Redskin (1929)

This week, our film class watched Victor Schertzinger’s western film titled “Redskin.” The film focused on the life of a Native American boy named Wing Foot, and followed him throughout his young life into adulthood. At a young age, the U.S. government (referred to many times during the film generally as “white man”) forces Wing Foot into a boarding school and changes his lifestyle from that of a typical Navajo boy into that of an average “white man.” The school and their officials force all the young Native American children to leave behind their customs and their overall way of life in order to embrace the “white man’s” style of living. Although many children tried to hold onto their culture, all of them eventually were forced to give in and give up their preferred lifestyles while attending school. The film follows Wing Foot and the love of his life, Corn Blossom, after they grow up and graduate from this boarding school and shows the audience the positive and negative effects of this schooling. While I understand that the vast majority of the film focused on Wing Foot as an adult, I wanted to focus more on the boarding school scenes in the beginning of the film because they seemed to catch my attention and affect me the most as an audience member.

I think the one scene that caught my attention the most was the scene in the boarding school when John, the white man who forced Wing Foot to come to the boarding school, whipped Wing Foot in order to set an example. In this scene, all the school children were lined up outside in front of the flagpole in their school uniforms and expected to salute the American flag. As it was Wing Foot’s first day at school, he tried to hold onto his Navajo customs and refused to salute the U.S. flag because he felt it represented honoring the white man, which is something he obviously did not want to do. John refused to take no for an answer from a young Indian boy and said he would make an example out of Wing Foot by whipping him until he saluted the flag. Unfortunately, Wing Foot was whipped until he cried and eventually saluted the flag. After this, all the other school children referred to him as “The Whipped One” and made fun of him. This scene really bothered me because it showed how white men felt they were superior to other races. It’s so disturbing to think that this was how it used to be at one time, but it also makes me realize how much progress we have made as a nation because we now pride ourselves on embracing all cultures. The United States is a melting pot of many different cultures and it’s nice to see how different cultures are more tolerant and much more accepting of others today.

Actually, the most disturbing part of the entire film took place in the scene just before the one I just described above. I believe the most disturbing scene was the scene where Wing Foot first meets his female teacher/superior in the school’s office. In this scene, Wing Foot meets his teacher and also meets a classmate that is assigned to help him get settled. But the other school boy is a Pueblo, so he and Wing Foot try to fight each other since there is an obvious tension between their tribes. When they try to fight, John breaks them up and states, “It doesn’t matter if you’re Pueblo or Navajo; you’re all equal here.” I find this disturbing because he states that all the children are equal, but still implies and clearly believes that whites are superior to Native Americans. What makes John think that the “white” way of life is better than the Native American way of life? Why couldn’t people just accept their differences and embrace everyone’s cultures? Does there always have to be a superior race? This scene just made me think a lot about race and tolerance.

Overall, I really enjoyed this film. Although I did find some scenes disturbing, I feel as though these scenes were necessary to convey a point. It’s important to watch some of these older films like this because they show us how far we have come as a nation in terms of tolerance and acceptance with race. I also really liked how Wing Foot was able to gain an education from the “white man’s” school without losing touch with his roots. Even though his tribe rejected him when he first returned after gaining an education, he showed them how he was still a Navajo at heart and would always be a Navajo no matter where he went. If anything, it made him more proud of his heritage.