Reflection of Dancing With Wolves

Throughout the film Dancing With Wolves, Lt. John Dunbar slowly transforms from a western soldier to a proud member of the Sioux tribe.  He is assigned to a post on the frontier to negotiate with the local “Indians.”  Dunbar not only negotiates with the Sioux, but he becomes one of them based on several factors.  In the beginning, Dunbar is dressed in a western army uniform with the United States Flag at hand.  Towards the end, Dunbar slowly adapts to the Sioux way of dress and trades away his old western clothing.  Dunbar realizes that there is no civilized or savage way of dress; it all depends on the meaning behind one’s clothing and the person’s point of view.  Another example is when Dunbar dances around the fire by himself at his post.  This displays another example of how it looked so uncivilized before, but now he understands the meaning and purpose behind it.  Dunbar starts to connect to the Sioux on an even deeper level by learning their language and marrying Stand With A Fist.  Dunbar learns that communication is key to understand one’s culture and intentions and that it does not matter who marries whom, as long as that couple makes each other happy.  Lastly, Dunbar fights against the United Stares army he was previously apart of.  Dunbar is able to look at white people through the point of view of the Sioux.  He finds out how cruel white people can be around nature and Native Americans, like leaving their trash behind and having not respect to Native people or nature. He can now see how the view of Native Americans though a white person’s perspective is highly stereotyped.  Overall, Lt. John Dunbar learns to be one of the Sioux and drops the life of a Union Soldier.

Dancing With Wolves displays important visual symbols and stereotypes that are recognized in Native American history.  Although this is one of the first films to represent Native Americans in an overall positive way, there are still common stereotypes displayed in the film.  One of the most common stereotypes that anger the Sioux is the use of guns in the film.  The Sioux does not like how the film portrays one white man that saves their reservation from the Pawnee by teaching them how to use riffles.  According to history, The Sioux already started to trade guns and knew how to fire them well before Lt. Dunbar showed up.  When Dunbar arrives at his post, a grey wolf spots him.  The wolf seems to always be close by, and Dunbar calls the wolf Two Socks because of his white paws.  Two Socks symbolizes two aspects in the film.  One is the friendship between a dog and an owner today.  Dogs originated from wolves, and wolves slowly became friendlier with humans.  Dunbar feeds Two Socks up to the point where Two Socks would eat straight out of his hand.  Having this kind of relationship with Two Socks allows them to protect each other, like dogs with their owners today. The other part Two Socks symbolizes is the reckless killing of Native Americans by white soldiers.  When the soldiers beat Dunbar excessively and kill Two Socks just to kill something, they did not have any remorse.  This shows how white soldiers did not care what they killed or left behind. Another symbol in the film is “Tatanka” or buffalo.  Buffalo are not just meat to eat or fur to sell, but a holy figure in the Sioux tribe.  They use

every part of the buffalo (bones for weapons, internal organs for water pouches, hide for blankets) and make sure none of it goes to waste.  This makes sure that the death of a buffalo will give life to many others.  This film does a great job at showing important historic symbols and stereotypes during this time.