Messages in Dances with Wolves

Messages In Dances With Wolves

The treatment of Indians has, since what would eventually become the United States were still colonies, been extremely brutal, in both active and passive resistance. This can be seen clearly in Dances With Wolves, where the main protagonist is, at first, naturally hostile to the Indians because of what he is taught by society. However, as the movie progresses, he becomes one of them and realizes the evil that Americans themselves have within them.

After Dunbar is given the mission to travel into new territory, he makes camp at an abandoned fort, once owned by the Union military but long since forgotten, What he begins to realize is that there are Indians living in the area around him, and so by instinct and information that is brainwashed into him from exaggerated stories of them, he builds his defenses to prepare for an attack by them, willing to shoot them on sight. Later he discovers they do not actually want bloodshed, and instead wish to communicate with him, so that they may discuss trade with each other as well as possibly hope to spread the friendliness to the rest of the White people. This shows the milk of human kindness can be found deep within every human being, and that bloodshed should never be a first effort.

This idea truly starts to settle in once the rest of the military arrive at the fort, where they thirst for the death of Indians, shooting Dunbar on sight simply for mistaking him as one. Even worse is when the Indians intersect the execution of Dunbar, as all of the Soldiers begin to fire without mercy. In the independent scene between the general and Smiles A Lot, the soldier could have easily ran away from the kid, except he instead begins to beat him, which leads to his eventual and deserved death. This dichotomy from the kindness of the heart to the evil that can manifest in a human shows the drastic differences in human nature that can change, not only in background, but in personality too. And these events should not be taken for granted as simple events for entertainment purposes; throughout American history we have constantly been abusing the Indians of their natural rights, forcing them further and further off “our” land as we sent them into the West, such as when Andrew Jackson forced them onto the infamous Trail of Tears, where many died from starvation, disease, and exhaustion. This film serves as a place holder to all of its viewers to remind them that Indians are no less human than we are, and their abuse should not be justified under any circumstances.

Dances With Wolves is an excellent movie that finally reveals to the public what kinds of horrible things a society can make you do, through brainwashing or peer pressure to fit in among them. The story of Dunbar shows what can happen when you step out of the comfort zone of fitting in, and leads to the discovery of an amazing aspect of human nature: kindness.