Indian immigrant movies

One characteristic of Americans is that they are good at flaunting and beautifying themselves. But it is Americans, movies and dancing with wolves that profoundly reveal this question, that is, who is more civilized and who is more savage?

When British immigrants first arrived in the United States, they received enthusiastic help from Indians, who not only gave them land to live in, but also provided them with food relief. However, the British colonists denied the Indians' actual ownership of the land in North America. After gaining a foothold in Jamestown, the first colony, they began to try to seize Indian land by deception and force to expand their colony. 1609, British colonists captured the nearby Indian villages of Bohatan and South Simond, and attempted to take Bohatan's more than 300 acres of cultivated land and 100 square miles of hunting grounds as their own. However, under the massive counterattack of Bohatan tribe, the British finally withdrew to Jamestown, which was the first time that British colonists tried to seize Indian land by force. Later, on the basis of plundering Indian land, British North American colonies were gradually established.

Appalachia, mt

After the War of Independence, according to the Paris Peace Treaty, Britain assigned the land west of the Appalachian Mountains and east of the Mississippi River to the United States. This is a place where Indians thrive. If Americans want to develop these places, they must seize their homes and drive a large number of Indians to the west. At this time, the westward movement was strongly supported by the government, and a large number of white immigrants also moved westward. In order to maintain border security and protect the interests of white immigrants, the US government launched more than 20 "just and legal" wars to conquer Indians. /kloc-After the 1950s in 0/9, the Great Plains became the central battlefield for the confrontation between Indians and whites. Brave and good at fighting, elusive tribes in the Great Plains often raid immigrant teams and American mail trucks and attack nearby white settlements, which deeply shocks frontier immigrants. In order to deal with Indians, the United States government sent regular troops to patrol the Great Plains, while some non-governmental organizations adopted the strategy of attacking and defending, and took the initiative to attack Indians. An official of a courier company instructed his subordinates to shoot as long as the Indians were within range, and there was no need to be soft. 1784, an Englishman who traveled to the United States found that "white Americans have a strong aversion to the entire Indian race, and you can hear such a discussion everywhere: to eradicate them from the earth's surface, there is no one left."

Drive and slaughter Indians

White people once attributed the root of racial conflicts to the bloodthirsty belligerence of Indians. Indians have their own explanations for the conflict between India and Belarus, and the Sioux also frankly admitted that "we killed white people because white people killed us." An Indian leader once said, "I don't like war." I have never been an aggressor. I only fight to protect my women and children. 1927, in the memorandum to the mayor of Chicago, the American Indian Tribal Congress Union also put forward the following views on the racial conflicts over the past hundreds of years: "Indians killed whites because whites took their land, destroyed their hunting grounds, burned their forests and wiped out their bison. White people who stand up to defend their property are called patriots, and Indians who do the same thing are called murderers. "

The root of the fierce conflict between whites and Indians lies in the contradiction between cultural differences and practical interests. Henry knox pointed out in his report to Congress in 1787: "The deep-rooted prejudice, inner resentment and actions taken on various occasions of whites and Indians will never make them friendly neighbors. One side is eager to defend its land, while the other side is insatiable. Because (both sides) have been angered before, a slight offense will bring death, and revenge will follow, and there will be no end. So the ruthless war was ignited, and the innocent, helpless and responsible people were involved. "

In order to alleviate this contradiction, the federal government began to implement the Indian reservation system in the 1950s of 19. The reservation is the land set aside by the American government from the original land of the Indian tribe for all members of the tribe to continue to live in. The boundary is definite and the scope is limited. Indians are not allowed to leave at will and non-Indians are not allowed to enter without authorization. Before and after the Civil War, more and more Indian tribes were forced to sign contracts with the government and were enclosed in reservations. By 1880, the reservation of 14 1 has been established in the United States. So far, the land reserve system has been established nationwide. The Indians on the reservation are under the control and supervision of the army and federal officials. The reservation system not only deprived Indians of their original homes and homes, but also deprived them of their freedom and independence, which caused great harm to Indian society and culture.

The U.S. government began its large-scale military conquest from 19 in the 1960s. About twenty years later, it completely defeated all the indigenous tribes in the territory and forced them to sign into the reservation. After the Indians moved into the reservation, they lost their freedom of activities and could not obtain traditional living resources. Their social vitality was destroyed and they were basically isolated from white society. This reservation became an island in the White Sea.

It is precisely because of the long-term conflict between whites and Indians on land and other issues, coupled with the long-term ugly image of Indians in white society, that both sides have developed fear and hostility towards each other. This point is described in detail in Dancing with Wolves. When Dunbar, the hero of the film, first arrived in the west, he was full of vigilance against the local Indians, because in the group where he lived, Indians were regarded as "barbarians" who committed various crimes, especially when several Indians tried to steal his horse at night, which aggravated his concern, so he had to hide his equipment so as not to fall into the hands of "enemies". Sioux people were hostile to Dunbar at first. After Dunbar arrived, Sioux tribes even held a meeting to discuss how to "deal with" whites. They are worried that more white people will invade their homes in the future. So when Dunbar sent the injured "standing with clenched fists" (Indian name) back to the Sioux tribe, the women in the tribe saw him defeated and fled, and the natives in the tribe gathered to drive away the uninvited guest. However, when the Sioux learned that Dunbar had saved "standing with clenched fists", they went back to Dunbar to understand its real purpose. During the return visit, they found that Dunbar was very friendly and enthusiastic, and did not invade their home. Dunbar also tried to reverse his image. Although he doesn't know the language, he still tries to communicate with Sioux people, and Sioux people, especially "Scattered in the Wind" (Indian name), are also happy to communicate with Dunbar. Dunbar entertained the Sioux with sugar and coffee during their second visit. With more and more contacts between Dunbar and Sioux people, the two sides began to understand and accept each other. The Sioux tried to make "stand with clenched fists" regain English as a bridge to communicate with Dunbar, and Dunbar also worked hard to learn the Sioux language, and often went to the tribe to help the Sioux hunt bison, help look after the family members left in the tribe when the Sioux fought with the Boni, and even had his own Indian name-"With the Wolf * * *. Dunbar's example shows that it is possible for different civilizations to get rid of their inherent prejudices and values and achieve harmonious coexistence through dialogue and exchange.

However, this ideal friendship will eventually stand the test of reality. At that time, the attitude of white people towards the mainstream of Indians was hostility and confrontation. In order to resist this mainstream understanding, Dunbar was willingly assimilated by the Sioux, wearing a Sioux buffalo horn bra and waist knife, wearing Sioux sandals and clothes, having long hair, decorating his head with feathers, and using his new name "Dancing with Wolves", even when he was attacked by American soldiers. When Dancing with Wolves was captured by soldiers and held in a military camp, the Sioux tried their best to rescue him. This friendship between white people and Indians reflects white people's reflection on the historical relationship between India and Belarus in the 1990s, and conveys the good wishes of different races to live in harmony through Dunbar.

The unique bra of Indians.

The conflict of cultural values between whites and Indians

Because of the different living environments of whites and Indians, they have formed different values, and differences in ideas have also occurred from time to time. White people generally have prejudice and discrimination against Indians. The words they usually use to describe Indians and their culture are barbarism, primitive, evil, slaves of the devil, superstition and ignorance. The general judgment orientation is that Indians are in the low-level form of human culture, not yet civilized, and have no cultural relics and customs of civilized society. Compared with civilized Europeans, they are really living. White society usually uses its own social and cultural standards to measure Indians, thinking that they lack the technology, customs and systems of civilized society. They are "naked, uncivilized, and some eat human flesh", and they don't know knowledge, history or words. Starting from religious prejudice, the church regards Indians' unbelief in God as a manifestation of being controlled by the devil and accuses them of evil everywhere. "They are bad people who love to lie and are lazy."

The views of colonial officials are often more unfair. William bradford, governor of Plymouth Colony, once wrote that Plymouth is "a vast and uninhabited land in America, which is very rich and suitable for settlement. There are no civilized residents, only some barbaric and cruel people haunt here, and these people are not much different from the wild animals that haunt here. " Later, with the acceleration of the colonial process, fierce racial conflicts broke out with Indians, and white people's hatred for Indians increased day by day. Some white people who were kidnapped in the conflict published their experiences in the tribe after returning, while others deliberately exaggerated the barbarism and terror of the Indian way of life, which made more people believe that Indians were bloodthirsty. American history textbooks also deliberately exaggerate and distort the facts, which intensifies the misunderstanding of Indians by white people.

This "stigma" is caused by mutual understanding and estrangement between the two sides. For example, in the movie, after gaining the trust of the tribe, Dunbar accidentally lost his hat while helping his people hunt bison together. At the family banquet in the evening, Dunbar found that the Sioux soldiers who were "distributed in the wind" appeared unscrupulously, but when he asked for his hat back, he was rejected and even almost caused a conflict. In Dunbar's view, this hat belongs to him. After it is lost, the finder should return what belongs to him. This is a typical western thinking, rooted in the spirit of civil law in the economic life of the western world. And "scattered in the wind" is thought to be found by him. As a "trophy", it should not only belong to him, but any question about the ownership of "trophy" is regarded as a "challenge" to him. Because in the Sioux society, brave warriors have a high social status, and these "warriors" are also the best hunters. The honor and status of soldiers are reflected in the "trophies" they have. Any doubt about "trophies" is a challenge to the status of soldiers themselves. It can be seen from this incident that people of different cultural types have different values, and recognizing and respecting this difference is also an important condition for different cultures to live in harmony.

Indian social culture

The film Dancing with Wolves records the social life of Sioux Indians, animal skin tents, simple production tools made of bones, smoking and the collective life of tribes. As a native of North America, the social life of Native Indians is characterized by the use of stone tools and the direct possession of resources. North America is vast and rich in resources. Indians are mainly engaged in fishing, hunting, gathering and large-scale agriculture. Their food sources are corn in the east and southwest, wild rice in the Great Lakes and bison in the Great Plains. Tools for obtaining survival resources are mainly grinded stones, or bone implements and wood products. From the film, we can also see that women in Sioux Indian tribes use stone tools to treat animal fur. Most Indian clothes are sewn with animal skins, and a few tribes with textile technology can wear cloth clothes. Like the Sioux in the movie, the Indians in the Great Plains mainly live in tents made of animal skins.

In line with this way of life, the social structure of Indians is based on consanguinity, and tribes are the core social and cultural units responsible for organizing daily hunting, tribal wars and religious activities. These are all reflected in the film. One scene in the film is Dunbar helping Sue and Boni fight. An important feature of Indian civilization is the frequent wars between tribes, which is also an important reason why the indigenous Indians in the whole America did not form a sovereign entity, so that they were unable to resist the white invasion later. The Sioux held traditional religious ceremonies before the war and hunting. The religious activities of Indians belong to the nature of worshipping gods, and have not yet formed a formal religion with doctrines, doctrines and churches, but they are an important part of tribal life and an important national identity of Indians. Even those Indians who moved to the city today will return to the reservation every year to attend traditional religious ceremonies. As recorded in the film, there is a clear division of labor in Indian families. Men are responsible for hunting and fighting, while women are engaged in planting and gathering, housework, childbirth or serving their husbands.

Indians have their own set of value systems, resulting in corresponding behavior patterns. The core of their values lies in the mutual equality and harmony between man and nature. They believe in animism and believe that everything in nature, like people, is sacred and belongs to a big family of mutual equality. Humans have no privilege to ravage nature, and any activity that occupies resources instead of meeting the needs of survival is against God's will and will inevitably lead to natural revenge. One of the most spectacular scenes in the film is the Sioux killing bison. Indians in the Great Plains usually rely on hunting bison to provide food for their tribes. Sioux people kill bison only to meet the needs of survival. They know how to control the number of bison, but after the arrival of white people, they killed bison wildly, and leather furniture, floors, leather carriages, belts and leather shoes made of wild cowhide flowed into the market in large quantities. 1872- 1883, millions or even tens of millions of bison were slaughtered by white people. 1883, a museum expedition went to the west to look for bison specimens, and less than 200 bison were found in the whole west. By 1903, the number of bison on the Great Plains had decreased to 34. The main wild animals on the Great Plains have been extinct, bison are closely related to the survival of Indians, and the Indians who lost their lives and other related cultures have also been eliminated and destroyed.

The characteristics of human relations are love, mutual assistance and sharing based on blood relationship. Just like the heroine in the movie "Standing with clenched fists", many white people adopted by the tribe are reluctant to return to the white society later. One of the reasons is that they think there is love between people in Indian tribes. At the same time, Indians also have many commendable qualities: courage, integrity, honesty, self-esteem, love of freedom, responsibility and compassion. In the movie, Dunbar wrote in his diary after contact with the Sioux people: "This is a nation that loves to laugh. They love their families and care about each other. The harmony of this nation is unmatched by any other nation. " Most white Europeans who first entered North America were the beneficiaries of these fine qualities. When British immigrants first arrived in America, they received enthusiastic help from Indians, not only giving them land to live in, but also providing them with food relief, so that some colonists lamented that many Christians were not as kind and honest as they were.

However, the development of indigenous culture faces many obstacles. Due to the defects of Indian culture itself, the agricultural level is very low, the tools and technology are backward, and there are many languages among Indian tribes, which makes communication inconvenient, and the tribes are isolated and independent from each other. This has kept Indian culture in a state of stagnation or even retrogression for a long time. After the Anglo-Saxon white culture arrived in America, it had a fierce collision with the primitive Indian culture.