Indian Opinions About Pocahontas

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INDIAN YOUTH--Express their opinions of Pocahontas and related issues of spinoff merchandise. The first two are a Tslagi (Cherokee) brother and sister, ages 11 and 12.

Opinions of Indian adults--top of the source document you can scroll all the way or skip around in

Freedom Spirit, Tsalagi (Cherokee) mother--is led to thoughtful self-scrutiny of her own opinions through a children's magazine feature.

Darren Renville, who teaches about Indian images in film--thinks Russell Means is not a reliable guide, but that people should withhold judgement until they've seen it.

Jimmy Fall, Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican, who plays the voice of Kocoum--the traditional warrior who wants to marry Pocahontas, has a careful explanation of what he feels is the film's content--and the responsibility he takes as an Indian actor when accepting parts.

Maria Montour, Mohawk, believes--that there is good reason for Indian apprehensions about the effects of this film, even if one hasn't seen it.

Karen Buller, Comanche, reports on the reactions-- of herself and her family (various ages) on seeing it.

Russell Means, voice of Powhatan--says in a radio interview many of the same things as in the Disney Press kit sound bytes downloadable from the main Pocahontas page here.

On NAT-CHAT--a public email list of Indian supporters, some drafted an Open Letter to Parents against the film as a racist stereotype, and suggested alternatives instead of attending or buying spinoff merchandise.

Ojibwe Charles Whitedog--provides a thoughtful and actually appologetic discussion directed at non-Indian "supporters" of why he will not sign their letter condemning the film, and all the work he went through before forming his mixed opinion.

Long Defense/Review by Mark Wang,--age 16, Disney fan. Mark includes a dozen criticisms--his answer is a thoughtful analysis of the film that shows most of the criticisms are untrue. He does not consider Indian viewpoint objections. This appeared on rec.arts.disney newsgroup. Mark's long piece is the only one to thoroughly cover the content, especially symbolism--and make me want to actually see it!


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Here's some things other young people have said. If they put in their email address, you can write to them (and if you put in yours people can write to you):
View Opinions of Other Young People

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Copyright 1995, Paula Giese. Opinions expressed here by other people are each respectively copyright the person expressing it, have been used here by permission of their authors, and require permission of those people to use on other pages except by linking here.

CREDITS: When I digitized and traced some graphics in 1993, one done in 1979 by Joe Liles to illustrate Lac Courte Oreille Midewewin elder Eddie Benton-Banai's Mishomis book was one of the ones I traced in FreeHand. I knew I'd want to use some of the kids around the drum, so each of them was a separate FreeHand group. I used the whole thing as a logo for my SCHOOLS page here, but here are 3 of the kids, extracted, colored, etc. by me, but originally drawn by Joe Liles, then art teacher at Red School House, the first AIM Survival School, still surviving in St. Paul.

Last updated: Wednesday, February 21, 1996 - 5:15:37 PM