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M. Elise Marubbio. Killing the Indian Maiden: Images of Native American Women in Film. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2006. 312 pp. Cloth, $50.00.
M. Elise Marubbio's text Killing the Indian Maiden: Images of Native American Women in Film closely examines the portrayal of Native American female characters in thirty-four films, ranging from silent movies in the early 19005 through the 1990s. Marubbio divides the characters into three groups-Celluloid Princess, Sexualized Maiden, and the Hybrid Celluloid Maiden-based on the qualities they exhibit and the purpose they serve in the films' plotlines.
The Celluloid Princess characters are most notable in the early silent films, the 1920s to mid-1930s, and resurface during the 1950s. The Sexualized Maiden is found most often during the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, although not exclusively, and a hybrid of these two appears in films of the 1970s and 1990s. The Hollywood films chosen are well known, such as My Darling Clementine (1946), Broken Arrow (1950), Mackenna's Gold (1969), Little Big Man (1970), and Legends of the Fall (1994). Some films, like Broken Lance (1954) and Dances with Wolves (1990), won awards.
Marubbio refers to these female Native American characters collectively as Celluloid Maidens. The Celluloid Maidens, portrayed in films for more than ninety years, share a common fate and serve a common purpose: they all die. The Princess character most often dies by suicide. The Sexualized Maiden most often is killed by someone from the white culture or sometimes from her own culture.
From the perspective of film studies, Marubbio demonstrates that the films reinforce for their audiences the inevitability of the dominance of white culture over Native American culture. From the films' perspectives, expanding the white culture throughout the West, taking the land, and eradicating Native culture are not only inevitable but also desirable. From the dominant culture's perspective, white culture is superior to Native culture and must prevail.
The female Native characters must die so that the dominant white culture can continue to flourish. In the case of the Princess character, the Native maiden frequently is related to the chief, she helps the main...