Friday afternoon a former dean of the University’s law school, Rennard Strickland, introduced “Marquee Massacres: Native Americans in One Hundred Years of Global Movie Graphics” to a standing-room-only crowd at the Jacobs Gallery in the basement of the Hult Center. The exhibit, which will run until March 4, features vintage Hollywood movie posters from Westerns, comedies and dramas.
Each of the beautiful tributes to the Old West have something in common: They all feature images of Native Americans in stereotypical roles.
The posters alone are a sight to see. When viewed individually, they are artful chunks of Americana, from the vintage poster for the classic John Ford Western “The Searchers” to the bright silk-screen print from the movie “Ramona.”
“(Early) in my career I used to say to people, ‘Why are you wasting your time on issues like Indian mascots or images of Indians? There are people out there without houses and who are starving! So why spend your time on these peripheral things?’” Strickland said at the beginning of his speech.
But then a light bulb went off over Strickland’s head, he said.
“It occurred to me that there is probably nothing, from the standpoint of Native Americans, that is in fact more significant than image and thought and identification,” he said.
“And why is that so? Because the lives of Native Americans are controlled and regulated in ways that no other group in this country are. Tribes do not own their land in their own name.”
The land is held in trust by the federal government. According to Strickland, members of Congress and the Bureau of Indian Affairs, many of whom are not Native American, ultimately make decisions about the use of tribal land.
“It matters what they think Indians are like,” said Strickland, later adding that the world of the modern Native American is very different than what is portrayed in television and movies.
“Marquee Massacres” explores a variety of media portrayals of Native American stereotypes, from savages to faithful sidekicks. The exhibit features many one-of-a-kind prints.
The 60 posters showcased are from Strickland’s personal collection, which totals close to 1,000.
“(Strickland) really wanted to tie this into Eugene since we have such a high presence of Native American in the area,” said Jacobs Gallery interim co-director Jocelyn McAuley.
“There are few people in the country as knowledgeable as he is,” said Brian Klopotek, a University professor in the ethnic studies department.
The show’s highlights what is believed to be the oldest surviving film poster that features a Native American. The exhibit also features a section devoted to Native American response with paintings, photos, sculptures and a piece of traditional Anasazi pottery too racy to describe in print.
“What we have in this exhibit is crass, gross commercialism at its best,” said Strickland, later adding that the exhibit “gives students a chance to look at the ways advertisers look at people, in this case Native Americans.”
The exhibit shows “20 different perceptions of the same people,” he said.
In Strickland’s opinion, the most damaging perception is “the drunken, drug-crazed Indian who cannot live in the Indian world or the white world.”
“The Outsider,” which tells the story of Ira Hayes, a Native American Marine who raised the flag at the battle of Iwo Jima, is a good example of this stereotype.
The Jacobs Gallery is open Tuesday through Friday from noon to 4 p.m. and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The Wayne Morse Center for Law helped sponsor the show. For more information, check the Jacobs Gallery Web site at www.jacobsgallery.org.
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