January 29, 2026
They were a curious breed, born in the Hollywood Hills and because of their good looks and devious ways they left a swath of torn tickets (some of them scalped!), far and wide.
Yes, somewhere between fact and fiction and racial convenience, there roamed a whole tribe of white people portraying native peoples in movies. Some say it was because there were no In-din "actors" at that time. Whatever the reason, Hollywood gave us a blue-eyed Geronimo.
Chuck Connors Is The Blue-Eyed GeronimoHow! Indeed!
It was a strange time, but—come on!—not really any stranger than the one we're living through now. Know what I mean? There were patches of irony and insightfulness, like this 1971 ditty.
Paul Revere & The Raiders nail the issue
Wow! Thanks to our Westerns editor, Henry Parke, for sending me this link. I had forgotten how cool the song was and I have to say it stands up. Unlike some other classics I know, which seem a tad ridiculous today.
Okay, that didn't age well. Meanwhile, certainly the women were portrayed more accurately?
Gives New Meaning to
"Buffalo Girls Won't You Come Out Tonight!"
Curse of The Anglo Indians
Ironically, boarding schools fixed that problem because when our In-din brothers and sisters learned to write they created their own stories and then starred in them. And they also could write critically about all these movies before them with some grace and wit. Who says, we have made no progress?
"We need to give out portrayal of ourselves. Every non-Indian writer writes about 1860 to 1890 pretty much, and there is no non-Indian writer that can write movies about contemporary Indians. Only Indians can. Indians are usually romanticized. Non-Indians are totally irresponsible with the appropriation of Indians, because any time you have an Indian in a movie, it's political. They're not used as people, they're used as points."
—Chris Eyre, Cheyenne and Arapaho
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