Hollywood's cultural conservatism

Hollywood & History

War is heaven; Life today is complex. The studios' solution: the simplistic epic.

By Manohla Dargis"Cold Mountain" features no substantive speaking parts for black actors. I'm not sure what Minghella was thinking here, but because he adapted Frazier's novel himself, he knows that the book is filled with black characters--slaves and runaways, the children of black-white unions, even an enslaved woman sought by a desperate white lover. And because Minghella is smart, he must also have known that these black characters are essential to the meaning of the novel, which tracks two white Southerners struggling through the sort of everyday barbarism that had been visited upon enslaved blacks for generations. Minghella has said that the film "is not a history lesson" and clearly he didn't want history, and by extension black people, to get in the way of his love story.

The whitewash in "Cold Mountain" is remarkable even by Hollywood standards, but it's typical of the industry's cultural conservatism, which dictates that no potential audience member be offended by unpleasant truths. If Minghella included as many black characters in his story as Frazier put in his, the director would have to deal with the fact that his white lovers are racist. Products of their very specific time and place, Frazier's white Southerners don't transcend their historical context because such a thing would be impossible. By contrast, Minghella advances the canard that war is reducible to individual struggle without regard to ideology, power or the political violence that human beings are forced to perpetuate on behalf of power. In Hollywood, every hero is innocent, especially if a star plays him.

The idea that Hollywood is a hotbed of liberalism is a convenient smokescreen for conservative critics who are likely more enraged that Sony offers health benefits to its gay employees' domestic partners than by the stabs at "political correctness" in the Sony release "The Missing." The liberal rap is also a nice illusion for those Hollywood movers and shakers who don't see a contradiction between, say, raising money for Bill Clinton and selling entertaining violence and depoliticized warfare in their movies. Indeed, the feminized image of Clinton--who didn't fight in Vietnam, didn't inhale and has a wife who wears pantsuits--and the crisis in liberalism that defined his presidency and returned conservatives to power, may actually have inspired a kind of butch backlash in Hollywood. Who's afraid of war? Not the Industry.

Today, Hollywood moviemakers are waging war against one another in a struggle for box-office domination--they've become the ultimate weekend warriors. The casualties of this battle include the multitudes of dead characters strewn across screens, but there are other more important losses being incurred. Notwithstanding "Cold Mountain," war stories mean fewer juicy roles for women in an industry already dominated by men. And because Hollywood history is usually told from the point of view of the vanquishers, the Great Man theory of history writ cinematically, there's no need for the "balanced" racial casting that constitutes Hollywood's idea of affirmative action. Even in "The Last Samurai," a studio film filled with an unusual number of nonwhite actors, the last man standing isn't named Ken Watanabe.Comment:  This article provides a useful list of code words to excuse the lack of minority characters and storylines in Hollywood. "Not a history lesson"..."transcending the historical context"..."the hero's individual struggle"..."the point of view of the vanquishers"..."the Great Man theory of history"..."balanced racial casting" (i.e., mostly whites). Hence we get a movie like Avatar, which focuses on the white man's role and depicts the natives as generic savages. Or The Last Airbender, which decides that an "ambiguous" message is more important than the story's Asian characters and setting.

We see this all the time in Native-themed productions. In movies such as Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee...TV shows such as Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman...books such as Karl May's Winnetou series...games such as King Philip's War...etc. They give us only a small slice of history, denuded of any context. Even when the conflict is good Indians vs. bad white men, people don't learn the whole story.

Consider a typical Dr. Quinn plot: "Bad men threaten Indians; Dr. Quinn and Sully stop them." Sounds good, but meanwhile, long-term trends are ending the Indians' way of life. The government continues to break treaties, starve Indians into submission, corral them onto reservations, force them to start farming, and convert them to Christianity.

None of this makes it into the episode because it would be too upsetting. It would overturn our noble self-image as heroes and saints. So viewers learn that bad men were responsible for everything, that good men opposed them, that good men helped the Indians, and that good triumphed over bad in the end. It's superficially an anti-colonialist story, but it winds up minimizing and excusing America's crimes.

"Cultural conservatism" = racism

This "cultural conservatism" is a form of racism. It's not the harsh kind where a person dislikes minorities and thinks they're inferior. It's the gentle kind where a person says, "I'm not familiar with minorities and their stories. Maybe they're good and maybe they're not; I just don't know. I prefer to stay within my comfort zone."

Thus we get the Quileute werewolves in Twilight. As one professor described Jacob Black:He's muscular, hotheaded, passionate and often dressed in cutoff-style jeans or shorts. That's in contrast to the very white vampire Edward, who is well-groomed, elegant and rational.So Stephenie Meyer Googled for 15 minutes and decided that was enough to write about Natives. Her unconscious racism produced fictional Indians that were almost real people, but not quite.

For the sake of comparison, the nonracist version of the "gentle" statement above would be: "I'm not familiar with minorities and their stories. But people are the same everywhere, so I'm not worried. Our audiences are 30% minority, so we need more minority characters and stories. Find me people who can tell these stories so we can tap into this market segment. We should be making money from it rather than ignoring it."

And once again note: No one is claiming Hollywood whitewashed Cold Mountain, The Last Samurai, or The Last Airbender for economic reasons. The producers may be thinking about economics, but they're talking about artistic license. They're claiming that only white characters and stories "transcend history," which is essentially a racist position.

For more on the subject, see Indians Hold Steady at 0.3% and Roscoe Pond or a Big-Name Actor?.

Mercurie on Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman

Another excerpt from Mercurie's The Invisible Minority:  Native Americans on American Television Part Three:Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman followed the adventures of Dr. Quinn (Jane Seymour), a female physician in Colorado Springs in the 1860's. Near Colorado Springs there was a Cheyenne village, so that it was inevitable that Native characters would appear on the show. Unfortunately, while the show's portrayal of the Cheyenne was sympathetic, it was also stereotypical. The Cheyenne are largely portrayed as noble savages living an idyllic life in their village. Because of this nearly every Cheyenne character appearing on the show is flat and one dimensional. At least it did not quite distort Cheyenne culture as severely as Walker, Texas Ranger had Cherokee culture.Comment:  For more on the subject, see TV Shows Featuring Indians.

Frontier Medicine not like Dr. Quinn

The Wild, Wild Doctoring in the Wild, Wild WestBear attacks. Syphilis. Bullet wounds. Malaria. Scalpings. Cholera. Arrows shot into the skull. Scurvy. Rabies. Ax mishaps. Crushings by moving wagon wheels. Outsize tumors. Snake bites.

There were many ways to die in frontier America, plenty of them gruesome. In his new book, “Frontier Medicine,” the historian David Dary relates the story of westward expansion while examining these misfortunes, and many others, from the point of view of men and women who tried to heal the often ruinously injured. The results are both a horror show and undeniably engrossing: “MASH” meets Zane Grey and Edgar Allan Poe.And:Mr. Dary’s book is a close examination of an era when very few people knew, medically, quite what they were doing. Doctoring was generally an amateur activity at best; the cures were often far worse than the diseases. The benefits of hygiene were not understood; bathing was thought to remove crucial oils from the skin; and the importance of proper sanitation had not been noted.

“Frontier Medicine” contrasts the “heroic medicine” practiced by some English and colonial doctors—bloodletting, blistering and other medieval-sounding acts—with the practices of American Indian healers, who often relied on herbs. Mr. Dary has enormous respect for early Indian cures, and he deplores the way the English ignored them.

“Most English looked down on the native peoples and considered them savages,” he writes, “and rejected anything associated with them.”

Over time, American Indian practices did catch on. “It is fair to say,” Mr. Dary writes, “that Indian medical knowledge is what gives early American medicine its particular character.”Comment:  Some of these medical disasters made it into the Into the West mini-series. But somehow they never made it into Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. For instance, Civil War surgeons had to amputate soldier's gangrenous legs by sawing them off--often without an anesthetic. Will we see Dr. Quinn sawing off someone's leg in a future episode?

For more on the subject, see The Best Indian Books.

The message of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman

So what's the message of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman? Based on the first season, only a few "bad apples" were responsible for the Indians' plight. Fortunately the "good apples" slightly outnumbered the bad apples--at least on TV.

In Dr. Quinn, good triumphs over evil at the end of each hour. Everyone goes home happy. Yet the Indians continue to suffer. How does the show explain that? It doesn't, but they seem to be victims of forces beyond anyone's control. Although "our town" is full of decent people, someone somewhere is doing something bad.

In fact, the townspeople flourish and the Indians suffer in two parallel worlds that rarely overlap. Judging by their passive acceptance of their fate, the Indians are largely resigned to "vanishing." Only Dr. Quinn, Sully, and Cloud Dancing the good Indian seem to care enough to act.

What Cloud Dancing should say

It would be interesting to see Cloud Dancing blow up at his alleged friends: "Don't you idiots get it? Who cares about your petty problems? We're facing extinction here.

"Get off your fat white asses and do something. If you don't help us fight the Army, the railroads, and the influx of settlers, you're as guilty as anyone. If you're going to support the genocidal system, you might as well kill us yourselves."

I look forward to seeing that scene in a future episode of Dr. Quinn. But I won't hold my breath waiting for it. <g>

In short, Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman addresses some challenging Indian issues. In the space of four episodes, for instance, it tackled alcoholism, miscegenation, buffalo hunting, and a massacre. But however good Dr. Quinn is, it could've been much better. Ultimately it takes the side of the government, progress, and Manifest Destiny against the Indians.

For more on the subject, see TV Shows Featuring Indians.

Accuracy in Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman

Historical facts and filming informationWhile much of Dr. Quinn was fictional, some of the events and people were based on historical fact:

Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania actually existed and is today part of Drexel University College of Medicine.

The Sand Creek Massacre in 1864 was referred to in the pilot episode (though it was historically inaccurate as the pilot took place in 1867).

Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer and Chief Black Kettle are true historical figures.

The Battle of Washita River, seen in the third season episode Washita, was a true event. In the show, the battle took place in 1869, while in fact it took place in Fall 1868.

In what most consider the final episode of the series, the town's often-antagonist banker, Preston A. Lodge III, went bankrupt as a result of the great stock market crash caused by the Panic of 1873, a historically-accurate event. Lodge lost much of the townspeople's money along with his own in the Panic.

One of the major historical oversights of the show is that Colorado Springs was not technically founded until 1871 by General William Palmer and was mainly a resort town. There were no saloons as Palmer declared Colorado Springs to be alcohol-free. Colorado Springs stayed "dry" until the end of Prohibition in 1933.Comment:  In the second episode, Dr. Quinn claims that some scientists believe diseases are caused by these little critters called germs. The townspeople scoff at this and the barber "doctor" continues his practice of bloodletting. The germ theory was coming into vogue in that era, so this scenario is realistic. Bloodletting probably died out a few decades earlier, but a few backwater quacks still may have done it.

For more on the subject, see TV Shows Featuring Indians.

Silliness in Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman

Two of the silliest scenes I've ever seen on TV occur in the pilot episode of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.

1) Michaela Quinn is new in town and no one will take her seriously as a doctor. To gain the support of Jake, the town's barber/surgeon, she pretends to have an aching tooth and asks him to pull it. He does so, and since she respected him enough to do the job, he begins to respect her.

First of all, Dr. Quinn only winces, even though Jake doesn't give her an anesthetic. Having had teeth pulled myself, a scream of pain would be more authentic. More to the point, Dr. Quinn's plan is stupid. What if Jake, who lacks dentist training, botched the job? What if her bleeding gum became infected? What about the gap in her teeth she'd have for the rest of her life?

The townspeople undoubtedly would've warmed to Dr. Quinn eventually. To risk an injury or infection just to speed up the process by a few weeks is flatly ridiculous.

2) When the US Army attacks the Cheyenne camp, Chief Black Kettle is wounded. Cloud Dancing and Sully take him to Dr. Quinn. Black Kettle can't breathe, so Dr. Quinn puts a knife to his throat to perform an emergency tracheotomy. Cloud Dancing stops her, but after a word from Sully, lets her proceed.

So the white townspeople won't even talk to Dr. Quinn about medical problems because they don't trust her. But Cloud Dancing is a Cheyenne who knows little or nothing about white women and Western medicine. Who has never imagined a white woman doctor or a Native medicine woman who operates on men. Who is asked to accept on faith that stabbing a knife into someone's throat will save him rather than kill him.

I suppose it's theoretically possible that a white man wouldn't let Dr. Quinn touch him after several weeks while an Indian would let her perform a tracheotomy after a moment's pause. Theoretically possible, but totally unlikely.

Curiously, Black Kettle appeared several times in the first season, usually with a snatch of dialogue. But I don't think the credits ever noted him or Nick Ramus, the actor who played him. What's up with that?

For more on the subject, see TV Shows Featuring Indians.

Below:  "I'm not like those ignorant white men, Dr. Mike. You can cut me open anytime."

Sully in Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman

In the pilot episode of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, we meet Sully (Joe Lando), Dr. Quinn's future love interest. He initially appears to be an Indian in everything but skin color. He has long hair with a braid in it. He wears a necklace, buckskins, and moccasins. He comes and goes on foot like a stealthy Indian. He speaks Cheyenne fluently and hangs out with the Cheyenne. He wields a nasty tomahawk. And he has a pet wolf.

Initially it also seems as if he's going to be the macho male to Dr. Quinn's helpless female. When someone tries to take down Dr. Quinn's notice, he skewers it with his tomahawk. When men accost her in the bar, he knocks them down. When she starts to pry boards off the boarded-up boarding house, he does it for her.

Adding to Sully's mystique, he often came and went with a red poncho over his shoulders. As it flapped in the wind, it reminded me of Superman's cape. Joe Lando was handsome enough that he could've played Superman or another superhero role.

I was afraid the show's creators were going for a "white Indian" thing with Sully. In other words, they'd make Sully an exotic "other" who would entice Dr. Quinn with his strangeness. He'd stand in for the Indians by being more Indian than they were. Because he was white, the show wouldn't have to deal with actual Indians and their sometimes contrary beliefs and attitudes. It wouldn't have to address the uncomfortable issues of interracial sex, love, and marriage.

Fortunately, the show toned Sully's "Indian-ness" way down in subsequent episodes. The braid and the necklace disappeared. He started wearing regular Western clothes instead of buckskins. The tomahawk and the wolf showed up less often. He learned to ride a horse so he wouldn't appear out of nowhere like a mystery man. He became more of an intermediary to the Cheyenne than a substitute for the Cheyenne.

It was touch and go for a while. But in the end, the show's creators kept Sully from becoming an Indian cliché and stereotype. Good job.

For more on the subject, see TV Shows Featuring Indians.

Below:  Byron Sully in semi-Indian mode.

Episodes 17-18 of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman

Episodes 17-18 of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman give us two more examples of prejudice that lasts only an hour.

The Secret (episode 17):  Dr. Quinn finds a boy with a mysterious past in a dead prostitute's cabin.

The townspeople accept blacks, Indians, and prostitutes (except when the plot calls for prejudice). But they don't accept a prostitute's child? The town's big secret is that she had a child out of wedlock? It does not compute.

Initially they seem to object because they think the boy and his unknown father aren't white. But it becomes clear they object because they think the boy is "slow." In reality he's just shy and fearful, but that's enough for the Prejudice of the Week club.

Town Portrait (episode 18):  Famed photographer Watkins is in town taking portraits.

Initially we see Watkins about to photograph three Cheyenne Dog Soldiers. They're calm and collected, as if they understand what's about to happen, as Watkins aims the camera with the lens cap on. But when he removes the cap, they mistake the camera for some sort of weapon. They begin pelting Watkins and his camera with rocks.

Well, at least they didn't claim that Watkins was stealing their souls. But this made-up objection is arguably worse. It makes the Indians seem ignorant and irrational.

When Watkins offers to take the town's picture, the people's come-and-go prejudices return. Black woman operates a business, good; black woman in photograph, bad. Indians help end influenza epidemic, good; Indians in photograph, bad. Immigrant girls dance with US soldiers, good; immigrant girls in photograph, bad.

This hit-and-miss prejudice is especially silly when it comes to the town's prostitutes. In the previous episode, the townspeople kept a prostitute's "bastard" boy secret because she was "one of us." But when it comes to including prostitutes in the photo, they're not "one of us."

Naturally, these fabricated examples of prejudice disappear by the episode's end and everyone appears in the picture.

Coming up next

In future seasons, I expect the townspeople to accept blacks, Indians, immigrants, prostitutes, and "slow" children but experience a momentary prejudice against Asians. Then they'll accept blacks, Indians, immigrants, prostitutes, "slow" children, and Asians but experience a momentary prejudice against homosexuals. And so forth and so on.

For more on the subject, see TV Shows Featuring Indians.

Episodes 15-16 of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman

Episodes 15-16 of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman highlight a recurring plot device: the phony prejudice that's replaced by equally phony tolerance after an hour.

Heroes (episode 15):  Sully and Colleen visit the Cheyenne. Tantoo Cardinal appears as Cloud Dancing's wife Snow Bird. Colleen is practicing to be a doctor, and Snow Bird cheerily lets her treat a cut. In Dr. Quinn's happy land, Indians and whites love each other's ways (except when the plot calls for conflict).

Snow Bird notes their son, Walks on Cloud (Zahn McClarnon), who happens to be in love (thus "walking on clouds"). Yeah, that's a believable Indian name...not. Who are Snow Bird's other children: Cloud Nine and Walks on a Beach? If Walks on Cloud "gets lucky," will he change his name to Seventh Heaven?

Colleen spends a night in a mine shaft to entice Sully to rescue her. She gets frostbite in her hands but not in her face or toes. Again, there are no other ill effects. Who knew that the Rocky Mountains were so temperate at night?

Hank the saloon owner calls Grace the black restaurant owner "darkie witch" after he gets sick eating her food. He almost calls her "nigger" before Grace's sweetheart Robert E. punches him. Until that point, only Dr. Quinn makes a halfhearted effort to support Grace.

So the townspeople are tolerant enough to let Grace run her own business, one that they patronize wholeheartedly. But at the first sign of trouble, they abandon her cafe as if she's a leper. When the trouble's over, they return as if she's a five-star chef. The era of deeming her a dangerous "darkie witch" ends as quickly as it began.

The Operation (episode 16):  Sully tells Dr. Quinn's boy Brian a Cheyenne legend about an eagle. Brian pretends he's flying, jumps from a tree, and suffers a blinding injury. Dr. Quinn momentarily blames Sully for filling Brian's head with Cheyenne "stories."

Meanwhile, the townspeople want to build a schoolhouse. Why not ask Robert E., the black blacksmith with construction experience, to help? He wouldn't be interested, the townspeople decide, because blacks stick to their own kind. "They" have their own church, which is really a shack, on the other side of town. When Dr. Quinn implies the townspeople are prejudiced, they react hotly, exclaiming, "We're all abolitionists."

Planning the schoolhouse goes badly and finally they call upon Robert E., who draws up workable plans. They raise the structure quickly while Dr. Quinn operates on Brian. He's cured in time to see the finished building.

The hour's up so everyone's happy again. But there's no word on whether the town will let black children attend the school.

For more on the subject, see TV Shows Featuring Indians.

Episodes 13-14 of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman

Episodes 13-14 of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman give us more Indian bits, including the first real example of Indian culture.

Happy Birthday (episode 13):  Dr. Quinn faces her 35th birthday. After a brief horse race, Cloud Dancing (Larry Sellers) advises Sully not to wait too long to pursue her.

Rites of Passage (episode 14):  Matthew wants to marry Ingrid, but Dr. Quinn objects. Sully persuades Matthew to prove his manhood like a Cheyenne. Cloud Dancing has Matthew retrieve a perfect egg from a nest, participate in a sweat lodge, and go on a vision quest.

Throughout the process, the tribe takes an inordinate interest in Matthew the white boy. A dozen or so warriors join him in the sweat and guide him to the site of the vision quest. In Dr. Quinn, everyone cares enough to help everyone else.

It's unclear how long Matthew sits alone on the mountainside, but it's at least 24 hours. He sees horses galloping and a hawk landing, but learns nothing special from them. He suffers no ill effects after a night in the Rockies during pouring rain.

The lesson he learns is that a "man" doesn't do something reckless like marrying his sweetheart. The only real clinker is a canoe shown in the Cheyenne village. Yeah, because there are a lot of navigable streams in the Colorado Rockies...not.

For more on the subject, see TV Shows Featuring Indians.

Straight as an Arrow in King of the Hill

The November 30 episode of King of the Hill, titled Straight as an Arrow, included some Indian lore. Here's my synopsis of the episode:Hank encourages Bobby to join the Order of the Straight Arrow, a Scout-type group, to learn self-reliance. But Hank bumps heads with Arrowmaster Wesley, a new Arlen resident, who believes they must shield the boys from violence and danger at all costs.The Boy Scouts have an organization called the Order of the Arrow. This used to have, and may still have, stereotypical Indian trappings.

This episode's Order of the Straight Arrow appears to be modeled closely after the Cub Scouts or Boy Scouts. Fortunately, there are only a few bits of Indian lore.

First, Bobby comes home with a necklace of brown and orange balls. The following dialogue ensues:BOBBY:  We made these cool Native American replica necklaces!

PEGGY:  But don't Indian necklaces usually have an eagle claw or a bear tooth?

HANK:  (sigh) Wesley thought they were too pointy.Hank visits Wesley and tries to persuade him to teach real crafts:WESLEY:  Let's powwow in the TV room.

HANK:  I was thinking we could do a lesson on tying knots. Then we could use them to make something fun--like a bow and arrow.

WESLEY:  Whoa. Bow and arrow is a little too "hunty-killy," don't you think?

WESLEY:  But you know what we could make? A dreamcatcher.

HANK:  Yeah, that sounds awful.Later Bobby does the Straight Arrow salute. It involves putting your thumb to your forehead, waving your fingers, and saying "Wematanya."

These bits probably aren't too far from a typical American family's experience with Indians. They know the usual smattering of stereotypical Indian lore. They try to be more sensitive than previous generations were. But they still do made-up things like the Wematanya salute, which makes them look like roosters.

Order changes with the times

Curiously, the Order of the Straight Arrow also appeared in a 1997 episode of King of the Hill. In that episode, the Order resembled the Y-Indian Guides much more than the Boy Scouts. Hank and his friends spouted a lot of pseudo-Indian nonsense.

In the recent episode, there was no mention of the prior episode's events. The two episodes have only two things in common. In each, Hank and his friends belonged to the Order as boys, and "Wematanya" (or "Wematanye") was the Order's Indian word.

Comparing the two episodes is instructive. It seems the creators were fans of the Y-Indian Guides back in 1997 and copied the program accordingly. Since then, the Y-Indian Guides have learned that Indians don't appreciate their phony Indian lore and have modified their approach. Now they're much more like a Scouting organization.

Maybe viewers complained about the 1997 episode, or maybe the creators wised up on their own. But they've updated their fictional Order of the Straight Arrow to match the changes in the real Y-Indian Guides. Now both groups are much less stereotypical.

Conclusion

As King of the Hill finishes its final season, give it credit for including Indians once again. With many appearances by John Redcorn and several episodes devoted to Native subjects, King of the Hill may have done more than any TV show since Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. As with The Simpsons and Family Guy, many of its episodes are flawed, but at least these shows haven't excluded Indians entirely.

For more on the subject, see The Best (Only) Native on TV.

Episode 12 of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman

Episode 12 of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman is a key episode--perhaps the key episode of the series. (I'm watching the episodes in order, so I'm just guessing about that.) Because of this, it deserves a separate entry.

Here's the summary from Wikipedia (rewritten by me to ensure accuracy):The Prisoner (episode 12)

After ambushing Black Kettle's camp, General Custer enters the town carrying wounded soldiers and Indian prisoners, including Cloud Dancing, whom Custer threatens to kill if Dr. Mike doesn't treat his men first. Dr. Mike treats Cloud Dancing's broken arm while he's shackled in the livery after Custer's interrogation. After Custer hauls Cloud Dancing before a firing squad that fires blanks, Dr. Mike and Sully engineer Cloud Dancing's escape. Meanwhile, Olive organizes a hurdy-gurdy dance, recruiting girls from the immigrant camp and a reluctant Loren, Horace, and Jake for the band. Matthew buys all of Ingrid's dance tickets, then shyly confesses that he doesn't know how to dance.Comment:  General Custer says Indians killed eight settlers in a wagon train, so that justifies his attack on Cloud Dancing's camp. In reality, Custer attacked Indians only as part of US military campaigns. He didn't invent reasons to attack Indians on his own.

When Custer brings his prisoners into town, there's no mention of how many Indians his men killed. Specifying this might indict US army or government policy--i.e., the system--not just Custer the "bad man," so Dr. Quinn avoids it. A terrible assault--presumably a massacre--has occurred, but the show doesn't address it.

Neither Dr. Mike nor anyone else rushes to the killing field to see how bad it is. To see if anyone is still alive or needs help. "Something bad" has happened--like a storm or another act of God--but now it's over.

The show must go on

While Custer threatens to execute Cloud Dancing, Olive continues to organize the hurdy-gurdy as if a dead Indian won't upset anyone. For a moment she thinks of canceling it, but Dr. Mike tells her that life must go on even when bad things happen. She cares deeply about Cloud Dancing's life as long as it doesn't interrupt the dance.

When Custer moves to "execute" Cloud Dancing, Dr. Mike is the only one who cries out. Apparently everyone else thinks it's okay to kill an Indian without a trial in front of a hundred witnesses, including women and children. No one says anything like, "If you do this, we'll send a statement documenting your illegal actions to every government official and newspaper in the land."

And of course no one lifts a finger against Custer, not even the "heroic" Sully. No one--not him or Dr. Mike or Brian the young Indian-lover--throws himself in front of Cloud Dancing. Because that would require an actual sacrifice, not merely good intentions.

"Just kidding"

Fortunately for the townspeople's meager consciences, the "execution" is revealed to be a stunt. So Custer and his men still haven't killed anyone. And therefore no one can call them "murderers" or seriously question their morality.

So the soldiers are big meanies--bullies and ruffians--but not real criminals. They were about to execute an Indian in cold blood, but they haven't actually done anything immoral or un-American. Everyone will treat them as decent men and accept them as dance partners at the hurdy-gurdy.

I don't know, but I suspect this episode is a metaphor for the whole series. Bad people try to hurt Indians. Indians passively accept their fate. Good people protest but don't put their lives on the line. Indians continue to suffer and die, but only off-screen.

For more on the subject, see TV Shows Featuring Indians.

Episodes 9-11 of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman

With episodes 9-12 of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, we get four Native-themed episodes in a row. These solidify the show's take on Indians and give us a good idea of the underlying attitude.

Here are the summaries of episodes 9-11 from Wikipedia (rewritten by me to ensure accuracy):The Great American Medicine Show (episode 9)

Dr. Mike tries to heal the soul of Doc Eli Jackson, a Civil War surgeon turned medicine-show huckster. With the aid of a drunken Indian (Franklin, aka "Chief Sick No More") and his boy, Doc Eli touts an all-curing elixir supposedly developed by the Kickapoo. Dr. Mike doesn't trust the sales pitch of this exploitative showman, especially when she faces a real medical crisis involving Myra. She must help Doc Eli confront his demons before he can help her remove an ovarian cyst from Myra. Meanwhile, Sully's on a similar mission to convince Franklin, a disillusioned Cheyenne and massacre survivor, to join his own people in their continuing fight for survival. Myra and Horace get engaged.Comment:  Sully recognizes that Franklin is Cheyenne, not Kickapoo, by the Sun Dance marks on his back. Dr. Mike's boy Brian doesn't hesitate to talk to the Indian boy and offer to teach him stickball. At the end, Franklin joins Cloud Dancing, who is brandishing a rifle and riding with two other Cheyenne "Dog Soldiers."A Cowboy's Lullaby (episode 10)

Dr. Mike takes in Red McCall, a down-and-out cowboy, and his ailing "half-breed" infant boy. McCall reaches the end of his rope, so he abandons the baby with Dr. Mike, robs Loren's store, and flees. Dr. Mike tries to find a home for the baby, but the potential parents prove unwilling or unsuitable. When she travels to a remote cabin to check on the health of its owner, she finds him badly mangled from a bear attack. Her horse is frightened off and she's trapped in the cabin until Sully shows up looking for her. They narrowly escape being the rabid bear's next victims. After returning to town, Dr. Mike decides she'd rather raise the child herself than turn him over to an orphanage. But Sully locates Red and convinces him to keep the child.Comment:  McCall doesn't mention the name or tribe of the baby's mother. Apparently these details don't matter. The Indian woman is a nonentity like so many Indian women on the screen.

Dr. Mike eventually thinks of taking the child to the Cheyenne. But Black Kettle (through Cloud Dancing) says they're starving and can't afford to feed another mouth. Dr. Mike gives the equivalent of a shrug and leaves without offering to help the hungry Cheyenne.Running Ghost (episode 11)

Sully ends up badly beaten and partially paralyzed after a run-in with buffalo hunters whom a railroad has hired to clear the herds and Indians out of the planned train path. As Dr. Mike, Cloud Dancing, and the kids fight to help Sully regain the use of his legs, a con man passing himself off as the railroad's advance man is swindling the townsfolk out of the deeds to their properties. As Sully recovers, Dr. Mike unmasks the con man's plan and saves the town. When Sully confronts the buffalo hunters, a mystical white buffalo ("Running Ghost") appears to avenge the animals' deaths.Comment:  Although the railroad has hired the buffalo hunters, they come across as individual "bad men," not part of a bad system. No one in this episode has much to say about US government policy.

The Cheyenne who have gone wherever they wanted in previous episodes suddenly are sticklers for not leaving their reservation. They continue to suffer hunger while a large herd of buffalo roams nearby.

One Cheyenne warrior, Iron Knife, attacks the buffalo hunters in typical Western-movie fashion: a foolish headlong rush. The hunters kill him and dispose of the body and no one mentions this dead Indian again.

Dr. Mike says she'd welcome a railroad through the middle of town as long as the corporation bought the town's property legally. She's oblivious to how it would destroy the way of life of the Cheyenne and the townspeople.

Sully has told the kids about Running Ghost the white buffalo. When he confronts the last hunter, he seems to transform into Running Ghost. So Sully the white pseudo-Indian ends up being the hero for the mostly ineffectual Indians.

For more on the subject, see TV Shows Featuring Indians.

Episodes 3-8 of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman

More Indian appearances from discs 1-2 of Season 1 of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.

Epidemic (episode 3)

In the third episode, a flu epidemic hits the town. When Dr. Quinn runs out of medicine, Sully suggests an Indian brew made of leaves. For the sake of drama, Dr. Quinn is temporarily prejudiced against this form of alternative medicine.

With Dr. Quinn herself get sick, Sully takes her to his friend Cloud Dancing (Larry Sellars). Cloud Dancing performs a respectful and (what looks like a) reasonably authentic healing ceremony. Dr. Quinn recovers and acknowledges the benefits of Indian medicine.

Law of the Land (episode 5)

Sully teaches Brian, who is half naked in feathers and “warpaint,” how to hunt deer. When they find a wounded deer, Sully says they have to put it out of its misery. He tells Brian the Cheyenne believe that if you take the deer's last breath, its spirit will live on. Brian convinces him to spare the deer so Dr. Quinn can heal it.

Later, Dr. Quinn has to convince Brian to set the deer free. Sully tells him the Cheyenne believe that wild animals should be, er, wild—that you should take them only if you need food. (Ironically, this comes from a man who owns a pet wolf.)

Father’s Day (episode 7)

Sully distrusts horses but Cloud Dancing teaches him how to ride. Cloud Dancing sprinkles the lessons with Indian wisdom such as thinking of the horse as a friend.

Incidentally, the Sellars character was named Black Hawk in the pilot episode. But I guess Cloud Dancing is a more soothing and spiritual name.

What it means

The medicine bit in Episode 3 is noteworthy for being about the only real depiction of Indian culture (so far).

True, the Indians and their friend Sully speak Cheyenne or a reasonable facsimile. They look the part, with buckskin clothes but no plethora of bare chests or feathers. But so far they’re present mainly as background color—as props, so to speak. It's not clear they'll get much face time as interesting and complex individuals.

Indians in Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman

Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman has a benign, even bucolic, attitude toward Indians. These Indians aren’t savages; they’re peace-loving, romanticized, noble salts of the earth.

In other words, they’re basically too good to be true. This portrayal is much better than past movie and TV portrayals, but it’s still somewhat stereotypical.

Although Indians show up only occasionally, the two-part pilot and subsequent episodes establish them as a constant background presence. Let’s look at Dr. Quinn's initial portrayal of Indians.

"Pilot"

As Dr. Quinn heads west via train, she spots some Indians on horseback. She thinks she shouldn’t be afraid of them, but she is.

But she quickly (or should I say immediately?) loses her fear. In Colorado Springs, more Indians ride by and she barely gives them a glance. It's inconceivable that our heroine would feel anything worse than a fleeting moment of prejudice.

The whole town seems remarkably accepting of Indians. Black Kettle and his band of Cheyenne are camped in tipis in a park-like area by the town. They’re there to negotiate a treaty with representatives of the US government. The Indians are literally about 100 yards from the town church, but no one apparently thinks twice about having “savages” in close proximity.

Black Kettle (in full regalia) enters the town store with Sully (Dr. Quinn’s love interest-to-be). The store owner points to a “No Dogs or Indians” sign. Dr. Quinn begins to remove the sign and the store owner objects. Sully resolves the conflict with his trusty tomahawk.

At a dinner, Dr. Quinn hosts some soldiers, including the infamous Col. Chivington. Chivington denounces the Indians for standing in the way of progress. Whose progress? asks Dr. Quinn. Everyone’s progress, answers Chivington. It’s clear he thinks the only good Indian is a dead Indian.

(The presence of Chivington and the talk of negotiating for Sand Creek foreshadow what will happen soon. Needless to say, it won’t be good for the Indians.)

Indians are good

In contrast, young Brian’s fervent wish is to run away and join the Cheyenne. So the big bad soldier is anti-Indian and the good little boy is pro-Indian. It couldn’t be clearer which position is the “right” one—the one we’re supposed to sympathize with.

Later, the Cheyenne help Sully and Dr. Quinn search for the missing Brian. When Chivington and his soldiers chase them, Dr. Quinn intervenes. Chivington says they’re violating the treaty by leaving the reservation. Dr. Quinn says it’s okay because they’re only trying to help. Amazingly, Chivington gives in. Dr. Quinn’s goodness is so powerful that even he can’t resist it.

After Sand Creek, the Indians flee from Chivington and hide in Dr. Quinn’s barn. With soldiers pounding on the front door, Sully and the Cheyenne sneak out the back. In this show, apparently, Indians don’t fight. In fact, they don't seem to own or use weapons.

These bits establish the show’s basic attitude towards race. The store owner and Chivington are clearly portrayed as “bad people.” They’re ignorant and unfriendly and therefore bigoted. Meanwhile, no one else seems to have any opinions about Indians. The townspeople are implicitly or explicitly tolerant of the Indians' presence.

The attitude toward blacks is similar. There are at least two black couples in this version of Colorado Springs. Other then a brief moment or two in the pilot, the townspeople accept their black neighbors. There’s no racial animosity in this Western utopia.

Ironically, the only serious ethnic prejudice is against the Scandinavian immigrants who arrive in town. The townspeople think these strangers are lazy and dirty. It’s almost funny how sweetly “PC” Dr. Quinn is. Everyone accepts blacks and Indians, but blond white Europeans are a different matter.

For more on the subject, see TV Shows Featuring Indians.

Summary of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman

I've commented on many of the TV shows featuring Indians. But I haven't commented on one of the most important ones: Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. Correspondent DMarks convinced me I should try it, so I'm watching Season 1.

Here's the story on the show:

Dr. Quinn, Medicine WomanThe fifth daughter of a wealthy Boston physician, Michaela Quinn defies the conventions of post-Civil War society by following in her father's footsteps. After his death, 'Dr. Mike' leaves Boston and moves to the frontier town of Colorado Springs, where she finds the citizens less than thrilled by the concept of a woman doctor. While she struggles to earn their trust, Mike's life is complicated by a growing relationship with mountain man Byron Sully, and the unexpected responsibility of raising three orphaned children.Dr. Quinn, Medicine WomanDR. QUINN, MEDICINE WOMAN, a high-spirited, hour-long Western family adventure series from The Sullivan Company and CBS Entertainment Productions, is built around the exploits of Dr. Michaela ("Mike") Quinn, a refined woman doctor who moves from the highly civilized world of mid-19th century Boston to a rough-hewn frontier town in 1860s Colorado to start her own medical practice.

Film and television star Jane Seymour ("Live and Let Die," "Somewhere in Time," "War and Remembrance") is Dr. Quinn, the strong-willed, liberal-minded Easterner who befriends an enigmatic mountain loner, Byron Sully (Joe Lando), and winds up adopting three children (played by Chad Allen, Erika Flores/Jessica Bowman and Shawn Toovey) when their mother dies of a rattlesnake bite.

While the headstrong Michaela can be tough, Beacon Hill never prepared her for such a rugged world where the people are as coarse as the climate and their ideas seem from another time. By having Dr. Quinn's sophisticated values clash with the considerably cruder mindset of her Western neighbors, the series is able to explore situations and issues that are very much a part of life today. Whether championing the cause of gun control, exposing environmental polluters, battling disease or sexist cowboys, or liberating oppressed frontier women, Dr. Mike, at great personal risk, bucks the conventional wisdom of the Old West and emerges as more than just a pioneering feminist.

In the tradition of "Little House on the Prairie," DR. QUINN, MEDICINE WOMAN is steeped in traditional family values and an understanding of the spirit and strength that built America.