"Hey-ya"

                Smoke Signals is a film about Victor, a Native American boy who in the film is trying to forgive his father. The film begins with Arnold, Victor’s father, who saved Thomas from a fire. This fire ends up killing Thomas’ parents. As the story continues, it is seen that Arnold and Victor had a lot of tension between them. The character of Thomas develops into a naive, but positive nerd. Victor is the complete opposite. Victor is an angry person. Victor’s father left when he was a boy. He then finds out that his father just died and his mother sends him to collect the ashes. Unfortunately, Victor does not have enough money, but Thomas offers help, but his condition is for Victor to take him along with him. In the film, you can see how difficult it is for Victor to swallow all pride and take Thomas with him.

Victor and Thomas take this long trip to Arizona. Thomas, being a storyteller and Arnold being his hero since he had saved him as a baby, tells Victor of all these stories of his father. When they arrive to the place where Arnold lived, Victor must fight to forgive his father. He uses new information given to him by his father’s friend Suzy Song. Toward the end of the film, Victor has a vision and forgives his father.

Victor believes that a Native American must have a tough look with hair down. It is a stereotype that Native Americans are savages. Thomas, he is the storyteller. Native Americans are always portrayed as storytellers in the media. Thomas’ character fits that stereotype perfectly. In the film, Thomas and Victor begin to sign a song while on the bus after Thomas made a comment about the cowboys always winning after two men took the seats Victor and Thomas had been on since their journey began. Victor begins the song by making a tapping sound and singing “hey-ya.” This scene is a perfect representation of how the media portrays Native Americans singing during the powwows.

This film contests the economic and social marginalization of Native Americans. There are a lot of things in the film that are stereotypes of the Native Americans. The messed up car (in the film it is only able to be driven backwards), the powwows, the singing, the reservations, the savages, all these are stereotypes of the Natives. In most films about Native Americans, one of the characters is on a quest to get a vision in order to understand things. This film is a perfect representation of those stereotypes.