Native American characters and themes were popular inclusions in films throughout the 20th century; there were films that to a degree romanticized Native American culture and there were films that made a mockery of Natives. Important was that these films were very popular, as a result they were largely responsible for establishing the public’s concept of the Native American and of their culture, even for some young Natives. In a way, they were taking the culture of the Native American people again by defining it for the world; in inaccuracy there was a tragedy, in that they were misrepresenting a culture that they had earlier helped to …show more content…
The history of conquest has shaped this nation for better and for worse. Its legacy is that it has helped to define its vast boundaries and it is that it has robbed a people of their culture. Its legacy finds expression in the attitudes of the modern American people in whom it lives on. Conquest is not a term closely associated with Americans’ own patriotic retelling of the tale of their country, and even with regards to Western Expansion the term conquest often, wrongly, goes unused. The importance of conquest is one that should be more often included in the retelling of the American story, for although ignored, its continuing legacy looms large for its victims and its beneficiaries