Invisible Natives - by Armando José Prats (Paperback)

About the Book

This incisive, provocative, and wide-ranging book casts a critical eye on the representation of Native Americans in the Western film since the genre's beginnings. Armando José Prats shows the ways in which film reflects cultural transformations in the...

Book Synopsis

This incisive, provocative, and wide-ranging book casts a critical eye on the representation of Native Americans in the Western film since the genre's beginnings. Armando José Prats shows the ways in which film reflects cultural transformations in the course of America's historical encounter with "the Indian." He also explores the relation between the myth of conquest and American history. Among the films he discusses at length are Northwest Passage, Stagecoach, The Searchers, Hombre, Hondo, Ulzana's Raid, The Last of the Mohicans, and Dances With Wolves.Throughout, Prats emphasizes the irony that the Western seems to be able to represent Native Americans only by rendering them absent. In addition, he points out that Native Americans who appear in Westerns are almost always male; Native women rarely figure into the plot, and are often portrayed by white women rendered "Indian" by narrative necessity. Invisible Natives offers an intriguing view of the possibilities and consequences--as well as the historical sources and cultural origins--of the Western's strategies for evading the actual portrayal of Native Americans.

Review Quotes

Prats makes a serious addition to that growing body of literature.... Prats's book considers a wide variety of films--from classic silents like 'The Covered Wagon' to revisionist westerns of the 1990s like 'Dances with Wolves' and 'Geronimo'--taking sufficient time to offer careful, nuanced readings.

When we do see Native Americans in Hollywood Westerns, Prats suggests that they are often mute (or if they do communicate, do so in grunts and hand gestures), nameless, sometimes even faceless. They are defined by their otherness, and their otherness is itself defined by absence--absence of a voice, of a name, of a face.... Invisible Natives will be appreciated by scholars interested in representations of Native Americans, the American Frontier, and by all those who watched Saturday matinees as a child.

About the Author

Armando José Prats is Professor of English at the University of Kentucky. He is the author of The Autonomous Image: Cinematic Narration and Humanism.