Film & Media

Destruction of the American Indian Identity through Film & Media.

Narragansett Indians  In some of the oldest films ever made about American Indians.

 

This film was created by a christian organization who founded the Harmon Foundation and was one of the first films to document American Indian culture with a specific agenda in mind.. 

 

 

I want you to watch this film closely, pay attention to time stamp 3:45

 

Alternative video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P17vV0GBR8A

As you watch the video, it further explains the inventions and discoveries made by the Aboriginal peoples of America. Editing it in a way to perceive the viewer, but before we continue on the topic of how it was created as a propaganda piece to portray Indians as another type of people.

At 3:45 in you notice 3 American Indians smoking on a pipe. At first glance you won't even notice that these former chiefs of the Narragansett Indians from Rhode Island while cropping out the rest of the tribe. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narragansett_people)

Chief Sachem Ousa Mequin (Leroy C. Perry) The first American Indian shown.

(Yellow Feather), a Wampanoag. He worked for Rudulf Haffenreffer as an educational
interpreter at the King Philip museum in Bristol, RI (now the Haffenreffer Museum).

Chief Sunset (Edward Michade). The Last American Indian shown.

And one we weren't able to Name. - Bull Horns on Hat

Date of photos below taken in 1915, 5years after the creation of Hollywood and the film industry as we know it today.

Here are the three men in the film.

Here is a full picture of the tribe taken in the year 1915 in front of a Masonic Lodge

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The woman on the left back row in front of the window is Sarah Cisco Sullivan. She was the Sachem of the Hassanamisco Band of Nipmuc Indians (now known as the Nipmuc Nation) during most of the 20th century. Her father, Chief Cisco, is standing to the left of her wearing a plains-style headdress which many men wore back then. See more HQ pics at link below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Narragansett and Nipmuc group on the Hassamanisco Reservation in South Grafton, Massachusetts - circa 1925.

*Back row L-R: Bertha Perry (Narragansett), Mrs. Annie Perry-Farrow (Narragansett), Mrs. Sarah Cisco-Sullivan, Chief Sunset or Edward Michade (Narragansett), Mrs. Minnie Babcock-Steele (Narragansett), Mrs. Eunice Profit-Perry (Narragansett) *Front row L-R: Barbara Farrow (Narragansett), Chief James Lemuel Cisco (Nipmuc)

Notice they say "last" but you can see he has a daughter Sarah Cisco, you can find a photo of here above with the rest of the tribe.

 http://iroquoisbeadwork.blogspot.com/2015/03/an-intriguing-narragansett-wampanoag.html

Throughout the rest of the film they continue to show newly arrived Anglo-European migrants enjoying everyday life, as they explain what the Indians of North America have contributed and discovered prior to the arrival of the Europeans. But purposely not adding the whole tribe of the Narragansett Indians they were filming and talking about. This is just one of many instances of how they used film to destroy the image of the true American Indians.

Later we will go into who is the Harmon Foundation and what their role was in the helping destroy the image of the American Indian, as well as funding and promoting Negro Conciseness, Identity and expression in the Untied states through art and film.

TO BE CONTINUED...