Presentation looks at Native Americans’ history in cinema

TULALIP — Misty Upham of “August: Osage County” and Will Sampson of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.”

Jay Silverheels in “The Lone Ranger,” Chief Dan George in “Little Big Man,” Graham Greene of “Dances with Wolves,” Irene Bedard in “Pocahontas” and Adam Beach in “Smoke Signals.”

American Indian and Canadian First Nations film actors and the movies in which they’ve starred are the subject of a presentation by film historian Lance Rhoades at 5:30 p.m. Nov. 6 at the Hibulb Cultural Center, 6410 23rd Ave. NE, Tulalip.

“We are fortunate to be hosting a Humanities Washington’s Speakers Bureau presentation,” said Mary Jane Topash of Hibulb. “We invite the public to join the conversation about how movies have produced, perpetuated and challenged our perceptions of Native Americans.”

Rhoades’ free presentation, “American Indians in Cinema: Portrayals and Participation, Onscreen and Behind the Scene” looks at the way people have been defined by Hollywood.

About 25 percent of all films made from 1900 to 1950 were Westerns that frequently represented American Indians as violent obstacles to progress, said Rhoades.

The lingering implications are staggering, said the cinema scholar, who hopes to raise questions about identity, preconceived ideas and stereotypes.

Rhoades completed his graduate studies in comparative literature and cinema studies at the University of Washington, where he taught courses on American Indians in the movies. He has also been a researcher and instructor in the University of Washington American Indian Studies Department. He is director of film studies at the Seattle Film Institute.

For more information about the presentation, call 360-716-2600 or email info@hibulbculturalcenter.org.