Native American Tradition in The Modern Era as Illustrated by in The Movie Smoke Signals

Smoke Signals Paper

The identity of the modern day Native American is one that is both complex and becoming increasingly recognized by the rest of the world in light of Native American protests such as the Dakota Pipeline protests and the Thirty Meter Telescope case. Native Americans are a group that has been severely influenced by European colonialism, although the generic story of natives post-European conquest has been severely mistold and misunderstood. Most texts that students are exposed to regarding Native Americans establish them as a thing of the past, and are biased to subconsciously favor a European viewpoint. However, sources from Native Americans depicting Native American life are consequently much more valuable because of their ability to offer an untold perspective. In Chris Eyre’s 1998 film Smoke Signals, the truth of being a modern day Native American is portrayed as embracing the shades of grey that ultimately build an identity that combines both native tradition and European influence.

The two main characters in the film, named Thomas and Victor, embark on a journey to collect the remains of Victor’s father, Arnold, who abandoned him at a very young age. Thomas is characterized as socially awkward but enthusiastic, and feels deeply connected to his traditional heritage. By examining Thomas’ and Victor’s characters, one can juxtapose both aspects of the modern day “Indian” lifestyle.

The main characteristic that ties Thomas to a more traditional Native American lifestyle is his enthusiasm about and ability to tell complex and detailed oral stories, in which he gets fully immersed. Thomas is less concerned about the accuracy of a story than the lesson or significance of what a story might stand for. When Arnold’s girlfriend asks if Thomas wants lies or the truth when she’s about to relay a story, he simply replies “Both”. However, this emphasis on oral tradition also creates issues within the film especially for Victor, because he can’t tell what is real and what is fabricated, especially when hearing stories about his father. The same problem is brought up in “Indians, Contact, and Colonialism” by Joel W. Martin when he says that “(textbooks) can imply that Native Americans disappear from religious history” (151). The tradition of oral storytelling in the film is synonymous with Thomas as a character, because his tendency to tell these stories becomes an issue as Victor tries to figure out the true history around his father. The second way that Thomas becomes representative of traditional values is that he enables Victor to go on his journey to find his father’s remains by giving him his savings for the bus tickets. The journey is reminiscent of a pilgrimage, something that is deeply linked in Native American tradition. On this journey, Victor grows emotionally and eventually concludes the pilgrimage by having one of his own when he runs over twenty miles to get help for a woman he is involved in a car crash with. Through both oral tradition and pilgrimage, Thomas represents the traditional aspect of what it means to be a Native American in modern day America.

While Thomas represents a traditional edge to the Native American lifestyle, Victor represents the European influence that conquest and contact left upon the natives. Victor’s mother is established as being famous for her Fry Bread, which is a traditional native staple within the reservation. Thomas tells a story about Victor’s mom being able to feed double the amount of people she had Fry Bread for by breaking the bread in half. The story reminded the viewer of the story of Jesus feeding the 5000 in Matthew 14, in which Jesus feeds five thousand people with only five loaves of bread and two fish. Although Thomas is the one that tells the story, Victor’s familial connection to it represents how the Europeans have influenced his family and his homelife. While this story is a strong example of the influence of conquest, the most telling instance of Victor displaying the European size to modern-day “Indianism” is in a scene on the bus where Victor tells Thomas how to be a “real indian”. He barks at Thomas, “Get stoic, stop smiling!”. He also emphasizes the importance of “using your hair” and “getting a warrior face”. He warns that if you don’t do these things, then the white people will “walk all over you”. These assertions about the “real Indian” reveal an internalized stereotyping that many modern day Native Americans have grown to embrace, and that was started by the threat of the Europeans to the native community. Martin says that “non-natives have been trained to think of the United States as a legitimate nation with unproblematic sovereignty over its entire territory and of Indians as mythic figures from America’s past whose images may be used in ways either demeaning… or romantic” (177). Keeping this in mind, it’s understandable that Victor is so defensive when addressing non-natives, primarily white people. However, Victor’s internalized stereotyping on the bus and the Christian influence even in oral tradition is a strong argument for the influence of European conquest, even though Victor himself might not see its impact.

In Smoke Signals (1998) directed by Chris Eyres, Thomas and Victor represent the various traditional and modern European influences that are relevant to the Native American culture today. In the beginning of the film, Thomas says that he and Victor are “children born of flame and ash”. Victor, in this sense, is a child of flame, and his existence is one of the present Native American lifestyle, while Thomas is a child of ash, and represents the past of the Native American heritage. However, both of these things coexist, and I feel as though this stands to symbolize that Native American tradition is not dead, but a new tradition lives on.