FRAMING RACE IN THE ARIZONA BORDERLANDS: The Western Ways Apache Scouts and Sells Indian Rodeo Films

In 1940, the Tucson-based Western Ways Features Service filmedLast of the Indian Scouts, a short feature about Apache Scouts at the Buffalo Soldier army post at Fort Huachuca, Arizona. This depiction of a multicultural borderlands post captures surprising performances of indigeneity that were part o...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Moving image (Minneapolis, Minn.) Minn.), 2014-10, Vol.14 (2), p.68-95
Main Author: Jenkins, Jennifer L
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
1940s
Artistic Representation (Imitation)
Black & white films
Cameras
Ceremonies
Ethnicity
FEATURES
Forts
Herbert, Charles
Historical films
Motion picture industry
Movies
Native Americans
Performance theory
Production companies
Rituals
Rodeos
Short films
Sociocultural influences
Soldiers
Spectacle
Westerns
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:In 1940, the Tucson-based Western Ways Features Service filmedLast of the Indian Scouts, a short feature about Apache Scouts at the Buffalo Soldier army post at Fort Huachuca, Arizona. This depiction of a multicultural borderlands post captures surprising performances of indigeneity that were part of the Scouts' regular duties on post. A second Western Ways film records Native veterans at the 1945 Papago Rodeo in Sells, Arizona. The two films serve as bookends to Native Arizonans' involvement in World War II and depict notably different aspects of indigenous representation in the pre- and postwar eras, separated as they are by five years, 130 miles of Arizona terrain, and distinct cultural differences between their subjects. The Apache Scouts film is anchored in at least a century's worth of inherited tropes of Indian performance, displayed with some irony to the camera; the Papago Rodeo film reveals a postwar world in which horsemanship and military service are foregrounded and ethnicity is present but normative in the visual narrative.
ISSN:1532-3978
1542-4235
DOI:10.5749/movingimage.14.2.0068