Smoke Signals essay

The movie Smoke Signals is a fantastic way for people to see how the true history of Indians impacts daily life. Even Indians today, in modern culture, have deep ties to their roots. Many Non-Indian filmmakers have portrayed Indians in a way that was not historically accurate, but the filmmaker of this movie did a fantastic job of portraying the point of view from the eyes of Indians. Learning their own history gives modern day Indians the ability to learn about their culture, but also hurts them by showing the hardships that their ancestors went through.

Indians have a long history in the United states. In today's modern American culture, it is easy for Indians to lose the true culture of their past. When Indians learn about their history, they can re-connect with their culture, understand why they are the way they are, and where they came from. This is so important to young Indians today, because it gives them the ability to get closer and feel pride to their roots. The movie does a good job of portraying this, in Victors personality, when he is "teaching Thomas to be a real Indian". He claims that Thomas must have pride in himself as an Indian and must have proud and bold facial expressions. He tells Thomas that he must look like a warrior. This is the exact kind of situation in modern day, that Indians must learn their history for. However knowledge of history could also be harmful to Indians as well.

The Indians past is brutal. White people forced them to move west, after they stole their land in the east, then began taking their land in the west, killing them, or forcing them onto reservations. The Indians gave in. They decided to save their lives and let the white people continue to lie to them, murder them, and mistreat them. This is what can be so harmful for modern day Indians to learn. they must learn their history to learn their culture, but they also find out about the brutal hardships that their ancestors went through. This is where the ability to give, that the movie talks about, comes into play. The Indians must forgive their ancestors for giving in and losing their culture to the whites. They must make an effort to preserve Tribal culture in modern day society.

History is important for everyone to learn. It tells us who our people once were, and what happened in the past, to make our lives the way that they are today. It gives us insight about where we came from and how to correct the mistakes of our ancestors. This is even more so important to the Indians.