1911, Feb - "The moving picture men put the Indians in an embarrassing position." - Harry E. Thacker, Shoshone delegate from Nev.
"Many feathers and much paint don't make an Indian,"
is the opening line under the heading "Shoshone Indians Oppose to Five-Cent theaters" and "Ask for Prevention by Law."
Three Shoshone Indians from northern Nevada went to Washington to protest against the manner in which moving picture actors portray members of their tribe in the various "blood and thunder" scenes shown in theaters. They were in Washington to also protest the allotment of their lands, the new tactic by the government to break up the Indian's way of life, but when learning of the way their race is portrayed in films, they decided to join the cause and ask for CONGRESSIONAL LEGISLATION "prohibiting motion picture theaters exhibiting EXAGGERATED PICTURES OF INDIAN CUSTOMS."
"A tour of the moving picture district.. convinced the Indians that they are a much maligned race so far as the motion pictures are concerned," noted The Washington Post 2/26/1911 article. "They say burly Irishmen, fair-haired Swedes, and ordinary American actors, wearing a few blotches of face paint, numerous feathers, and few clothes, walk across the screens at the 5-cent theaters, and commit desperate acts, while youthful Washington sat below in the darkened hall and applauded."
"There is no more resemblance between the Indian portrayals seen today and the real Indian than there is between a Polack and a New Yorker," said Harry E. Thacker. "The moving picture men put the Indians in an embarrassing position. Even in the colonial days, members of our race never were as brutal as the picture men try to make the public think we are."
The men expected Commissioner Valentine, and then Senator Charles Curtis - who was a member of the Kaw Nation and would later become our 31st Vice President of the United States (1929–1933) with President Herbert Hoover - "to help put an end to such characterizations."
"Even the more ignorant red men of our tribe feel the injury which is done the entire race by such pictures," said Thacker.
1911, Feb 26 The Washington Post |