The Paradox of a Cartoon Title

Flicker - Creative CommonsReferencing United States v. Sioux Nation of Indians (1980)

The late 1930s has a particular importance in the racial portrayal of non-white characters on film, to which the negative stigmatization can still be seen on screen today.  The idea of biological racism flourished.  It is the idea that races can be divided due to some genetic marker determining intelligence and aptitude.   Also at this time, the American love affair with Western films took hold.  Though it was an exciting time for whites, seeing as how they were portrayed as intelligent and the real American heroes, it wasn’t so much so for non-whites; in particular, Native Americans.

In 1937, Merrie Melodies, the same producers of The Looney Tunes, released a short cartoon film called “Sweet Sioux” with children being the targeted audience.  The film includes many different stereotypes of male and female Native Americans, however a set of characters stand out.  Grouped together and called the “Braves,” the film’s preface does not render anything sweet; rather it revolves around the men’s primitive and savage demeanor. The film begins with an image of a stoic brave atop a mountain.  On the lookout for any passersby, he notices a wagon and sends smoke signal to round up the braves for an attack on the lone white man.  Continuing the stereotypes, the braves pile out of their teepees with their chests bare and feathers in their hair ready to dance around a fire in their war paint.  The film lacks a comprehensive dialogue, mainly communication is done in grunts and yelling, but there is a clear tension between the savage nature of the Native Americans and the helpless innocent white man; sustaining and naturalizing the social, political, and economic climate of the time.

The encircling of the wagon takes a majority of the film’s time, however at one point, the horses turn into a carousel complete with the bobbing motion and the goal of grabbing the brass ring.  The attempts at dehumanizing Native Americans is quite evident in this short film because the attack on the wagon is seemingly a sporting event complete with a coach, players on the sidelines, and a whole cheering squad.  The end of the film shows the not-so-sweet nature of the Sioux with the charred remains of the wagon, the white man nowhere in sight, and a jab joke at the last of the last of the Mohicans.  The portrayal of the braves’ savage nature helped immortalize their stereotype as a norm as well as justify the idea of a continued need for social development for Native Americans.  The film in itself is the complete illustration of the historical representation of Native Americans, which is still perpetuated through out media today.

As seen in this short film, the economic and social marginalization of Native Americans came at no cost to the white superiority.  The primitive and savage demeanor of the Native American men helped promulgate the idea of a genetic divide to justify past, present, and future action against them.  This cartoon, just one of many media depictions of Native Americans, helped instill the perpetual cycle of being and feeling less than that is at the heart of such stereotypical portrayals.  The film encouraged the continual push of the social hierarchy to incessantly rob nations of identities, demand assimilation even after the Indian Reorganization Act of 1937, and group all Native Americans into one category with the assumption they all hunted buffalo and rode horses. Thanks in part to the American love affair with Western movies that has yet to subside.