"Native American movie cliches" Topic

Being an astute type of chap, I'm fairly sure no real native Americans ever said, "How!" or "White man speak with forked tongue."

But was the phrase, 'It is a good day to die." in the vocabulary of any native American tribe?

Are there other laughable cliches in this genre you'd like to add?

Supposedly Crazy Horse said it to encourage his lads as they rode off to take on Custer.

I didn't particularly see it as a cliché until Star Trek got hold of it (I had only encountered it in its original context in the Gary Cole Custer film). But then Trek ran the phrase into the ground and convinced everyone that the Klingons invented it.

I remember that the Chief used the line 'It is a good day to die' in the Dustin Hoffman film 'Little Big Man'. He then goes up to the mountain-top with LBM to die. But then it starts raining and he decides to wait for a better day to die – a brilliant scene :o)

Hollywood movie Native Americans will always have some sort of mystical knowledge. For example, the Native American always knows the course of events to come from some sign in nature.

Take your pick.

up till sometime in the late sixties or early seventies Indians (not called Native Americans then) were always lying, theiving, murderous, drunken neer-do-wells who were a menace to God fearing white men. (With exception for personal sidekicks like Tonto of course)

Ever since the late sixties early seventies Native Americans (no longer called Indians since we all know Indians are from India) are honest, upstanding, harmonious people always menaced by lying, theiving, murderous, drunken neer-do-well white people

Native Americans are more awesome than white folks by several magnitudes.

They exist in perfect symbiosis with nature, have extensive mystic knowledge or even full blown magical powers. They are so badass they could single-handedly take out a company of Marines with a pocket-knife, they have personal spirit animal totems and can ride any random horse without a saddle. They can communicate with animals, plants, rocks, currents in a stream. They can track a ninja five weeks after he crossed over hard rocks despite the area having been hit by floods, mudslides and a hurricane. They have a postive ecological footprint, giving far more to nature than they take from it.

Name anything and they will do it better, more mystically and in tune with nature than any other people in and the nearest 1400-odd galaxies.

YouTube link

Perhaps the most common cliche is the "at one with nature" idea that derives more from European ideas of the "Noble Savage" than reality.

The Indians had to impact their surrounding to survive just like anyone else. Slash and burn methods were used to clear fields for maize planting in the northeast, there were large plantations of tobacco, maize, and cotton in the south, not to mention the building of giant mounds,etc. The natives were adapted to their environment, but even they sometimes starved in winter, or suffered other calamities prior to European contact. As usual the situation was more complex than is often assumed.

Hand slapping over mouth going "poo echoing pow"

They can commune with their spirit guides over many light years. See Voyager….

Circling wagons and shooting all of their (limited supply of) ammo into the air…

Counterclockwise Redeagle. always counterclockwise !

"ug"
"Me trade for firewater."
"Kemosabe"
"woo woo woo woo" Usually done from horeback…
Speaking without prepositions…

"You smoke'um peace pipe."

"White eyes [fill-in-the-blank]."

The stereotypical soundtrack that always heralds their entrance; akin to the brassy minor chords in WWII films for the Japanese.

The music when you see the smoke signal on the high rock on the Desilu back lot?
DUM dum dum dum dum.

The term "It is a good day to die" is usually connected with the term hóka-héy but that is incorrect. Hóka-héy is a man's exclamation in Sioux roughly meaning "Let's Go!" as when Crazy Horse was to have said, "Let's go (Hóka-héy) men, today is a good day to die!", before going into battle.

The smoke signals all look the same but have detailed messages. Smoke signals were actually very limited. The patterns were "rally here" "hunt starting" and "medicine man is golfing, take two aspirin and call wensday".

The pattern on TV or the movies is always the lyrics to "Moon river" which means the other signaller is on hold.

Seriously, I think Plains Indians did say "Hau" when agreeing with the previous speaker.

I like how Patrick O'Brian subverts this in one of his books (where Aubrey and Maturin are prisoners after being captured on HMS Java); Maturin meets a Native American and greets him daily with what is described as "[A] civil 'ugh'", until the NA shocks him by asking him to stop in extremely cultured English.

youtu.be/yIKU9hzRq6k

Tony Curtis fights any cliche.

Native Americans used every part of everything. EVERY. PART.

(Although there was a funny Farside where an Indian is showing this lumpy bit of oddness: the one part of the buffalo they don't know what to do with.)

Cmokman wayezhi….
MyanIt …ke'go

All Native Americans, regardless of tribe or other cultural grouping, wear Sioux style war bonnets.

All Native Americans, regardless of tribe or other cultural grouping, have totem poles.

All Native Americans, regardless of tribe or other cultural grouping, take scalps.

You can accidentally end up married to a Native American by buying or selling a blanket, hat, horse or other item.

richardDisney said, "woo woo woo woo" Usually done from horeback…"

Cracked me up, I know it was a typo, but somehow it all fits.

"They are so badass they could single-handedly take out a company of Marines with a pocket-knife"

NOOOOOO!

Native Americans are the worst knife-fighters in cinema history!

1: They NEVER take anybody by surprise. Despite supposed cat-like stealth, anyone leapt on by an Indian will ALWAYS manage to whirl around and get a hand on his knife-arm.

2: Once the intended victim gets a hand on the indians knife-arm, no Native American has EVER won the test-of-strength that follows.
Doesn't matter if the intended victim was an accountant with polio who came West for his health and you're a lifelong scalp-taking coup-counting buffalo-wrestler. Once the white man gets a hand on your knife-arm, he's going to ram your own bowie hilt-deep in yer breadbasket.

Watching from the bushes, your mates would be looking at their knives and going:

"Man, why do we even carry these…?"

"Eeeer…. for killing Mexicans?"

"Oh, yeah, good point. I forgot about that."

When shot, "Indians" will alway perform a triple sumersault before hitting the ground.

All NA also live in teepees, regardless of locale. My favorite. NA were on F Troop…

"They exist in perfect symbiosis with nature, have extensive mystic knowledge or even full blown magical powers. They are so badass they could single-handedly take out a company of Marines with a pocket-knife, they have personal spirit animal totems and can ride any random horse without a saddle. They can communicate with animals, plants, rocks, currents in a stream. They can track a ninja five weeks after he crossed over hard rocks despite the area having been hit by floods, mudslides and a hurricane. They have a postive ecological footprint, giving far more to nature than they take from it."

They are Elves!

Native Americans are more awesome than white folks by several magnitudes.

… They are so badass they could single-handedly take out a company of Marines with a pocket-knife, … Name anything and they will do it better, more mystically and in tune with nature than any other people in and the nearest 1400-odd galaxies.

Well, then, a Native American versus Chuck Norris would be an epic battle to watch.

My father's mother was Sioux.

She made very good pies and cakes.

I'm Tlingit… And always get a kick out of how my southern brothers are portrayed in film.

Coelacanth1938: My grandma and mother are also amazing bakers! Haha!

Well, then, a Native American versus Chuck Norris would be an epic battle to watch

Isnt chuck have NA, half Irish ? It would explain why he is so arsekicking.

Isnt chuck have NA, half Irish ? It would explain why he is so arsekicking.

Or why at least half of him is.

R. Mark,
I often Use Chief Dan George's remark as he goes back to the village with Dustin Hoffman:
Sometimes the magic works, and sometimes it doesn't."

Being native American, I can only think of a few movies where I was not offended or off put..spirit walker?(I think) a dubbed film with an old man who was ready to die, but hanged on long enough to see his long lost twin son and vanquish his old foe( all native cast). Last of the Mohicans – uniforms and historical events were off, but Wes Studi was awesome, as were all the other actors within. Little Big Man – as others have noted prior, it went a long way to alter old Hollywood.
I can't list dances with wolves, or last of the dogmen because although good….they went entirely into the noble savage route …but at least no "how" or "white man speaks with forked tongue " ;)

Chucky N does have Cherokee blood(even tho he's from here in Chickasaw Nation). Why do you think he's so Tuff? Tuff is badder than tough.

Yeah, my pet peeve was always about living in teepees. That's white man thoughts.

Mahanman's comment about 'ugh' reminds me of the pilot episode for Daniel Boone when Yadkin peaks broken English to Mingo, who answers in British English. Course, Ed Ames wasn't native, just a non white…

Are there other laughable cliches in this genre you'd like to add?

That seemingly every other person in the US will happily tell you he's part Amerindian (usually a great-great-granddaddy who married a chief's daughter), even though DNA results suggests that the actual number is much less than one percent, and is the lowest percentage of any country in the Americas.

Oh, but you're asking about movies, aren't you?

Well, I have to go with what's already been said: That Native Americans pre-1960s are all ignorant thugs and thieves, and post-1960s are all somehow bestowed with mystical powers and that they lived in absolute harmony with nature.

Sad how things are never represented accurately.