Poca-who?

Pocahontas 

By examining the role of Pocahontas, I intend to dissect and highlight the key Native American stereotypes portrayed in the film. First, the film is a Disney production created for young children and their families. The film tells their version of the story of the arrival of English settlers in 1607 to Jamestown and their encounter with Native Americans. Pocahontas, as the protagonist, plays a key role in the film as she is presented as an avenue between her people and the settlers for negotiating goods and maintaining peace. 

The film portrays Pocahontas as a young Native American girl with greatly sexualized features such as a one-shoulder tight dress, long, luxurious black hair, and a toned and perfectly shaped body. She is the embodiment of the first stereotype I would like to highlight: The Native American princess. Ultimately, this image of the Native American woman differs from the historical representation of Native Americans. The film allows Pocahontas to be far more sexualized than reality has ever been for Native American women.

A second stereotype displayed in the film through Pocahontas I would like to touch upon is the portrayal of her mystical powers of communicating with a tree and speaking to animals. In the film, Pocahontas speaks to a tree who she refers to as Grandmother Willow. There is a scene in the film specifically where she’s communicating with Grandmother Willow and she suggests to Pocahontas she should “Let the spirits of the Earth guide you.” This is highly illustrated, as a very common stereotype in regards to Native Americans in their magical and spiritual ways.

Additionally, Pocahontas demonstrates a third stereotype depicted as very animalistic. This is showed by the way Pocahontas walks and that is on her hands and feet. Native Americans have been viewed as animalistic and aggressive individuals. This also fits a fourth stereotype of savages, uneducated, uncivilized people as the English settlers described them. However, a huge irony in the film is that Pocahontas is presented as a bilingual woman with the ability of speaking her native tongue and English. So how uneducated are the Native Americans really?  

By viewing Native Americans as animalistic they are dehumanized and no longer viewed as equally human as the English settler. Dehumanizing individuals is what allows other individuals to kill and torture and strip others from their lands. In true history, that’s what happened with the Native Americans and the English settler. They went into their lands and were much more aggressive and threatening than they are portrayed in the film. The problem with that is that those individuals watching the film will obtain a very distorted history of what truly happened in 1607.

In conclusion, this representation of Native Americans in the film Pocahontas, justifies the social marginalization of Native Americans in today’s society due to a very significant reason. Many young children are watching these films and are engraving in their minds a false idea of the Native American people. They are growing up with these representations in mind and expecting Native Americans to look, act, dress, and speak a very specific way.

But how can we know what or how a Native American should look or dress? Unfortunately, Disney films are not enough to find the answer to that question.