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Many people have one single idea of what Native Americans look like. Films like Peter Pan (1953) display them as red-skinned people who live in tepees, while films like Dances with Wolves (1990) use them as a backdrop for other white characters. Due to this, many Indigenous people have a hard time relating to these characters or liking films because of certain stereotypes.

In 2021, this feeling shifted in Native American communities with the release of an Emmy-nominated Hulu show called Reservation Dogs. This show, which was created by New Mexico native Sydney Freeland, dives into the struggles of native youth and gives viewers an inside look at what life is like on a reservation. Through the comedic aspects that really only Natives would understand, to the reality of rez life, the show captured a view of Natives true to my own.

Freeland, who was raised on a Navajo reservation and has been a prominent force in the new wave of Native representation, created other works such as Rez Ball (2024), available on Netflix, and the Marvel show Echo (2024), which can be found on Disney+. The wide-scale streaming platforms allow for Freelandā€™s work to reach Natives all over the world, something never truly done before.

Some may argue there are plenty of films and shows that represent Native Americans and their culture. Films like Twilight (2008), which depicts a Native tribe, and shows like Yellowstone (2018), which has Native characters, are often thought of when people think of Indigenous actors in film and television. The reality behind this is that a lot of actors who play these characters, like Taylor Lautner and Kelsey Asbille, have little to no Native descent.

Often, popular media fails to actually give a voice to the Native community. Whether it be that Indigenous actors are not actually given the chance to act in big-time roles, or the films present a false image of Native culture, both can be damaging to the community. In Twilight, for example, Native actor Kristopher Hyatt was originally set to play the main character of Jacob Black, he said in a 2008 YouTube video, but since he refused to cut his hair for cultural reasons, he was instead recast to play a nonspeaking role.

Now that film and television have had a cultural shift in recent years due to the desire for more diversity, new steps are being taken in a positive direction.

Someone who has helped take these steps is actor Lily Gladstone, who starred in the movie Killers of the Flower Moon (2023), and became the first Indigenous person to be nominated in the best actress category at the Oscars. With the winning of her Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild award for her role in the film, Gladstone reached a level of recognition most Natives had never experienced or witnessed before.

Many older Native American movies, like Dance Me Outside (1994) and Lakota Woman: Siege at Wounded Knee (1994), that people in our communities grew up with, were never given the proper attention by the world and were essentially left to be forgotten. So, seeing how modern Indigenous films and shows now can be recognized on a bigger scale, gives many of us hope.

A common sentiment Iā€™ve noticed among Indigenous communities, and even my own family, is the feeling that we are being ignored and forgotten. Many Natives suffer from poverty and lack of resources, which makes our access to important spaces much more limited.

I think it makes a lot of Natives feel hopeless about their place in the world and what they can do for it. These feelings of erasure could be a big part of why mental health problems and suicide rates have become a plague on our people and culture. According to the U.S Centers for Disease Control, in 2022, the racial/ethnic group with the highest suicide rates was non-Hispanic American Indian/Alaska Natives.

These films and shows really are ways to help stop these feelings from fostering in our communities and bring awareness to serious problems. Actors and directors have used their new platforms to speak out on other native issues, such as missing Indigenous women and land rights. Now that new voices are being given to our communities, there is hope that attention will be paid to our issues as well.

Native Americans might not always come to mind when one thinks about what is missing in film and television. The reality is that a lot of Indigenous people do notice and are never given the time of day to change it. Now, in the era of the 2020s, Indigenous people are finally getting large-scale attention for their acting and directing because of progress in Native acceptance. In the future I can only hope the representation continues and grows to something never seen before.