“The film is more than the instrument of a representation; it is also the object of representation. It is not a reflection or refraction of the “real”; instead it is like a photograph of the specular reflection of a painted image”. (Kilpatrick) Although films have found a place in society for about a century, the labels they possess, like the stereotypes that Native Americans are recognized for, have their roots many centuries ago (Kilpatrick). The Searchers, a film directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne, tells the story of an American Civil War veteran and how after returning home he would chase down the vilified Indians who killed his family and kidnapped his granddaughter younger. After struggling for five years to get her niece, now a young woman, she is saved by her own hands. Likewise, Dances with Wolves is a western film directed by and starring Kevin Costner. It is also set during the American Civil War and tells the story of a soldier named John Dunbar who, after a suicide attempt; unintentionally leads Union troops to triumph. Then, at his request, he is sent to a remote outpost on the Indian border “before he leaves.” There the contact with the indigenous people is eminent and therefore we see how through those contacts this soldier transforms into another Indian who belongs to the Sioux tribe and who is now called Dances with Wolves. Although both John Ford and Kevin Costner emphasize a desire to apologize to indigenous people, they use similar themes such as stereotypes, miscegenation, and the way characters are portrayed; on the contrary, these two films are different in the way in which the themes are developed within each of them. John Ford's The Searchers gave the intention of ap...... middle of paper... because of the way their roles interact with the Amerindian people in the film. As a result, both films represent Native Americans from the perspective of non-Native filmmakers. Despite using invented stereotypes in their illustrations of indigenous people, their depiction was revolutionary in its time. Each of the films adds in its own way a new approach to the representation of indigenous peoples, their stories unfold partly differently. These differences lead to considering indigenous people not only as one-dimensional beings but as multifaceted beings, as Dunbar says, “they are just like us”. This is finally a sense of fairness and respect from non-native populations towards native Indians. Works Cited Jacquelyin Kilpatrick, Celluloid Indians. Native Americans and cinema. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 1999