Summer Honors Symposium

2006 Summer Symposium Topic

Tonto’s Revenge: The Native American Response to the Hollywood Western in Literature, Art, and Film

The symposium will begin the evening of Sunday, June 4th and end the morning of Saturday, June 17th.

In “Dear John Wayne,” Louise Erdrich (Ojibwe) reminds us of the power such celluloid celebrities as John Wayne have over Native people:

How can we help but keep hearing his voice,
The flip side of the sound track, still playing:
Come on, boys, we got them
Where we want them, drunk, running,
They’ll give us what we want, what we need.
Even his disease was the idea of taking everything.
Those cells, burning, doubling, splitting out of their skins.

This is not a new problem. Throughout the twentieth century, American popular culture has wielded an enormous influence over the way our society understands Native Americans. The photographs of Edward Curtis, Wild West Shows (Buffalo Bill’s and Pawnee Bill’s Wild West Shows), early Dime Novels, and, finally, the Hollywood Western (The Searchers, Dances with Wolves, The Missing, etc.) have all left their stamp on Native identity. How have Native Americans responded to often inaccurate and sometimes stereotypical portraits of their people? And, finally, how might we as Christians come to some understanding of the Native response?

This symposium will take a lively look at the Native response to American popular culture and emphasize a hands-on approach to learning about this topic. In addition to reading short stories, plays and poems and screening films by several contemporary Native writers, we will visit the Cherokee Nation and Cherokee Heritage Center in nearby Tahlequah, Oklahoma and the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma. You will also be given time to interact with experts and scholars who will talk about Native culture and contemporary expression.