1980 RIP Jay Silverheels

[Of the Lone Ranger, and Jay Silverheels role as Tonto] .. The stoic but faithful Tonto was almost a parody of the noble savage so beloved in Western literature. But Mr. Silverhee;s wisely saw the role as the breakthrough for Indian actors it really represented. Tonto didn't talk much or ride a gorgeous white stallion or leave silver bullets as his calling cards, but he was one of the good guys. That was quite a departure from the standard Hollywood depiction of Indians as drunken louts, treacherous savages and lust-inflamed kidnappers of white women...
1980 March 7, Detroit Free Press 

Indians get raw deal from TV, movies 
by Joan Hanauer
1980 June 26, Muncie Evening Press 
      New York - The American Indian - the true native American - has gotten almost as bad a deal from movies and television as he got from the politics of "manifest destiny" that robbed him of his land.
      The basic problems probably were the same - greed and ignorance.
      Unfortunately while the past may be dead, old movies live on via television -- and this can be dispiriting to adult Indians and seriously damaging to Indian children.
      With peculiar irony, the saving factor for Indian children - as a five part series on PBS ... points out -- is that the Indians shown in old Hollywood films are so unlike any Indians they know among their own families and friends that they don't necessarily identify with what they see.
      [Watch Images of Indians ! See other posts from today for more information]
1980 June 26, Muncie Evening Press 



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