgeof "humannature"and their
sense of an appropriateand believablenarrativeline. But these are exactly
the observationswhich areconventional(in the sense thatthey rely on cur-
rentconventions),and are most likely to be anachronistic.In otherwords,
ironically,the more a "historical"film presentslife in the past as being
similarto life in the present,the more believableit is to these students.In
Dances withWolves,examplesabound:Dunbarcomesto theSioux,notwith
his own religion, but with the outlook of a twentiethcenturyhumanist;
Stands-with-a-Fist hasa layeredhair-dowhichwouldhavebeenunthinkable
before the late 1980s. Indeed,reviewershad a hey-day with Dunbar,as a
surfer-accentedcharacter"createdout of recentfeministfantasiesand the
failureof certainold-fashionedmasculinedreams,"and with the cinematic
Sioux, as "genialversionsof us."12The conventionsof the presentmakethe
film aboutthe past emotionallyengagingfor the students.Conversely,the
film which employs the conventionsof the 1950s does not presentitself as
"reality"to studentsin the 1990s. As Student#10 said of TheSearchers,"it
just triesto be an adventure."
A second, related factor contributingto their favouringDances with
Wolves is evident in their statements:they agree with the interpretive
stanceof Dances with Wolvesanddisagreewith thatof TheSearchers.The
ethical frameworkwhich links the past to the presentprovidesthe under-
lying meaning of the two films. TheSearcherspresentsa celebratoryac-
count of historicaldevelopment,a story of struggle and progresswith a
hard-wonbut happy ending. As Mrs. Jorgensonsays reflectively upon
news of the deathof her son, "Someday this countrywill be a fine, good
place to live." Once the Native Americanslike Scar arekilled or pacified
by strong men like Ethan,families like the Jorgensonsand the Edwards
will be able to live well in the West. Dances with Wolvespresentsa story
of historical decline, of justice denied: a people "without value and
without soul" (in Dunbar's words) triumphover "the last band of free
Sioux," who, we are told in the epilogue, must ultimately submit to

"white authorityat Fort Robinson, Nebraska."The white heroes of The

Searchers become the villains of Dances with Wolves,while the villains
of the formerbecome the heroes of the latter.
The students' statements show that they had a clear sense of the
difference between these two interpretiveframeworks.Their acceptance
of one interpretiveframeworkand rejection of the other was not predi-
cated on the cinematic and social conventions which the two films
employed to tell their stories. Like the conventions, however, the two
interpretiveframeworksare rooted in their own times: 1956 and 1990.
Ford's and Costner's views of the family, of non-white peoples, of the
meaning of the United States, were shapedby the social conditions and
conflicts of the 1950s and the 1990s respectively. If students are more
receptive to a moral and historicalinterpretationrooted in the culturein
which they participate,it should come as no surprise.
But viewing Dances with Wolvesalone, as most studentsfirst encoun-
tered it, providedno opportunityfor studentsto move to the hermeneutic
level of analysis. The interpretiveframeworkof the film coincided with
their own; the film spoke directly to them; they "related"to it. Not only
did they not move to a hermeneuticanalysis, they articulatedrelatively
little in the way of internalor externalcritique.Rather,they enteredthe
film and made moraljudgements about various charactersin a manner
entirely consistent with the aims of the filmmaker. Thus there was no
opportunityfor them to see the frame.
The Searchers stimulateda much more extendedcritiqueat the narra-
tive level: studentshad much more to say about the aesthetic problems
presentedby the constructionof the film. But many also moved quickly
beyond the narrativelevel to a hermeneuticanalysis, where they made
observations about the dated natureof the film, of its reflections of the
culture of the 1950s. In addition, many began to reflect on their own
interpretiveframework,and to realize the epistemological limitationsof
a popularfilm as evidence of what really happenedin the past.
The critical educationalexperience came, then, not from viewing an
engaging contemporaryfilm with a powerful historical message, but
from following such a film with a dated interpretationof similarevents.
Viewing the datedfilm stimulatedstudentsfirst to critiqueit (albeit, with
limited historicalknowledge, primarilyon the narrativelevel), and then
to make observationson the perspectiveof the film-maker.Moreover,the
conclusion that the dated film was made from a limited and particular
perspective, as a result of its being situated in a specific historical
moment and social location, led many studentsto bringthe same kind of
analysis back to the contemporaryfilm. They were then in a much better
position to examine the basis of their own knowledge.

366 PeterSeixas
The questionsraisedby this researchare difficult ones. Farfrombeing

able to point to unsophisticatedstudents,for whom we can prescribea
clear course of educationalenlightenment,we have a group of students
who exhibit some of the same problems and dilemmas faced by every-
one, including historians, who seriously consider the relationshipbe-
tween past andpresent.The taskis neveras simple as "examiningthe past
on its own terms."We can only interrogatethe past for our own purposes,
with our own questions, which arise out of our own situations. But at
what point do contemporaryquestionsimpose an anachronisticdistortion
upon the past? In understandinghuman emotion in the past, and in
judginghistoricalactorsmorally,how do we avoidimposinginappropriate
patternsand standardsfrom the present?As William Cronon, who has
writtenon this dilemmarecently,concludes:
As storytellerswe commitourselvesto the task of judgingthe conse-
quencesof humanactions,tryingto understandthechoicesthatconfronted
thepeoplewhoselives we narrateso as to capturethe full tumultof their
world. In the dilemmasthey faced we discoverour own, and at the
of thetwowe locatethemoralof thestory.If ourgoalis to tell
intersection
talesthatmakethepastmeaningful, thenwe cannotescapestrugglingover
thevaluesthatdefinewhatmeaningis.13
Films like Dances with Wolvesare significantbecause, as partof the
popular culture, they help young people to see that the past can be a
source of meaningfor the present.But if this researchis correct,students
initially tend to view such films without critically comparingthem to
what we know from other sources; they experience them as emotional
catharses without recognizing the contemporarysources of their effec-
tiveness. Uncritical immersion in these well-told (and technically daz-
zling) tales, while perhapsan advanceover the alienatinghistory survey
text, would be a dangerousstrategyon which to base historyinstruction,
since it simply strengthensstudents' alreadyconsiderablepropensityto
accept uncriticallythe media's presentationsof the past.14Viewing other
films whose underlyinginterpretiveframeworkis less congenial to their
own, may providethe stimulusfor studentsto examineall film--even the
most engaging--critically. If that happens, students can be drawn to a
study of other sources of information which contribute to a clearer
understandingof the discrepancies,and thence to a deeperunderstanding
of theirown historicalposition.Sucha scenariosuggestsa complementarity
between popularfilm and the social studies classroom. Involvementand
critique might take place, energized not only by the interpretiveand
technical potency of the Hollywood production,but also by the critical
powers of the teacher, and finally by the naturally deconstructive tenden-

cies of North American students. The curriculumwhich accepts this

challenge would clearlybe enhancedby a studyof some of the techniques
of film criticism, and the historyof cinema.
The findings reportedherearelargelyexploratoryat this stage. A more
systematiccontentanalysisof the transcriptswill help to confirmsome of
the tentativeclaims offered above. The upper-middleclass sample of this
investigation should be supplementedwith other studentswith different
educationalexperiences,from differentsocio-economic classes and from
First Nations backgrounds.Finally, this analysis focused on the similari-
ties across the sample. Further research should utilize the narrative/
critical/hermeneuticdistinction to analyze the kinds of situations and
experiences which help young people to enrich their viewing of popular
film with historicalcontent.
Notes
The author wishes to acknowledge the helpful comments and assistance of Sam
Wineburg,ElizabethVibert, and Jeff Stewart.This researchwas funded througha grant
from the University of British Columbia's Humanitiesand Social Sciences GrantCom-
mittee.
1. See William Cronon, "A place for stories: nature, history, and narrative,"
Journal of American History, 78 (March 1992), 1347-1376; Alfred Crosby, Ecological
Imperialism(New York: CambridgeUniversity Press, 1986); Donald Worster,ed., The
Ends of the Earth (New York:Cambridge,1988); JamesAxtell, TheInvasion Within:The
Contestof Culturesin NorthAmerica (New York: Oxford, 1985); KirkpatrickSale, The
Conquest of Paradise: ChristopherColumbusand the ColumbianLegacy (New York:
Knopf, 1990); and FrancisJennings,TheInvasionofAmerica: Indians, Colonialism,and
the Cant of Conquest(ChapelHill, NC: Universityof North CarolinaPress, 1975).
2. See Roger Bromley, Lost Narratives: Popular Fiction, Politics, and Recent
History (London: Routledge, 1988); Leslie Fishbein, "'Roots': Docudrama and the
Interpretationof History,"in JamesE. O'Conner,ed., AmericanHistoryAmerican Tele-
vision: Interpretingthe Video Past (New York: Ungar Publishing, 1983), pp. 279-385;
Peter Seixas, "HistoricalUnderstandingamong Adolescents in a MulticulturalSetting"
(Paper delivered at American EducationalResearch Association Annual Meeting, San
Francisco,April 1992). Historianshave takenan increasinginterestrecently in historical
presentationsin popularfilm, viz., the forumon JFK in AmericanHistorical Review, 97
(April 1992); the panel on "Historyon Film"at the Organizationof AmericanHistorians'
Annual Meeting, Chicago, April 1992; regular film review sections in the American
Historical ReviewandTheJournalofAmericanHistory;andan AHA Ad Hoc Committee
on History and Film, whose reportappearsin Perspectives, 6 (September1992), 15-17.
3. MatthewT. Downey and Linda S. Levstik, "Teachingand LearningHistory,"
in JamesP. Shaver,ed., Handbookof Researchon Social Studies Teachingand Learning
(New York: Macmillan, 1991); John E. Splaine, "The Mass Media as an Influence on

368 Peter Seixas
Social Studies,"ibid.; ElizabethEllsworth,"I Pledge Allegiance:The Politics of Reading

and Using EducationalFilms,"CurriculumInquiry,21 (1991), 41-64; SusanNeuman,"Is
LearningfromMediaDistinctive?ExaminingChildren'sInferencingStrategies,"American
Educational Research Journal, 29 (Spring 1992), 119-140. On students' responses to
historicaltexts, see Samuel S. Wineburg,"ReadingHistoricalTexts: Notes on the Breach
Between School andAcademy,"AmericanEducationalResearchJournal,28 (1991), 495-
519; and Terrie Epstein, "AmericaRevised Revisited: Adolescents' Attitudes towards
United States HistoryTextbooks"(Paperpresentedto the College and UniversityFaculty
Association at the Annual Meeting of the National Council of the Social Studies,
Washington,DC, November 1991).
4. Tom Holt, ThinkingHistorically: Narrative,Imagination,and Understanding
(New York: College EntranceExaminationBoard, 1990); Denis Shemilt, History 13-16
Evaluation Study (Edinburgh:Holmes, McDougall, 1980); Diane LemonnierSchallert,
"The Significance of Knowledge: A Synthesis of ResearchRelatedto Schema Theory,"
in Wayne Otto and SandraWhite, eds., Reading ExpositoryMaterial (New York: Aca-
demic Press, 1982), pp. 13-48.
5. On the empathy debate, see Keith Jenkins, Rethinking History (London:
Routledge, 1991): esp. pp. 39-47; ChristopherPortal, "Empathyas an Objective for
History Teaching, in ChristopherPortal, ed., The History Curriculumfor Teachers
(London:Falmer, 1987), pp. 89-102, and "Empathy,"TeachingHistory, 58 (1990), 36-
38; K. Jenkinsand P. Brickley, "Reflectionson the EmpathyDebate,"TeachingHistory,
55 (1989), 18-23, and "Designer Histories: A Reply to ChristopherPortal,"Teaching
History, 60 (1990). 27-29. On the past as "foreign,"see David Lowenthal,The Past Is a
Foreign Country(New York: CambridgeUniversity Press, 1985). On teachers' abilities
to deal with historical understandings,see Samuel S. Wineburg and Suzanne Wilson,
"Subject-matterKnowledge in the Teachingof History,"in JereBrophy,ed., Advancesin
Research on Teaching,vol. 2 (Greenwich,CT: JAI Press, 1991), pp. 305-47.
6. Linda Levstik, "History Teaching and Narrative" (Paper delivered at the
American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting, San Francisco, April
1992).
7. Jim Kitses, Horizons West:AnthonyMann, Budd Boetticher,Sam Peckinpah:
StudiesofAuthorshipwithinthe Western(London:ThamesandLondon, 1969), pp. 24-25
8. Jon Tuska, The American West in Film: Critical Approaches to the Western
(Westport,CT: GreenwoodPress, 1985), p. xix.
9. Quotedin Bromley, op. cit., p. 157. See also Kitses, op. cit.; Tuska,op. cit.; and
JaneTompkins,Westof Everything:TheInnerLifeof Westerns(New York:Oxford,1992);
and Peter Biskin, Seeing is Believing: How Hollywood Taught Us to Stop Worryingand
Love the Fifties (New York: Pantheon,1983).
10. Seixas, op. cit.
11. Ference Marton, "Phenomenography:A Research Approachto Investigating
Different Understandingsof Reality,"Journal of Thought,21 (Fall 1986), 28-49.
12. Richard Schickel, "Riding to Redemption Ridge: Review of Dances with
Wolves,"Time, 12 Nov. 1990, p. 102; Pauline Kael, "New Age Daydreams:Review of
Dances WithWolves,"New Yorker,17 Dec. 1990, pp. 115-21.
13. op. cit., p. 1370.
14. Levstik, op. cit.

Appendix 1: InterviewQuestions
I. [Before watching any film]:
1. How long ago did you see "Danceswith Wolves."

2. What do you think it ("Danceswith Wolves") was about?
II. The Film Segments (Remember not to fill in anything other than
what is shown. If a student has questions about sequence, characters,
record any responses you have, as well as their questions. Before the
discussion after each segment, record which segment is being discussed.)
("If you have anythingyou want to say duringthe film, let me know, and I
will pause the film, and you can say it.")
After each segment:

A. What did you see in that segment?
B. Did any questionsoccur to you duringthe segment?
C. Did you have any other responses; anythingelse you would like to
say?
3. Tell me aboutthe main differences you saw between the segments from
"Dances with Wolves" and "The Searchers."
4. Are there any heroes or villains in these films?

A. Who?
B. Why do you say that?
C. What makes them heroes or villains?
5. Are there any victims in these films? Who?
6. How would you explain the differencesbetween these two pictures?
7. Which is more accuratein its pictureof

A. life for Natives in the West in the 1860s
B. life for Whites in the West in the 1860s
C. How do you know?
8. Can we learn anythingabout the history of native-whiterelations from

films like these?
A. What?
B. Are you sure?(How do you know?)
III. Context
9. Have you discussed native-whiterelationsin school?

A. content?(historical?)
B. circumstancesof the discussion? (participants,stimulus)?

370 Peter Seixas
10. Have you seen otherfilms which show Native-Whiterelations?

A. Which ones?
B. Have you discussed them with friendsor family?
C. What was the focus of the discussion?(e.g., telling the story;giving a
recommendation)
D. Have you ever hadan argumentwith a friendor family memberabout
one of these films? What was the contentof the argument?
11. Have you read in newspapersor watchedon TV any coverage of news

relatedto Native-Whiterelations?
A. What about?
B. What was your opinion?
12. Have you learnedabout the history of Native-Whiterelationsfrom any

other source?
A. What was the source?
B. What were the circumstances?
C. What was the content;your opinions?
Appendix 2: Film Segments
Segment Counter Summary

Dances with Wolves
SCENE 1 2376-2610 Dunbar'sdriveris shot by hostile Pawnees.

SCENE 2 2917-3050 The Sioux discuss what to do aboutDunbar.
SCENE 3 4700-4900 Dunbaris one of the Sioux.
Together,they discover slaughteredbuffalo.
SCENE 4 6800-7180 Dances with Wolves returnsto fort for diary.
Is capturedby soldiers, who have takenover.
SCENE 5 Epilogue
The Searchers
SCENE 1 286-2034 Ethan'shomecoming,destructionof the homestead,the

searchbegins
SCENE 2 2712-2880 On the trail;Lucy has been killed; Bradkills himself.
SCENE 3 3027-3071 On Jorgenson'sfrontporch.
SCENE 4 5358-5700 (End) Rout of the Commanches,reunionwith Debbie.


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THE HISTORYOF NATIVE AMERICAN-WHITErelationsin North

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films with historicalcontent,do they ask themselvesthe question,"is this

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Two films were selected for discussionwith students.The first,Dances

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For audiences in the 1990s the film is dated in its interpretivestance, in

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The researcher and a research assistant conducted semi-structured

narrative line, acting, sets, reference to 'reality' as

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This content downloaded from 193.198.212.4 on Thu, 6 Feb 2014 16:23:22 PM

The findings reportedhere focus on the extent to which studentsask

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Though she acknowledgesthatthereis a film here, the picturein the film

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"Real," however, is a problematicterm: confronted with segment 2 in

B. Students' responses to The Searchers.

None of the studentsmade the same kinds of observationsin response

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unlike theirs:it is congruenceto theirown conventionsand expectations,

Oh,mydadlovestheseoldmovies... whenhe wasa kidheprobablywent

She expressedsimilardistancefromthe pictureof the frontierfamily in the

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C. Students'observationsin response to questionsof accuracy.

As each interview proceeded, students who had not spontaneously

Q: Whichfilm do you see as being a more accurateportrayalof the

Student#2 transformeda question about "accurate"to a question about

Thedifferenceis I guessin the 1950stheiropinionsabouttheIndiansand

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The processof historicizingone film led quitenaturallyto the attemptto see

I guess,likeI don'tknowfor100percent,likeI wasn'tthere,right.It'smore

Student#7, pressedon the questionof accuracy,likewise transformed

Q: ... how do you knowthatDanceswith Wolvesis the moreaccurate

In this short interchange,the student has transformedthe question of

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Student#8, who hadbeen askingquestionsaboutaccuracythroughthe

That'sgoingto be difficultbecauselike if you hadrecordsor something

This seems like a sophisticatedhistoricizing of culture. But the student

Student#11: I can'treallysay, well, if I hadto say whichone is more

There was a common strategy for viewing the films in relation to

This content downloaded from 193.198.212.4 on Thu, 6 Feb 2014 16:23:22 PM

As has been suggested above, the cinematic and social conventions

This content downloaded from 193.198.212.4 on Thu, 6 Feb 2014 16:23:22 PM

"white authorityat Fort Robinson, Nebraska."The white heroes of The

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The questionsraisedby this researchare difficult ones. Farfrombeing

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cies of North American students. The curriculumwhich accepts this

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Social Studies,"ibid.; ElizabethEllsworth,"I Pledge Allegiance:The Politics of Reading

This content downloaded from 193.198.212.4 on Thu, 6 Feb 2014 16:23:22 PM

I. [Before watching any film]:

1. How long ago did you see "Danceswith Wolves."

After each segment:

4. Are there any heroes or villains in these films?

5. Are there any victims in these films? Who?