Promotional Information

"Aleiss is to be commended for providing a clear-eyed, level-headed and marvelously researched film history that explores the tangled and too frequently shameful treatment of Native Americans on the nation's screens over the past century. She takes the American film industry, warts and all, for what it is as a commercial enterprise largely under the aegis of corporate capitalism. She has illuminated a problematic page of American film history with clarity and brio." -- Andrew Sarris, Film Critic, New York Observer

Table of Contents

Foreword
Preface
Introduction
Hollywood and the Silent American
A Cultural Division
Indian Adventures and Interracial Romances
War and Its Indian Allies
Red Becomes White
A Shattered Illusion
Savagery on the Frontier
Beyond the Western
Conclusion
Appendix A: Motion Pictures Screened
Appendix B: Motion Picture Archives
Selected Bibliography

About the Author

Angela Aleiss is a contributing writer for such publications as the Los Angeles Times, Variety, and The Hollywood Reporter. She is a former postdoctoral fellow at the American Indian Studies Center at the University of California, Los Angeles, and a Fulbright Fellow at the University of Toronto.

Reviews

The literature includes dozens of books on the Hollywood Western, and perhaps a dozen just on the representation of Native Americans in Hollywood film….[t]he writing and research are scrupulous and engaging. Highly recommended. Lower-/upper-division undergraduates, graduate students, general readers.
*Choice*

Making the White Man's Indian reminds us that films were made to make money and that they reflected whatever niche Indians occupied in the American attitude toward Indians and minorities at the time the films were made. Professor Aleiss explains why Hollywood representation of Indians has swung back and forth between the Indian-as-savage and the Indian-as-noble and sympathetic. Portraying Indians as people is not new….Hollywood may shape images but it responds in a cultural context. Her reviews of many obscure or forgotten films are a bonus….[b]elongs in the mainstream of current interpretations of Indian representations.
*NDO North Dakota Quarterly*

While Aleiss's book is a serious study, it is lively and very readable, full of little-known facts and anecdotes that add interest to its analysis….[M]aking the White Man's Indian is a useful addition for most libraries.
*Multicultural Review*

[D]raws on behind-the-scenes material such as correspondence, evolving scripts, studio publicity materials, reactions from film critics and Native American groups, and records of the self-censorship organization, to cast new light on the portrayal of Native Americans in US films.
*Reference & Research Book News/Art Book News Annual*