Redface

{{Short description|Use of costumes to caricature Indigenous Americans}}

[[File:Richard Barthelmess in Massacre.jpg|thumb|White actor Richard Barthelmess portraying a Native American chief in the 1934 pre-Code film ''Massacre'']] '''Redface''' is the wearing of makeup to darken or redden skin tone, or feathers, warpaint, etc. by non-Natives to impersonate a Native American, Indigenous Latin American or Indigenous Canadian person, or to in some other way perpetuate stereotypes of Indigenous peoples of Canada and the United States. It is analogous to the wearing of blackface.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.oregonlive.com/nation/2019/03/native-americans-say-movement-to-end-redface-is-slow.html |title=Native Americans say movement to end 'redface' is slow |date=March 17, 2019 |agency=The Associated Press |newspaper=The Oregonian}}</ref> In the early twentieth century, it was often white performers who wore blackface or redface when portraying Plains Indians in Hollywood Westerns.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Haim Afen Range: The Jewish Indian and the Redface Western |author=Peter Antelyes |journal=MELUS |volume=34 |issue=3 |date=2009 |pages=15–42 |publisher=Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States |jstor=40344855 |doi=10.1353/mel.0.0047 |s2cid=126754809}}</ref> In the early days of television sitcoms, "non-Native sitcom characters donned headdresses, carried tomahawks, spoke broken English, played Squanto at Thanksgiving gatherings, received 'Indian' names, danced wildly, and exhibited other examples of representations of redface".<ref>{{cite journal |title=Custer's Last Sitcom: Decolonized Viewing of the Sitcom's 'Indian' |author=Dustin Tahmahkera |journal=American Indian Quarterly |volume=32 |issue=3 |date=2008 |pages=324–351 |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |jstor=25487882 |doi=10.1353/aiq.0.0012 |s2cid=161435088}}</ref>

Redface has been used to describe non-Native adoption of Indigenous cultures, no matter how sympathetic, such as the painters in the Taos Society of Artists during the early 20th century portraying themselves in their own works wearing Indigenous clothing.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Reform in Redface: The Taos Society of Artists Plays Indian |author=John Ott |journal=American Art |volume=23 |issue=2 |date=2009 |pages=80–107 |publisher=The University of Chicago Press on behalf of the Smithsonian American Art Museum |doi=10.1086/605710 |jstor=10.1086/605710 |s2cid=191229545}}</ref>

== In sports, fashion and pop culture == Often associated with the behavior of sports fans of teams with Native American names or mascots,<ref>{{cite news |title=Native American activists seek to eliminate 'redface' |author=Erik Brady |newspaper=USA Today |date=July 21, 2014 |url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/2014/07/21/native-americans-redface-san-francisco-giants-washington-redskins/12967437/}}</ref> "redface" has also been used to describe "Indian" Halloween costumes that are seen as offensive by Native people, or imitations of sacred headdresses worn as fashion accessories.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://nativeappropriations.com/2010/11/paris-hilton-as-a-sexy-indian-the-halloween-fallout-begins.html |title=Paris Hilton as a 'Sexy Indian' |website=Native Appropriations |author=Adrienne J. Keene, EdD |date=November 1, 2010 |access-date=October 16, 2015}}</ref>

In 2011, Harmony Korine directed the short art film ''Snowballs'' for the fashion brand Proenza Schouler. The film features Rachel Korine and an unnamed actor wearing "elaborate Native American headdresses and layers of skirts, capes, pants, and tops from Proenza's fall collection."<ref>{{Cite web |date=2011-09-28 |title=Proenza Schouler Screens a New Harmony Korine Short |url=https://www.vogue.com/article/proenza-schouler-snowballs-screening |access-date=2024-04-11 |website=Vogue |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBOIA4Z5kms&list=PLMJxASX16hf2RV3acYjbJH6ImbBfCwn6p&index=9 |title=Proenza Schouler ''Snowballs'' Fashion Film by Harmony Korine |language=en |access-date=2024-04-11 |via=YouTube}}</ref>

== In Hollywood movies == Westerns were a popular film genre from the 1930s to the early 1960s. A common plot involved conflict between Native Americans and the cavalry, settlers, or both. Native Americans were usually portrayed by non-Natives in redface.

Espera Oscar de Corti, an Italian-American, had a decades-long career portraying Native Americans as Iron Eyes Cody.

Beginning in the late 1960s, westerns attempted to depict a more realistic and balanced view of the Old West in movies such as ''Little Big Man''. However, the casting of non-Native Johnny Depp as Tonto in Disney's 2013 revival of ''The Lone Ranger'' was labelled as "redface".<ref>{{cite news |title=Depp provokes Lone Ranger race row over 'redface' Tonto |url=https://www.thetimes.com/comment/register/article/depp-provokes-lone-ranger-race-row-over-redface-tonto-0z0kb59h8tw |access-date=2 March 2020 |work=The Times}}</ref>

=== Notable films === * ''Broken Arrow'' (1950) – Jeff Chandler as Cochise and Debra Paget as Sonseeahray ('Morningstar'). Mohawk actor Jay Silverheels portrayed Geronimo<ref name="BGSU">{{cite web |url=https://digitalgallery.bgsu.edu/exhibits/show/native-americans-pop-culture/native-themes-white-heroes/redface-westerns |title=Redface at the Movies 1950-1960 |publisher=BGSU – University Library |access-date=June 30, 2020}}</ref> * ''Winchester '73'' (1950) – Rock Hudson as "Young Bull"<ref name="BGSU" /> * ''The Searchers'' (1956) – Henry Brandon as Chief Cicatriz ("Scar")<ref name="BGSU" /> * ''Apache'' (1954) – Burt Lancaster as the main character, Massai. (Monte Blue, who was part Cherokee and Osage portrayed Geronimo)<ref name="BGSU" /> * ''Cattle Queen of Montana'' (1954) – Includes several members of the Blackfoot tribe portrayed by non-Native actors * ''Sitting Bull'' (1954) – J. Carrol Naish in the title role and Iron Eyes Cody as Crazy Horse (also as "technical advisor" for the film)<ref name="BGSU" /> * ''Chief Crazy Horse'' (1955) – Victor Mature in the title role<ref name="BGSU" /> * ''The Indian Fighter'' (1955) – Kirk Douglas in the title role fights "Red Cloud" portrayed by Eduard Franz, "Grey Wolf" by Harry Landers, "Crazy Bear" by Hank Worden and "Onahti" by Elsa Martinelli<ref name="BGSU" /> * ''The Unforgiven'' (1960) – Audrey Hepburn as "Rachel Zachary", a native child adopted by a white family<ref name="BGSU" /> * ''Benedict Arnold: Hero Betrayed'' (2021){{Citation needed|date=September 2025}}

=== ''The Last of the Mohicans'' === The James Fenimore Cooper novel ''The Last of the Mohicans'' was filmed many times. Not until 1992 were Native Americans cast in all the major roles in the story of Uncas, son of Chingachgook, who was the last "Mohican" until he was killed by Magua, a Huron chief. The actual Mohicans continue to live in the Hudson River Valley. {| class="wikitable" !Film date !! Chingachgook !! Magua !! Uncas !! Notes |- !1920 |Theodore Lorch |Wallace Beery |Alan Roscoe |American |- !1920 |Béla Lugosi |Kurt Rottenburg | |German |- !1932 |Hobart Bosworth |Bob Kortman |Frank Coghlan Jr. |American Serial |- !1936 |Robert Barrat |Bruce Cabot |Phillip Reed |American |- !1947 | |Buster Crabbe |Rick Vallin |American, retitled ''Last of the Redskins'' |- !1965 |José Marco |José Manuel Martín |Daniel Martín |Spanish/Italian production done in the style of a Spaghetti Western; the character Magua is renamed "Cunning Fox" |- !1965 |Mike Brendel |Ricardo Rodríguez |Daniel Martín |German: ''Der letzte Mohikaner'' |- !1977 |Ned Romero |Robert Tessier |Don Shanks |Romero was of Chitimacha ancestry |}

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbTlFUnSFeQ "TED Talk: Walk a mile in my redface" by Cornel Pewewardy] {{Native American mascot controversy}}

Category:Anti-Indigenous racism in the United States Category:Native American cultural appropriation Category:Native Americans in popular culture Category:Indigenous Canadian cultural appropriation