Popular Film and Young People's Understanding of the History of Native American-White Relations

Abstract

America has been dealt with in a number of popular films in the past five years, none more successful in terms of audience size than the 1990 Dances with Wolves. These films have consciously challenged the older mythology portraying the European as discoverer and civilizer. The interpretive challenge, of which the films are one part, has taken place not only in the popular media, but among historians, anthropologists, legal scholars and politicians.' Indeed, the quincentenniary of Columbus' arrival in the Americas has provided the occasion for broad public debate on the interpretive frames which we employ in examining the past. Young people, through their contact with the popular media, are exposed to these debates. Indeed, many of their understandings of the history of war and peace, gender relations, intercultural relations, and national development are affected by presentations in the popular media.2 We know very little, however, about how young people read the historical films they watch. If they take their textbooks as uncontested, authoritative presentations, do they make the same kind of assumption about the much more emotionally engaging films which they view?3 The research described herein explores the kinds of critical judgements young people make about popular film. It asks, when they view