While the industry is (slowly) making progress, such as with Gladstone’s nomination, when it comes to the representation of Native American stories on the screen, sadly much is left to be desired. Depictions of Native Americans on screen have historically oscillated between playing into harmful stereotypes in old Hollywood Westerns, to portraying them as one-dimensional spiritual beings that are connected to the earth (à la Pocahontas). Casting non-Native actors in Native roles is rife (looking at you Twilight and Taylor Lautner), and historically Native languages on screen would be achieved through sound mixing English to be backwards. You don’t need to look far to realize that when it comes to Native American stories — and First Nations stories more broadly — that the entertainment industry has perpetuated a legacy of shallow caricatures and woeful misrepresentation.
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