Popular in Arts and Humanities

Arts and Humanities

Freedom’s Dominion

Vanderbilt University Jefferson Cowie

Arts and Humanities

Titus Quinctius Flamininus’ “Italian triumph”

McGill University Michael Fronda

Arts and Humanities

Lincoln and the Jews

Brandeis University Jonathan Sarna

Arts and Humanities

Amputations and Convalescence

University of Western Australia Emily Brink

Art

Drawing on the past: Palladio, his precursors and knowledge of ancient architecture

University of Birmingham David Hemsoll

Art

Language, Sound, and Image in Wallace Berman’s Aleph, 1956–1966

University of San Diego Chelsea Behle Fralick

Settler Aesthetics

View more insights in Arts and Humanities - Film Studies

View more figures from University at Buffalo SUNY

View the page of Mishuana Goeman

Read the Study

Next in Arts and Humanities

Election Integrity in a One-Party Dictatorship

David Brandenberger | University of Richmond

The Poverty of Disaster: Debt and Insecurity in Eighteenth-Century Britain

Tawny Paul | University of California Los Angeles

In Settler Aesthetics, Mishuana Goeman examines Terrence Malick’s film The New World and exposes settler-colonial erasure and violence against Native peoples.

Image courtesy of interviewee. December 6, 2023

Log-in or Sign-up to Faculti
Currently viewing this subject insight as a guest. You have insight(s) remaining for this month. Login to view 8000+ figures on the platform.

Generating Workspace...

Export as PDF

Ana Goman, a Tonawanda Bando Seneca and an assistant professor in Native American Studies, reflects on her experiences and the impact of the Pocahontas narrative, particularly in relation to the 2005 film "The New World" by Terence Malick. Goman discusses the mythic status of Pocahontas in American culture and how it shapes the identities of Indigenous women. Despite being initially reluctant to engage with the film, she felt compelled to analyze its portrayal of Native peoples, given the involvement of Native actors and consultants.

While recognizing the film's aesthetic beauty, Goman critiques its failure to authentically represent Indigenous voices and experiences. She expresses anger at how the film privileges a settler narrative while erasing Indigenous historical political structures and ecological knowledge. Goman emphasizes the importance of understanding Pocahontas’ true story and its implications for contemporary Indigenous identity and political recognition.

Her book aims to unpack this myth and explore the intersection of Indigenous studies with broader narratives of colonialism. She highlights the historical erasure of Indigenous peoples in American society and advocates for a deeper understanding of the political ramifications of such representations. Goman’s work encourages viewers to critically engage with the cultural narratives surrounding Pocahontas and to recognize their real-life consequences for Indigenous communities today, especially regarding issues like federal recognition and access to resources. Ultimately, she seeks to foster a more nuanced understanding of Indigenous identity that moves beyond mythologization, affirming the complex realities of Indigenous peoples and their histories.

Language:

Export as PDF

X-TIMESTAMP-MAP:LOCAL=00:00:00.000,MPEGTS=900000

00:00.225 --> 00:01.485
My name is Ana Goman.

00:01.485 --> 00:03.045
I'm Tonawanda Bando Seneca,

00:03.785 --> 00:06.645
and my father was an enrolled hot clan

00:06.645 --> 00:08.205
member of that nation.

00:08.825 --> 00:12.605
Uh, so in some ways that is part of what motivates this, is

00:12.605 --> 00:13.685
that you can't grow up

00:13.685 --> 00:16.965
as a young native woman without hearing the story

00:16.965 --> 00:19.445
of Pocahontas being called Pocahontas,

00:19.445 --> 00:21.205
or not being called Pocahontas.

00:21.665 --> 00:24.925
So what comes out of that is there's this like kind

00:24.925 --> 00:28.805
of mythic figure that looms large over our identities,

00:28.985 --> 00:31.285
who we are, how that functions.

00:31.985 --> 00:35.965
And so in this way, when the New World came out,

00:35.965 --> 00:37.485
which is a Terence Malik film,

00:37.905 --> 00:40.805
and it came out in 2005, I, at

00:40.805 --> 00:44.205
that point was an assistant professor at Dartmouth College

00:44.585 --> 00:46.085
in Native American Studies.

00:46.885 --> 00:48.525
I actually teach the film course

00:49.065 --> 00:51.365
in Native American studies at the time there,

00:51.945 --> 00:54.845
and I knew I would be asked about this movie.

00:55.485 --> 00:57.765
I knew that my students would be like,

00:57.765 --> 00:58.845
what do you think about it?

00:58.935 --> 01:01.405
Other professors would be, what do you think about it?

01:01.795 --> 01:05.445
That it would be, that aspect

01:05.445 --> 01:07.085
that I'd be kind of targeted for.

01:07.405 --> 01:10.085
I really had no desire to see a Pocahontas movie.

01:10.505 --> 01:13.925
It, it becomes like one of those, things that

01:14.625 --> 01:16.845
you just kind of shake your head at in,

01:16.865 --> 01:18.365
in many ways when you're,

01:18.635 --> 01:20.765
when you're a young woman growing up,

01:20.915 --> 01:22.605
because you hear so much about it.

01:22.625 --> 01:26.005
And my being a light-skinned Indian also, it,

01:26.065 --> 01:27.925
it would be used and targeted against you.

01:27.945 --> 01:29.405
You don't look like Pocahontas.

01:29.525 --> 01:32.605
I spent a year abroad when I was an undergraduate in

01:32.605 --> 01:35.365
England, actually, and the whole thing there was like,

01:35.365 --> 01:36.685
do you know any real Indians?

01:36.965 --> 01:40.445
'cause for them the real Indian in Bo Islands,

01:40.445 --> 01:42.965
because of, you know, London has such a,

01:43.075 --> 01:44.565
such a romanticization

01:44.565 --> 01:46.645
because that's where she spent her final days.

01:46.935 --> 01:48.365
She's buried at Graves end.

01:48.705 --> 01:51.525
And so there becomes this kind of mythic quality to it.

01:51.985 --> 01:55.365
So when the movie came out, again, I wasn't sure I wanted

01:55.365 --> 01:58.965
to see it, but at that point, I had heard

01:59.185 --> 02:01.805
so much about the native actors that were doing it,

02:01.985 --> 02:05.205
the native consultants, the fact that the Virginia,

02:05.785 --> 02:09.005
tribes were also, involved in the making

02:09.225 --> 02:11.405
and the authentication of the movie.

02:12.005 --> 02:14.045
I was like, okay, I'll go and check this out.

02:14.385 --> 02:15.885
See what settler, you know,

02:16.325 --> 02:17.805
I knew it was a settler narrative.

02:18.165 --> 02:19.325
I was hoping Malik,

02:19.325 --> 02:21.885
who hadn't produced a film in over 10 years, right?

02:21.915 --> 02:25.085
That was also being lotted this, you know, new,

02:25.465 --> 02:26.525
new Hollywood cinema.

02:27.225 --> 02:31.965
God is making this movie, this mythic movie on something

02:32.155 --> 02:35.565
that is, you know, the form some of the formation

02:35.565 --> 02:38.085
of indigenous feminisms I got in there,

02:38.385 --> 02:40.805
and in the first role of the screen credits,

02:41.125 --> 02:43.845
I just had this moment of kind of rage

02:44.035 --> 02:46.885
because it was, a map.

02:47.145 --> 02:50.645
It was the Chesapeake Bay map that John Smith had done

02:50.645 --> 02:52.725
through his explorations and travels.

02:52.985 --> 02:55.405
And so it kind of unraveled the map, right?

02:55.665 --> 02:58.405
And you saw this kind of drawing of the map as it went,

02:58.745 --> 03:02.165
As though the land was composed of para Ellis

03:02.225 --> 03:05.005
as though there, that what's Terra Ellis is no man's

03:05.005 --> 03:06.085
governance, right?

03:06.545 --> 03:11.015
But as though there wasn't all this like massive,

03:11.325 --> 03:14.935
traditional ecological knowledges or knowledges of the land,

03:15.155 --> 03:18.375
or even political governance over the territory.

03:18.475 --> 03:20.535
Now, pal Hadden was super strong, right?

03:21.035 --> 03:23.015
Um, a as, as a leader.

03:23.875 --> 03:26.375
And, those communities had depths

03:26.375 --> 03:29.175
and depths of knowledge over their waterways.

03:29.355 --> 03:31.295
It seemed, you know, they had their own maps.

03:31.435 --> 03:34.055
And this related to the book I was also writing at the time

03:34.315 --> 03:35.975
called Mark My Words,

03:35.975 --> 03:37.895
native Woman remapping our territories.

03:38.355 --> 03:40.935
So, which is really takes on geography.

03:41.475 --> 03:44.375
So with that, I, you know, I sat in the theater,

03:44.515 --> 03:45.615
it was super long.

03:45.755 --> 03:48.175
It was like two and a half hours. It was lyrical.

03:48.275 --> 03:49.935
It was beautiful. I mean,

03:50.465 --> 03:52.615
Malik does a landscape like nobody else, right?

03:53.275 --> 03:56.455
And, KKA Kilter just was an amazing actress.

03:56.675 --> 03:58.895
You know, there was some, there was some really amazing,

03:59.125 --> 04:02.095
aesthetically beautiful scenery in the movie,

04:02.875 --> 04:05.455
but halfway through I looked after my rage.

04:05.575 --> 04:07.215
I was like, at, at everything,

04:07.215 --> 04:08.695
because the narrative didn't change

04:08.835 --> 04:10.775
and you couldn't actually hear what she was saying.

04:10.955 --> 04:13.495
And it was like, I do also do a lot with poetry,

04:13.835 --> 04:15.775
but the poetry was kind of nonsensical

04:15.995 --> 04:17.735
and it just kind of went through this.

04:18.155 --> 04:19.975
Now there's very little Algonquin,

04:19.975 --> 04:22.415
even though I had heard they employed a language teacher,

04:22.865 --> 04:26.415
there was, most of the, the narrative was driven by

04:26.415 --> 04:27.655
what you already knew, right?

04:27.875 --> 04:29.935
You kind of had to know the narrative, of course,

04:29.935 --> 04:30.935
which everybody knows.

04:30.995 --> 04:33.655
We don't even know when we first learned the narrative

04:33.655 --> 04:36.215
of Pocahontas, but we kind of all know it

04:36.215 --> 04:37.335
because we grow up with it.

04:37.445 --> 04:41.135
It's, it's a, it's a foundational myth in American society.

04:41.635 --> 04:45.815
So I put this like story in another talk that I gave,

04:46.315 --> 04:50.015
and, that rant got out to the indigenous film,

04:50.235 --> 04:52.855
series, editors, Randolph Lewis

04:52.955 --> 04:55.295
and David Shorter, which is a great series

04:55.355 --> 04:56.815
for indigenous film that gives

04:56.815 --> 04:58.015
the background and everything.

04:58.515 --> 05:00.935
Um, so that, that kind of comes out.

05:01.355 --> 05:03.495
And then David asked me to write this book,

05:03.495 --> 05:06.655
and that was years ago when it first came out in like 2006.

05:07.235 --> 05:08.655
Um, it took me a while

05:08.695 --> 05:11.135
because it wasn't necessarily, I didn't wanna wrestle

05:11.275 --> 05:13.895
as an indigenous feminist with Pocahontas.

05:13.975 --> 05:16.015
I just didn't wanna do that.

05:16.475 --> 05:17.935
Uh, but I guess it was inevitable

05:18.275 --> 05:21.175
and it eventually I found a way in,

05:21.755 --> 05:25.615
and, that is kind of how the book came to be from

05:25.615 --> 05:27.855
that first reaction in the most colonial

05:27.955 --> 05:30.855
of theaters in Hanover, New Hampshire, right?

05:30.855 --> 05:34.975
Which has its own mythic Indian kind of element as well.

05:35.275 --> 05:37.695
So, well, you know, that was hard

05:37.695 --> 05:40.695
because a, a substantial part was actually written into

05:40.795 --> 05:41.935
co written through Covid.

05:42.475 --> 05:43.975
But, I actually did a lot

05:43.975 --> 05:46.455
of archival research looking at,

05:47.155 --> 05:50.095
the latter part when we get into politics

05:50.095 --> 05:51.295
of recognition in the book.

05:51.755 --> 05:55.095
Um, what eventually happens in this narrative is

05:55.095 --> 05:58.805
that in 2015, the p**n who are

05:59.495 --> 06:03.165
Pocahontas, tribal nation of what she belongs,

06:03.755 --> 06:04.965
receive recognition.

06:05.345 --> 06:06.885
So that recognition is done.

06:06.885 --> 06:09.965
And so that seemed to be the moment, on stage

06:10.065 --> 06:11.525
to really finally finish it

06:11.525 --> 06:14.645
and do the finishing push, you know, the results.

06:14.645 --> 06:17.405
So the 45th president

06:17.745 --> 06:20.325
who calls Elizabeth Warren Pocahontas,

06:20.325 --> 06:22.285
and then the whole narrative comes up again

06:22.625 --> 06:26.245
and the whole myth, so archival research

06:26.305 --> 06:28.445
of really trying to fill out the gendered aspect.

06:28.445 --> 06:30.485
Luckily, you know, it was a well-worn path

06:31.045 --> 06:32.765
historically about the actual myth.

06:33.185 --> 06:36.325
And that is, Helen Roundtree, who's approved

06:36.325 --> 06:39.685
by the Virginia Council of Tribes, undertook that research,

06:39.945 --> 06:42.605
as did Camille Thompson and,

06:43.465 --> 06:45.005
and another, Karen.

06:45.465 --> 06:49.365
Um, and within those kind of, leeways

06:49.365 --> 06:53.365
of those really brilliant historians doing that research,

06:53.745 --> 06:56.365
you know, the myth of course became problematic.

06:56.905 --> 06:58.685
My take on the exploration

06:58.685 --> 07:01.805
through the archive was thinking about all the different

07:01.805 --> 07:03.965
ways the trope has been used in a kind

07:03.965 --> 07:06.685
of historical literary and filmic way.

07:07.145 --> 07:10.125
And, thinking about all the ways the,

07:10.185 --> 07:13.285
the narrative has been reiterated through different venues

07:13.345 --> 07:14.605
and genres, right?

07:14.985 --> 07:18.005
All the way out from Peggy Lee doing, fever

07:18.225 --> 07:19.685
by Pocahontas, which just, you know,

07:19.685 --> 07:21.765
that song is very catchy and it's really wonderful,

07:21.785 --> 07:24.925
but if you listen to it, it still vibes in that myth, right?

07:25.265 --> 07:27.845
So that was kind of my take in, in into it.

07:28.075 --> 07:31.685
What are those imperial circuits that exist there?

07:32.225 --> 07:34.125
And so that's, that's kind of how I gathered it.

07:34.125 --> 07:37.725
But also, I, I looked a around, I did a lot of research.

07:38.365 --> 07:42.125
I talked to the Virginia Council of Tribes,

07:42.705 --> 07:44.165
li the librarian there.

07:44.725 --> 07:46.285
I followed their guidelines.

07:46.355 --> 07:47.565
They had a guidelines about

07:47.565 --> 07:49.485
how they would like their tribe written about,

07:49.505 --> 07:50.885
and I think that's very important

07:50.945 --> 07:53.245
for anybody doing research in indigenous studies

07:53.745 --> 07:54.965
to get things right.

07:55.465 --> 07:57.285
For instance, Palatan wasn't achieve.

07:57.585 --> 08:01.245
And there's a lot of, various guidelines they have

08:01.245 --> 08:03.365
for writing about this, because it is so popularized.

08:03.685 --> 08:04.685
I give that to my students

08:04.745 --> 08:07.245
as well when they write about this particular book.

08:07.685 --> 08:10.165
'cause for them, you know, Pocahontas wasn't a princess.

08:10.465 --> 08:13.565
And so for them, it is easy to kind of slip into that

08:13.565 --> 08:16.565
because it's so embedded in settler common sense.

08:17.025 --> 08:19.565
So those are kind of what I undertook for one thing.

08:19.745 --> 08:22.965
Um, I talk about this, it's, it's like kind of the precipice

08:22.965 --> 08:25.165
of the spectacle of the originary myth

08:25.165 --> 08:28.325
that is the originary myth of the United States.

08:28.465 --> 08:31.725
And its exceptionalism. It's a repetition of images

08:31.945 --> 08:35.765
of first encounter that is only leads to downfall, right?

08:36.395 --> 08:39.885
What people forget in this time span is games town isn't

08:39.885 --> 08:41.445
established until 1609.

08:41.985 --> 08:46.805
And if Columbus, you know, landed in 1592,

08:47.005 --> 08:51.885
1492, sorry, there's years between that England

08:52.105 --> 08:54.845
and other European encounters could not establish

08:55.285 --> 08:57.645
A colon in the US 200 years.

08:57.785 --> 09:00.405
So you can think about that importance, right?

09:00.705 --> 09:02.765
But what people often think is, think of it

09:02.765 --> 09:04.525
as a nie VD Vache kind of thing.

09:04.525 --> 09:06.685
They came, they saw, they conquered as though

09:06.685 --> 09:08.205
that was a small time span.

09:08.545 --> 09:11.045
So this kind of gets at some of the settler temporalities

09:11.275 --> 09:15.245
that, that exist by continuing to promote this, this film

09:15.705 --> 09:19.125
and the settler aesthetics that also involved, in that.

09:19.625 --> 09:22.565
So it downplays those years of con colonial conflict

09:22.565 --> 09:24.005
and indigenous resistance

09:24.305 --> 09:27.325
and draws the viewer into the movie in the narrative itself.

09:27.975 --> 09:32.205
These aesthetics are critical reflections on how settler art

09:32.755 --> 09:34.045
assigns different values.

09:34.225 --> 09:36.205
It creates and imagines worlds,

09:36.585 --> 09:39.325
and thus enables the viewer to lament the loss,

09:39.545 --> 09:43.485
the downfall, the loss of this beautiful landscape,

09:43.485 --> 09:45.525
people who lived with the Earth, et cetera.

09:45.665 --> 09:46.965
It allows all that loss

09:46.965 --> 09:49.285
to be addressed without being accountable

09:49.305 --> 09:51.165
to the afterlife of colonialism.

09:51.985 --> 09:54.845
So when the story and images are directed with such beauty

09:54.985 --> 09:57.925
as Malik Malik has that deep talent to do,

09:58.345 --> 10:01.645
we experience the feeling of possibility in the encounter

10:01.645 --> 10:04.285
and the feeling that our present didn't have to be this way,

10:05.025 --> 10:06.045
but unfortunately it is.

10:06.145 --> 10:08.325
So the settler aesthetic merges kind of with that

10:08.325 --> 10:09.645
of the sublime here

10:09.905 --> 10:12.645
and evokes a greatness at the precipice of encounter.

10:13.065 --> 10:15.085
So the encounter was in fact violent,

10:15.825 --> 10:17.765
but in mal fashion, all that violence kind

10:17.765 --> 10:19.005
of shows off screen, right?

10:19.005 --> 10:21.565
We see this in Badlands Days of Heaven and,

10:21.585 --> 10:22.685
and most of his films,

10:23.065 --> 10:25.525
but it gets built up throughout the film outside these,

10:25.525 --> 10:28.805
like various beautiful frames of beauty that we see.

10:29.385 --> 10:32.605
His soundtrack also invites Visual Wonder, invites us

10:32.605 --> 10:35.845
to mourn the loss of the pristine, asserting Indian death

10:35.905 --> 10:37.685
and destruction is just unfortunate.

10:38.185 --> 10:39.805
The celluloid kind of way

10:39.805 --> 10:41.605
that this is done obscures the violence

10:41.665 --> 10:43.045
and impact of dispossession

10:43.465 --> 10:45.645
and continues in those settler destructions.

10:46.065 --> 10:49.125
But even more than that, you asked about racial capitalism.

10:49.395 --> 10:51.485
What it sits up, what the story

10:51.485 --> 10:54.285
of Pocahontas sits up is a Pocahontas exception

10:54.385 --> 10:57.005
during Jim Crow era and post-slavery.

10:57.385 --> 10:59.325
And this is where Walter Ashby Cher,

10:59.325 --> 11:02.165
and this comes in later in my book in chapter,

11:02.165 --> 11:04.205
four when we, when we talk about it.

11:04.585 --> 11:09.485
But what it sits up is this way that, erasure

11:09.505 --> 11:11.965
of Indians and and capital where you could be colored

11:11.985 --> 11:13.765
or white ker goes back

11:13.945 --> 11:16.965
and changes all of the, the vital statistics.

11:16.965 --> 11:18.605
He was in charge for 36 years

11:18.865 --> 11:21.765
of the vital statistics in the state of Virginia, right?

11:22.585 --> 11:24.885
And this gets later, we could think about this

11:24.905 --> 11:27.485
as loving versus Virginia, which is deeply tied

11:27.485 --> 11:28.765
to this movie in some ways

11:28.995 --> 11:33.285
because, she was also indigenous,

11:33.375 --> 11:36.285
which often gets overlooked in the black white dynamic.

11:36.505 --> 11:39.005
But it's black indigenous dynamic that becomes part

11:39.005 --> 11:43.045
of a part of that eugenics movement in the 1930s.

11:43.465 --> 11:46.845
So the Pocahontas exception allowed for any descendancy

11:47.225 --> 11:48.765
of Pocahontas family,

11:48.935 --> 11:52.325
which were hugely mass landowners since 1609,

11:52.745 --> 11:56.805
and really proliferated in those old school families,

11:57.505 --> 12:02.205
to escape being classified as colored in that sense,

12:02.425 --> 12:04.805
and thus losing any ability to own property,

12:04.985 --> 12:06.285
but only to be property.

12:06.585 --> 12:10.085
And so, there be, that ties into the racial capitalism,

12:10.085 --> 12:13.165
this Pocahontas exception, but also gets into nobility.

12:13.545 --> 12:15.525
But as the monkey are clear on saying,

12:15.545 --> 12:19.125
and this, this, I was lucky enough to attend,

12:19.125 --> 12:22.405
British Museum on the 400th anniversary as,

12:22.665 --> 12:24.885
as the monkey say in writing, in,

12:24.885 --> 12:26.125
in various newspaper accounts

12:26.125 --> 12:28.285
and various interviews that he had done.

12:28.545 --> 12:31.645
And in the, and what I saw at the British Museum

12:32.155 --> 12:35.125
that Pocahontas was one out of hundreds of women.

12:35.305 --> 12:37.685
She wasn't even the most one that fought the most

12:37.745 --> 12:39.805
for her community and people,

12:40.185 --> 12:43.125
but the, the lauded ness of it is largely extended

12:43.125 --> 12:44.485
because of these property rights

12:44.485 --> 12:47.325
that are enveloped in this myth of the native grandmother,

12:47.345 --> 12:50.885
but also in the Pocahontas exception, which allowed people

12:50.905 --> 12:52.445
to escape the eugenics.

12:53.105 --> 12:55.685
So there's an afterlife of Pocahontas

12:55.685 --> 12:58.645
that I think needs addressing in terms of racial capitalism

12:59.105 --> 13:00.925
and in terms of the way later,

13:01.035 --> 13:03.285
even though the monkey had the oldest established

13:03.285 --> 13:07.405
reservation in the us, again, we're not recognized till 2015

13:08.195 --> 13:11.245
that, they began their petition in the 1980s.

13:12.155 --> 13:16.085
Even with all that, there becomes a way

13:16.275 --> 13:18.605
that the changing of those vital statistics

13:18.605 --> 13:20.485
and records deeply came into play

13:20.485 --> 13:21.565
because it was hard to go back

13:21.565 --> 13:23.565
and trace all the damage

13:23.565 --> 13:27.085
that PLR had done over those 36 years in those eugenics

13:27.285 --> 13:29.725
movements of erasing native people through vital records.

13:30.325 --> 13:33.125
I kind of, I work with Patrick Wolf a lot.

13:33.325 --> 13:35.565
I think Patrick Wolf was one of, there's other people

13:35.565 --> 13:37.645
that were doing, settler colonialism,

13:37.645 --> 13:41.045
largely in the Jewish context and in other European context.

13:41.505 --> 13:45.485
But Patrick Wolf was the first one to kind, work

13:45.595 --> 13:50.365
with indigenous studies in, in that, he came to us,

13:50.425 --> 13:51.885
and of course we had been discu.

13:52.145 --> 13:54.805
We have, we had an indigenous, the we heres

13:54.805 --> 13:56.845
and indigenous studies, of

13:56.845 --> 13:58.365
what not everybody of course is indigenous.

13:58.625 --> 14:02.205
We had been working on settler colonialism for years.

14:02.385 --> 14:04.125
It just didn't quite have that name.

14:04.825 --> 14:08.605
So there's a particular way that,

14:10.035 --> 14:13.965
that settler colonialism is not about the event,

14:14.225 --> 14:15.285
but about the structure.

14:15.665 --> 14:17.205
Now, this is particularly important here

14:17.205 --> 14:19.405
because it's not about the founding of Jamestown,

14:19.405 --> 14:20.805
which becomes the event.

14:20.945 --> 14:22.805
And now we can move on from

14:22.805 --> 14:26.565
that past in which Pocahontas marries into whiteness in

14:26.805 --> 14:29.085
European, this and that forms Americanness, right?

14:29.505 --> 14:31.645
So in some ways, this story itself

14:32.525 --> 14:36.245
structures the sit the situation with settler colonialism,

14:36.835 --> 14:38.725
such as pluck being able

14:38.725 --> 14:43.285
to think about native people vanishing into whiteness or,

14:43.465 --> 14:47.085
or being, consumed, into,

14:47.235 --> 14:49.165
into blackness in this, in this sense.

14:49.505 --> 14:51.085
So there becomes this particular,

14:51.415 --> 14:54.005
particular settler structures that set up.

14:54.265 --> 14:56.285
Now settler aesthetics are wrapped in those

14:56.345 --> 14:57.565
logics of elimination.

14:58.305 --> 15:01.805
Um, the aesthetics of American colonialism and film is part

15:01.805 --> 15:04.765
and parcel of the settler foundations that built up the myth

15:04.785 --> 15:06.085
of American exceptionalism

15:06.625 --> 15:09.125
and dominance that's rather un faltering.

15:09.745 --> 15:12.445
So it's the, what it is, is the ongoing condition

15:12.465 --> 15:14.565
of settler occupation, of native land

15:14.825 --> 15:18.365
and occupation, often pictured mono monumentalize

15:18.785 --> 15:21.165
and enforced by the containment of native bodies

15:21.425 --> 15:23.685
and the glorification of a colonial past.

15:23.985 --> 15:25.005
And this glorification

15:25.005 --> 15:28.405
of this originary myth comes into play with how we think

15:28.405 --> 15:31.405
through gender, how we think through masculinity

15:31.465 --> 15:32.565
and the film itself.

15:32.825 --> 15:36.205
You know, there's, there's some amazing male actors whose

15:36.205 --> 15:39.845
scenes are cut on the, on the, on the floor,

15:41.185 --> 15:43.525
by Malick during, during the editing process.

15:44.145 --> 15:47.045
Uh, west Stuy, who's like a beloved,

15:47.365 --> 15:49.605
American Indian actor, actually has,

15:50.065 --> 15:51.885
has many quotes in, in the book.

15:52.005 --> 15:54.045
I address this, where malick's great at

15:54.205 --> 15:55.445
shooting brass, right?

15:55.905 --> 16:00.405
Uh, so it becomes part of that parcel of what gets edited,

16:00.405 --> 16:01.645
whether, you know, in,

16:01.705 --> 16:05.125
in some ways the film just sit situates itself in those

16:05.125 --> 16:07.965
ongoing settler aesthetics where, you know,

16:07.965 --> 16:11.085
you're a good Indian if you work on behalf of this

16:11.145 --> 16:13.965
and you're a bad Indian or a Savage Indian if you,

16:14.025 --> 16:16.925
if you do not work on behalf of creating American Empire.

16:17.465 --> 16:19.725
So those are kind of the settler aesthetics that we see.

16:19.825 --> 16:21.805
We see landscape, the, I mean,

16:21.805 --> 16:24.565
he concentrates on landscape and the soundtrack.

16:25.105 --> 16:27.685
So meticulously, Malik actually went

16:27.865 --> 16:30.725
and found recordings of extinct birds, birds

16:30.725 --> 16:33.165
that are now extinct because of development in Virginia.

16:33.625 --> 16:35.805
So some of the birds, you hear the bird sounds

16:35.805 --> 16:40.105
of extinct birds, but he juxtaposes that with Bogner, right?

16:40.195 --> 16:42.505
Which is a, which is a soundtrack of conquest.

16:42.885 --> 16:45.905
So we see this kind of ongoing settler aesthetics

16:45.905 --> 16:47.945
and how music and nature is used

16:48.745 --> 16:51.145
landscapes asserted gender definitions

16:51.145 --> 16:52.785
of indigeneity are asserted.

16:53.165 --> 16:56.505
But what gets evacuated here is political governance

16:56.565 --> 16:57.825
of indigenous nations.

16:58.365 --> 17:01.465
And that's the real problem that indigenous

17:01.725 --> 17:04.345
and our ongoing life in futurity.

17:04.525 --> 17:07.505
For those who don't know the actual story of Pocahontas,

17:07.665 --> 17:11.545
I try, I used as much as I could from, I,

17:12.015 --> 17:14.905
drew on Karen Wood a lot, who's a beautiful poet,

17:15.325 --> 17:17.585
and she was also chief of the Monica Nation.

17:18.145 --> 17:21.105
I drew on her work a a lot throughout.

17:21.485 --> 17:23.665
Um, and I look at the consultants

17:23.725 --> 17:25.585
and I looked at reactions to the film.

17:26.105 --> 17:29.625
I hope what they take is that these films themselves, while

17:30.275 --> 17:32.785
Pocahontas seems like a trivial aspect, right?

17:32.925 --> 17:34.425
It seems like a Halloween costume.

17:34.725 --> 17:38.625
Why do native people get so upset about the appropriation

17:38.685 --> 17:40.225
of a Pocahontas or,

17:40.445 --> 17:42.105
or these kind of remarks made

17:42.105 --> 17:43.945
by certain political figures, right?

17:44.215 --> 17:47.505
That are very derogatory, even in situations

17:47.505 --> 17:48.865
where he, where he

17:48.865 --> 17:50.965
Was talking to Navajo veterans

17:51.305 --> 17:54.205
and he brought up this very derogatory, I mean,

17:55.255 --> 17:57.825
what I hope is that they'll understand she comes from a

17:57.985 --> 18:00.665
grounded politics in a specific nation,

18:01.045 --> 18:02.465
in a specific community,

18:02.885 --> 18:07.105
and that, these kind of slights in the way

18:07.105 --> 18:10.785
that we view her are actually inappropriate.

18:11.205 --> 18:14.305
And it does have political and real life consequences.

18:14.685 --> 18:15.945
And just for your viewers

18:15.965 --> 18:18.585
who may not understand why recognition is so

18:19.445 --> 18:20.735
important, right?

18:21.285 --> 18:23.295
It's because that's what gives the ability

18:23.355 --> 18:27.055
for tribal nations to apply to federal GaN grants

18:27.515 --> 18:29.575
for the infrastructure of their communities.

18:30.095 --> 18:34.895
IE how water waste management Super Sun fund sites are

18:34.895 --> 18:35.935
cleaned up, well,

18:35.935 --> 18:38.895
hopefully cleaned up their US government's very bad at that.

18:39.355 --> 18:41.495
Um, but it allows for healthcare

18:41.675 --> 18:44.175
and education for tribal nations.

18:44.555 --> 18:48.015
And so this is what any city or state has,

18:48.275 --> 18:51.015
but reservations have some of the poorest infrastructure

18:51.275 --> 18:54.335
as well because of that continual application

18:54.635 --> 18:56.015
of needing to apply to grants.

18:56.315 --> 18:59.775
If you are not federally recognized, you do not have access

19:00.155 --> 19:03.815
to making sure your community is healthy and well.

19:04.235 --> 19:07.415
So the political implications here are we can view

19:07.625 --> 19:12.095
Pocahontas as this ungrounded unmoored figure,

19:12.755 --> 19:15.055
and use it and, and it gets used.

19:15.115 --> 19:17.975
The myth gets used to assert these structures

19:17.975 --> 19:19.175
of settler colonialism,

19:19.555 --> 19:23.335
but in reality, the impact of that really does have import

19:23.755 --> 19:27.535
for her, for all of our communities if we can't view it.

19:27.595 --> 19:31.695
So my hope is that people will view, these myths,

19:31.755 --> 19:34.895
really unpack them, rethink what it means to have a great,

19:35.025 --> 19:36.535
great grandmother

19:36.915 --> 19:39.455
and actually start to think about real life indigenous

19:39.515 --> 19:41.215
people in the sense.

Faculti AI can make mistakes

Research

Policy

Analysis