Native American Audience

                Powwow Highway is movie based on the struggles between Native Americans.  This isn’t the first movie that explores this conflict between the two groups, but in this particular film, Native Americans finally win the battle, or so the film portrays it.  Most often in conflicts between Native Americans and whites, whites are almost always portrayed as superior and they are often shown as winning the fights with Indians.  Even in Powwow Highway, Buddy Red Bow was a warrior in many famous battles that occurred between the two groups.  These battles are all fights that the Native Americans not only lost the fight but also land and resources.

            The main focus of this film is to rescue Buddy’s sister from jail.  Throughout their journey, Buddy’s friend, Hilbert, acts as the stereotypical Indian.  He’s very spiritual and thinks that in order to get his Indian name, he must go on a spiritual journey.  Through a series of lucky coincidences, Buddy is finally able to rescue his sister and escape the persecution of the white people involved.  I think Native Americans would tend to like this movie because this movie is one of the few movies that actually portray Native Americans as superior and the victors of the situation.  At the end of the movie, Buddy and his friends seem to escape from jail and seem to get away with everything illegal they did to get his sister out of jail.  Also, the film portrays to a mainly Native American audience.  The two main characters are Native Americans and are portrayed as the heroes.  Not only that, but the white people are often seen as evil and corrupt, especially when they wrongly accused Buddy’s sister for having drugs and not listening to her explanations.