Voiceless Natives in 1950s Hollywood: An Interrogation of Broken Arrow Anonymous College

The Indian woman in Broken Arrow (1950) represents a key example of dominant culture failing to show the Other with agency. When talking about race and women in Hollywood movies, one must always ask whose side is being advanced and who has the agency. Even if a depiction of a woman seems positive, she may be a symbol of the male viewpoint. The movie Suckerpunch supposedly depicted strong female characters; however, the heroines in the movie were simply male fantasies. They fought, yet they weren’t interesting beyond the images that they provided for the male gaze.

In Broken Arrow, the depiction of the Indian woman Sonseeahray is silent. She is merely a function in the overall story of white and Indian relations. The movie received praises for the sympathetic portrayal of Apache Indians in a particular storyline that usually involves battles. It was such a popular movie that it received awards and was spun out into a television series. This paper will explore the character of Sonseeahray as an Other who exists merely for the main character to fall in love with and die tragically in the last act. This paper will discuss Sonseeahray as both an Indian and a woman in popular depictions.

Sonseeahray the Indian

One of the first things...