The Noble Savage

Hidalgo

Well The Brain decided to make it a double, so we netflixed the Viggo Mortensen vehicle Hidalgo. My boyfriend Viggo, who is half-Danish and half-American (in other words, all white meat) plays a part Sioux Indian in this movie ("My father was a calvary officer and my mother was the daughter of an Indian chief").

YES, YOU CAN ROLL YOUR EYES.

A few years ago, I took a class called "Pop Culture and Native America." In the class, we studied the development of pop culture portrayals of Native American Indians. We started with the earliest missives from Spanish explorers who called the Indians uncivilized savages and we ended with the latest movies and television shows that portray Indians as uncivilized and/or noble savages always on the cusp of extinction. Does Hidaglo buy into that mythology? Yes, Hidalgo fits right into that tradition. The Indians in the movie are victims, a dying--but noble--breed whose honor is saved by a half-breed who can't accept himself until he brings honor to his people. Sound familiar? All that's missing from the movie is a group of Sioux doing a ghost dance. Except, no, wait--there they are: A group of Sioux doing a ghost dance.

Viggo, please. You're killing me with this stuff.

I have to tell you, that the pop culture and Native America class was probably one of the most difficult classes that I have ever had to take, and I learned much, much more than I bargained for from it. One of the reasons it was so difficult is because much of the early readings were about the Spanish that all but decimated the tribes they came into contact with. Being of Spanish decent--with an indeterminate amount of Native American as well as some other things mixed in--it was heartbreaking. I was reading 200 or 300 pages of Vine Deloria, Jr., each week and my heart was breaking and breaking. The class was filled with Native American students, and I wanted to apologize to each one of them. I hadn't ever realized the amount of guilt and shame (and its accompanying anger) that one has to get through before people can step on the path toward racial equality, much less understanding.