1971: Flap - “This picture made a joke of Indian rights. We don’t mind a laugh at ourselves but this picture made us look like idiots.”

War Party 
1971 April 4 The Star Press 
What do Indians think of their Hollywood Image? Using the tomahawk to show relative merit, here are the result of an informal poll of young Indians. One tomahawk denotes fair to good, two tomahawks poor, three terrible, and four - a massacre.

  • Soldier Blue – 1970 – 2“The only good part of this picture was the massacre of the Indians by the cavalry. That saved it because it showed the truth. The rest was junk.”
  • A Man Called Horse – 1970 – 4 “Same old savage stereotype. White actors playing cigar-store Indian.”
  • Little Big Man – 1970 – 1  “Chief Dan George was great and Dustin Hoffman was bad. But the picture actually showed some things realistically.”
  • The Last Hunt – 1956 – 1 “Showed the white man wiping out the buffalo and it depicted something of Indian values and religion. Pretty good picture for the time it was made.”
  • Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here – 1969 – 3 “The producer said he couldn’t find any real Indians to play in this one. He couldn’t find them because he apparently didn’t look.”
  • The Stalking Moon – 1967 – 3 “The Indian was shown as a totally primitive animal who’d kill anything.”
  • Broken Arrow – 1950 – 1 “It showed what the Indians were made about – namely, white people hunting them for scalps.” 
  • Flap (originally Nobody Loves a Drunken Indian) – 1970 – 4 “This picture made a joke of Indian rights. We don’t mind a laugh at ourselves but this picture made us look like idiots.” 
1971 April 4 The Star Press 

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