## Native Representation in Film: 1973 and After
The half-century since the 1973 protest has produced significant changes in how Native Americans are represented in film and television — changes that are real, incomplete, and ongoing.
The 1990s saw two major films that engaged with Native American history in ways that differed from the classic Western template. Dances with Wolves (1990) employed actual Native American actors, used the Lakota language with subtitles, and centered its narrative on a relationship between a white Union soldier and a Lakota community — but was criticized by many Indigenous scholars and filmmakers for its “white savior” structure, in which the Native community was still organized around the emotional journey of a white protagonist. The film won Best Picture.
The independent film sector began producing genuine Indigenous-authored stories in the 1980s and 1990s. Powwow Highway (1989) offered a contemporary Native story from the perspective of Native characters. Smoke Signals (1998), directed by Chris Eyre (Cheyenne and Arapaho) from a screenplay by Sherman Alexie (Spokane Coeur d’Alene), became the first feature film directed by a Native American to receive wide distribution through a major studio. It was a watershed moment — but it was twenty-five years after the ceremony in which Brando had protested the state of things.
Johnny Depp’s casting as Tonto in The Lone Ranger (2013) generated extensive criticism, with Indigenous actors and advocates pointing out that a major studio production had once again cast a non-Native actor in a prominent Native role when qualified Native actors were available.