1980 "Hollywood recognized only basic types of Indians... the studios had three types of wardrobe: the Sioux kit, the Apache garb and the third costume was used to depict over 400 other tribes." Will Sampson

The Indian's Last Stand:
Guarding His Good Name

By Gene Wyatt 

1980 July 27, The Tennessean 

      The American Indian, already stripped of lands and cultural entity, is also losing his last and possibly most precious possession - his good name.

      At least, that is the thesis of "Images of Indians," a five-part PBS series which begins tonight..

      Will Sampson, the Indian actor who was featured in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, hosts and narrates the film. In his soft, sad voice he pronounces Hollywood the chief culprit.
     "The movies formed their Indian Image from the Western dime novels which originated in the  1860's," Sampson says, "These books were popular, even into the 1930's, with sales sometimes reaching 10 million a month."

      "And then there were the folk 'heroes' -- Buffalo Bill and his sort. For them to be heroes, there had to be villains. These were the Indians."

Watch a clip of Indian Image Above

      Buffalo Bill, who seems to have had some humanitarian instincts, was himself hoodwinked by the hoopla. Toward the end of his life, he is quoted as saying he didn't really know what the truth was about his "adventures."

      When Hollywood, in the early short-budget days, began to produce the first of what would be more than 2000 western films, they turned to these dime novels. The image was indelibly burned in. Not only was the villain role strengthened, but the Indians suffered other cultural indignities.

      Robert Hagopian, who is co-producer of the series, notes: "Hollywood found it convenient to label all tribal cultures, beliefs and customs as 'Indian,' grouping all Indians into one massive category."

      Sampson is more specific. "Hollywood recognized only basic types of Indians... the studios had three types of wardrobe: the Sioux kit, the Apache garb and the third costume was used to depict over 400 other tribes."

      "Images of Indians" documents this with extensive use of film clips. Indians are depicted in all sorts of ridiculous situations, misplaced by tribe, in inappropriate attire, in historically absurd and profoundly anachronistic situations.

1980 July 27, The Tennessean 

Interview with Will Sampson
"The First Americans" Circa 1975/1976

"For most people, the Native American is invisible unless he looks like the Hollywood Indian," Will Sampson, Actor from the Cree Nation. 1980.
      Sampson takes us back to Net Buntline and the dime novels of the 1860's with their lurid portraits of bloodthirsty savages preying on white settlers, and these, he says, led to the Western movies, a staple of the film industry since its beginning. The Indian of the movies, with few exceptions, was the Indian of the dime novel. ...

1980 Aug 30, The Los Angeles Times